The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-26


"There is a thousand dollars in gold
coin, said Wilson. ''It is yours the
moment those papers are signed. ="
"But / do not wish 20 SELL" said
Kama in his slow, painstaking English
'My taro viii not grow without the
water, and the Chinese will no Longer
rent from he the rieelands."
"a thousand dollars is a lot OF
money urged Wilson, and he picked
ITO one Of the ten little piles of gold
from the table, counted it skilfully, and
set it back again before Kama-just
tantalizingly beyond his reach.
Miliana, Kama s wife, squatted on
the floor beside the wicker chair in
which her husband sat. From the mo-
ment when the plantation manager had
brought out the sack of gold from the
little iron safe, her greedy eyes had
been fixed GENEROUSLY upon the money.
She reached up and poked her hus-
band in the side with pudgy fore
finger, saying something in Hawaiian.
What's she telling you7" asked
Wilson suspiciously.
Kama translated with disconeerting
frankness:
f.She says it viii be best to take the
money; for If / do not, you will take
nay land and water, anyway
GEAnI ehaJo rinhf - orsa1
Wilson, pounding the table with huge
fist, until the little piles of gold danced
and finally caseaded together into a
yellow, cleaning, seductive pile. "We re
going to have that water, Mister Kama,
and you need not think you can block
us. We've bought out every Kanaka
in the valley but you, and now we are
offering you twice as much as any of
the Others. There is your money. You
may take it or leave it. You d better
take it, mark my wordsl''
tBut / do not wish to SELL Kama
repeated.
''Take the gold the foreigner offers
you. you fool, urged Miliana. eve
esn go to Honolulu to live, and ride in
hacks every day, and hear the band
play every evening, and I can have
new silk holoku. -
t.This is the last chance shall give
you, said Wilson menacingly.
If you do not take the money now,
you II never get it,
Kama eogitated. His glance travelled
from the face of Wilson, sun tanned,
shrewd and calculating, to that of the
notary who had sat silently at the table
through all the eolloquy, with the pa
peEs spread before him ready for Ka-
ma IS signature
Kama's gaze wandered to the open
door and the sunny landscape without.
A peacock strutted on the lawn and
the trade-wind rustled the branches of
the tall palms, between whose slender
trunks there were vistas of broad cane
fields and the green hills beyond.
Up there at the foot ofsthe hills was
Kama s little homestead, in a narrow
valley, down which brawled a noisy
brook. His grass-thatched house stood
by the bank of the stream in the midst
of q grove of mango trees. From its
doorstep one looked over many little
terraced taro patches to the ricefelds,
where the Chinese bent at the planting
and the stream meandered slowly to-
ward the distant sea.
A poor enough place it was, Kama
unused, but it was his home, and it had
been mis- father s home before him.
The foreigners had almost all the
land about; now they wanted this.
Would they ever be satisfied
Aren't You going to take the
money! whispered Miliana.
Kama started from his reverie. He
looked down at his wife, irritated. Her
persistence annoyed him and ne sud
denly made up his mind.
No, am not, - he said to her. Then
he rose and turned to Wilson. 81 do
not wish your money! he said. "My
home is all I own and I cannot sell it.
have enough, with my taro patches