[Netjack-list] E up to his face, and his voice comes up to me like the bu

[Stlucien M. <adv...@kp...>]

, but it takes a good man to land through the surf at
high tide in a whaleboat. I used to do it regular. Aranuka was a nice
place, with plenty of fresh water, and some of the Island schooners,
and once in a while a British gunboat would stop there. Gawd,
McGuffey, but when
I was king, they used to pay dear for their fresh water, except the
gunboats, which of course came on and helped themselves without
askin' no questions of me and parliament--which was both the same
thing. I was in Aranuka first in '88 and again in '89, and I was a
fool for leavin' it." "What was you doin'
in this here Aranuka?" asked Mr. McGuffey. "In '88 I was blackbirdin'
and in '89 I was--why, what d'ye expect a king does, anyhow?
You don't suppose I _worked_, do you? Because I didn't.
I ate and drank and slept and went in swimmin' with the court
officers and did a little
fishin' an' fightin'; and on moonlight nights I used to sprawl in the
grass out on the edge of Hakatuea with
my head in my queen's lap, rubberin' up at the Southern Cross and
watchin' the rollers breakin' white over the reef. And everything'd
be as still as death except for that eternal swishin' of the surf on
the beach, babblin' of 'Peace! Peace! Peace!'
an' maybe once in a while the royal voice
lifted in one of them sad slumber songs of the South Seas--creepy and
dirgelike and beautiful. My girl could sing circles around a sky
lark. I taught her how
to sing 'John Brown's Body Lies A-Smoulderin' in th' Grave,' though
she didn't have no more notion o'
what she was singin' than a ring-tailed monkey." "How d'ye come to
pick up with her?"