The Hawaiian gazette., 1906-07-13

HAwl
Judge Dole have freehold humesteads,
- probably n part Of that older portion
n Hawaii which makes up the kohala
end Of the island-of geological for
nation long antcdating the southern
and larger part. The soil Is rich and
deep. as IN kbhala, and there are no
traces of any recent lava flows. The
only drawback is that rains fall but
seldom, aud there is no running water
in the land.
We camped here overnight, being
served by the Jap man and his wife on
the place and by the natives who live
near there, and in the morning started
for the last lap on our journey TO the
coast az Kawaihae.
Here it was that evil befel the Post
master. The Postmaster, let 1t be said,
is not fast rider, although he is an
indiscreet one. So 1t came that,
for many weary mile, he had Jagged
behind and taken the dust of the rest
Of uS
On the road to Kawaihae he got tired
of this. Wherefore, when a few miles
had been passed. he spurrcd ahead, OK
claiming in his heard-of which he hau
a quantity at the time-as he passed,
that he would take no more dust from
any man. We could take his. We did
not care. We rode along at the same
comfortable pace, stopping now TO
shoot wild turkey, now to note the
fat cattle that grazed along the way,
now to admire the trees of the forest
land.
THE LOST POSTMASTER.
The Postmaster rode on and on. He
rode on so far that, when we came to
the place where we left the main road
to swing out across the old lava flow
toward Puako and Kawaihae, we could
see him but family disappearing behind
craterlet in the dim distance. And
he had with him our saddlebags and all
our luggage, and before him the pros
pect of long ride into Waimea with
out the chance of lunch to cheer him
on the way.
We rode on over that rotten lava,
once said to have been heavily forested
but now seeming nothing but an inter
minable waste of rocks and sand and
low growing wiliwili trees. 1t was the
most dreary of all the rides that we had
had. There seemed nothing in the coun-
try at all, but distance. 1t was sue
cession of low, rolling hills, and at the
top of each of these we expected to
have the ocean at our feet and rode up
it only to find another valley and an
other hill-and the blue sea, in plain
sight, yet apparently no closer than it
had been an hour before.
HE ATE OUR LUAU.
We lunched under wiliwili tree,
specialized upon the folly of the Post
master, and then rod" on and on and on
and on. Later, we communicated with
the Postmaster by telephone, and found
that the master of the House of Akona
had expected us at Waimea, and had
killed fatted goose and altogether
prepared for us the finest luau that the
Island of Hawaii had TO offer. And the
Postmaster had reached Waimea and
eaten that luau while we were riding
on and on across the wilderness.
"And | predict to you" said
Jimmie, when he heard what it was
that had happened, "that the Post
master will come to us filed with goose,
and with apologies for that he had de-
serted us and eaten our luau.'
The result proved that Jimmie was a
mighty poor prophet--a mighty poor
prophet indeed. The Postmaster may
have been sorry that he ate our luau,
but he disguised his sorrow with the
most complacent smirk that / ever saw
in my life. He appeared in a new and
clean pair of black trousers, in derision
of our dirty clothes, and he at once
began to abuse us for deserving him
to abuse us, whose luau he had eaten,
while we had nothing but turkey,
whose clothes and brushes and safety
razors he had sequestcred, and from
whom he had deliberately ridden away
with the declaration that he had taken
our dust long enough, and we could now
take his! And of that is the ingrati-
tude of postmasters.
For all these reasons we were joyful
with great joy when the Kinau got to
the Postmaster thereafter, even if the
Secretary s shoes did catch a paroxysm
or two in the night. For if you joy
when another man is seasick, and par
ticularly if you tell him it is all imagi-
nation, you get vengeance upon him for
all the things he has ever done to any
body in long life.
WHO SPURS HIMSELF.
To go back to that wilderness before
Kawaihae, did it ever occur to you that
it is possible to ride yourself with
spursl Well, ! performed that feat out
thara in tha vrillS mud | do