to the gate, and over the rest of the enclosure, which was covered
with the usual clinker-like fragments of smashed coral, not only
coco-palms and mikis but also fig-trees flourished, all of a
delicious greenness. Of course there was no blade of grass. In
front a picket fence divided us from the white road, the palm-
fringed margin of the lagoon, and the lagoon itself, reflecting
clouds by day and stars by night. At the back, a bulwark of
uncemented coral enclosed us from the narrow belt of bush and the
nigh ocean beach where the seas thundered, the roar and wash of
them still humming in the chambers of the house.

This itself was of one story, verandahed front and back. It
contained three rooms, three sewing-machines, three sea-chests,
chairs, tables, a pair of beds, a cradle, a double-barrelled gun, a
pair of enlarged coloured photographs, a pair of coloured prints
after Wilkie and Mulready, and a French lithograph with the legend:
'Le brigade du General Lepasset brulant son drapeau devant Metz.'
Under the stilts of the house a stove was rusting, till we drew it
forth and put it in commission. Not far off was the burrow in the
coral whence we supplied ourselves with brackish water. There was
live stock, besides, on the estate--cocks and hens and a brace of
ill-regulated cats, whom Taniera came every morning with the sun to
feed on grated cocoa-nut. His voice was our regular reveille,
ringing pleasantly about the garden: 'Pooty--pooty--poo--poo--
poo!'

Far as we were from the public offices, the nearness of the chapel
made our situation what is called eligible in advertisements, and
gave us a side look on some native life. Every morning, as soon as
he had fed the fowls, Taniera set the bell agoing in the small