that tall one at this minute is eagerly nodding and waving its last farewell to the vessel you can see, as a mere speck, against the horizon. Ah, she was here in her youth as well-vigorous, strong, fresh and beautiful-glorying in hull, and mast, and spar, and sail, that could and would defy the world of waters, and come out victor through every storm! She will boast no more, alas! Her timbers are sea-worn and unworthy, her sails and spars are weak with long years of battling with wind and tempests. She will win port never again, but will go down in the next fierce and determined gale!

The cocoanuts say they, too, were young when first they saw their friend, the ship-the big white birdskimming gayly before the breeze, in the gloriously beautiful morning of this rainbow-land. And that she, in her freshness and her joy made, with themselves, a part of the magnificent water view of coral reef and headland, of tree and ship, and sea, and sun and sky! Fourscore of years, perhaps, since they sprang into life, with star-like crowns and perfect fruit and leaf. They have stood there on the shore, a landmark for the sailor, ever bending toward the sea they love so well, and seeming to beckon the ships on, and into port. Some of them have lost their crowns, old and battered, but still pointing, spire-like, upward and outward to the horizon! Aloha nui! thou perfect tree of the South Seas!

In the times of the Chiefs he who cut down one must plant four.

The cocoanut is very useful to the Hawaiians in their plaiting and weaving of mats, hats, fans, etc. Their work in this respect is often very fine, artistic and skillful, and can command a good price.

A chief would order a grass hut made by his dependents, and much weaving and other work would be exacted. When it was finished he would compel the poor maker to lie flat upon the top, and, going within, would throw his spear to the roof to prove that the work was weather-proof. Woe to the luckless builder if the spear did perforate the thatch! He was then a victim to loose and slipshod weaving and plaiting!

That is the legend, but I never met with a native who had an ancestor killed in that way. Probably I did not ask the right family.

Some few years ago a party was cast away on one of the smaller South Sea Islands, and for months subsisted on cocoanuts alone. When found they were in good health.

How delicate and rich the nut is for cake, candy and puddings. And all agree who know aught of India Curry that it is never a perfectly delicious curry, lacking this most-to-be-desired ingredient. How lifegiving and restorative, too, the milk is from a fresh nut, only those can tell who live where they grow.

Lying on the beach as the glorious moon of the tropics came up, for nowhere else does she present so heavenly a face, and looking landward through a grove of these magnificent trees, of many heights and

sizes, with their mammoth leaves and clusters of nuts, at the violet-tinted sky set with her gems of stars and planets; looking first at them, then at the sea at my feet, rippling and shining in the light, was "fairyland" indeed!

And now you know something of why I am in love with the cocoanut.

"ALOHA NUI, THOU PERFECT TREE OF THE SOUTH SEAS!"

KOU AND THE COLT.

HE natives of Hawaii possess, to a marvelous de

THE

gree, skill in managing both boats and horses. Patience is born in them, and with them, and to them! Never did I see a native manifest what we term impatience, and irritability is, with them, an unknown quantity most certainly.

A native boy, with a little stub of a pencil, and an old battered knife, would peg away until he made for himself a fine sharp point, and then would most contentedly write and erase-write and erase, until his work was as even as a die!

Strange to say they would insist upon the quality of their work rather than the quantity, even where told to hasten! And when tired, they would simply and coolly say, but in a most good-natured manner: "Too much work-too warm-some more to-morrow -no use―ma hoppe" (by and by.)

If a boy was wanting a pencil "me lend!" "me, too lend!" could quickly be heard. Happy, generous, laughing, light-hearted children, full of merriment, boisterous, talkative as parrots, and noisy ever, excepting when they are asleep.

It was an unusually warm sultry afternoon, and I

was resting in my hammock, swung under the shade of a mammoth tree. We were so close to this most perfect beach that I could see the grand rugged heads, Diamond and Koko, and hear the exquisite music of the surf as it slapped the shore so easily and gently with its white foam! Kou, an indolent, calm, goodnatured, fine-looking native came walking leisurely into the place, with the same unconscious grace they all possess when not too old, and closely following at his heels, the prettiest thing of a colt. It pranced about the paddock, giving me a sly look as much as to say, "Why are you here? This is the domain for me to exercise in. I am Pout, the handsome prince, of whom you must have been told, or why are you here watching me?" He was to be broken to saddle for the first time that day. The man, Kou, walked quietly about, whistling, singing, patting the colt-showing him the saddle-cloth, moving and fixing the saddle over and over, working and cajoling for an hour or two to convince his Royal Highness that, in this matter of riding, there was to be no under-hand, nor sleightof-hand-no manoeuvreing, but all plain, open and above-board with him! Hours, or a half-day seemed of no importance! Time was nothing to Kou! All was perfect deliberation. He was not there to frighten a timid child out of learning! I knew he was akamai (just the one) and I knew the saddle would go on—and go on it did. And while the colt was very shy it had full faith in its master, and he finally rode out of the field on its back shouting Aloha! to me and soon was lost to