The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-12-08

: He came out into the morning sun
,ie,b+ and bIinked at the brilliance OF
the reflection from the sparkling sea
beyond the reef. Diamond Head rose
aridly just TO his left, and slow turn
| Of his eyes showed him the farther
erninence of Koko Head across the
sands that joined the nearer point &c
the land There was nothing in the
| scene that was new to him. For three
years he had come out on the lanai OF
| his cottage and viewed it all. But this
morning he was sober.
1t was strange to be sober. He die
| not recollect having felt this way for
wears and years He almost enjoyed
! it, as a novel sensation hardly unpleas-
! ant. 1t occurred TO him that it would
be worth While to forego a cigarette
| awhile, so as not to dim the freshness
of the experience.
Just before him the red earth show
ed raw where the boy had lately plant
ed the struggling corn, which was
showing in blades of green above the
surface. He noticed it curiously. His
eyes took in the papaias along the
wall built of small pieces of rocks, and
then he lifted his gaze boldly to the
sapphire sea breaking into foam on
the reef and spreading in milky green
to the coral beach. A bark was MAX
ing an offing, her snowy topsails glin-
t1ose. Il
for the Coast" he said to himself
His voice rang out rather loudly.
There was a padding of bare feet be-
hind him, and a gentle voice said:
What did you say?'
Without turning he answered shortly:
Nothing
The woman stepped to his side and
leaned her dark head on his shoulder.
He put her aside gently. Then forget
ting her, he stared at the bark. The
woman went away.
But the sound of her naked feet as
she departed brought her for the first
time really before the mans mind. He
wrinkled his brows as he thought of
her and then laughed dryiy. He enter
ed into a muddled calculation how long
it had been since he was sober. He
reached no conclusion other than
a second laugh. He looked down at his
own bare feet, the thin pajamas that
barely covered his form. He raised his
voice, ''DorcaS. mail
She came obediently. He eyed her
interestedly. She was tall, 1.-the, dark
skinned, serene of face. The straight
holoku that fell from her rounded
shoulders failed to conceal the contour
of her figure. She looked at him with
her big eyes. Her full, gently curved
lips smiled at him, and he smiled back
at her. How long have we lived
here?"
She answered him quickly: "Three
years.
How long since I was sober?'
She stared at him moment
you've never been drunk all that time
you've been good. You never beat
me at all
You don't understand" he said,
quietly. How much gin have I drunk
every day?''
Her face showed bewilderment.
Maybe a bottle; maybe two bottles
she said, finally. You 'prosit' little
by. little. Before we came here you
drink too much. 1t was through me
you take little by little and never get
full"
He seemed not to hear the last O
what she said, but gazed out once more
to sea.
She went away again and left him
to his thoughts.
Standing there in the sunlight, he
remembered many things which he
had not remembered for three years.
There came before him his home in
II
there-quite decently and without
much trouble; the offer from a Homo
lulu firm and his eagerness to come to
new land; his arrival; the sudden
familiarity assumed by the life he
found.
Then his mind settled on one thing.
1t was moonlit night, he recalled, and
he sat on the lanai of the Moana. The
band was playing "Maunaloa," and the
voices rising and falling in it's haunt
ing rhythm had appealed to him as
nothing had ever appealed before. A
beautiful half-white girl sat beside him
singing softly, and he had found her
hand in his. Then a white girl had
come over and he had got up TO speak
to her He rendered her drawing
| phrase wildly, and the disgust he had
| felt for that drawl still was with him.
81 think, Mr.. Thomas, you might find
white girls here to talk with. It's a
| shame the way they allow these natives
| to mix with US. Don't you think SOP
| Then this woman had sat down beside
! him. and he had realized that she was
| jealous of the lovelier girl. He saw the
| colorless white face: the ugly eyes;
the wide mouth filed with small, I'M
| even teeth; the smirk of self-satisfac-
| ton, and he hated it again. That
| white woman had driven him to this
| Because she had spoken in her self