is something infinitely pathetic in this charming beach-study where
Kippiputuonaa is seen anxiously watching "the tree-with-wings" (as she
naively called the yawl), where her husband, Dr. Traprock, is at work
rigging a new yard-arm. The Kawa, unfortunately, is just out of the
picture.]

"Listen to that surf," I remarked. "I never heard it grumble like that
before."

"You'd grumble, if you were full of _wak-waks_," he said.

The _wak-wak_ has a mouth like a subway entrance and I was told that so
great was his appetite for human flesh that when, as occasionally
happened, some unfortunate swimmer had been eaten by a shark, a
_wak-wak_ was sure to come rushing up and bolt shark, man and all.
Consequently I did most of my swimming in the lagoon.

Speaking of the lagoon reminds me of an absurd bit of information I
picked up from Kippy that made me feel as flat as a pressed fern. We
were wandering along the shore one morning and she suddenly pointed
to the Kawa and said laughingly.

"Why Tippi-litti (Triplett) bring Tree-with-Wings over _Hoopoi_
(cocoanuts)?"

"Why not swim?" she asked. "Look see. Big hole."

I looked and saw. A whole section of the atoll near where we were
standing was movable! Kippy jumped up and down on it and it rocked
like a raft. At the edges I saw that it was lashed to the near-by trees