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

Mama s cottage ulSU ABOVE the TOPS
of the mango trees, and so around tht
point of the mountain to the canefelds
which covered all the lower slopes.
Miliana scolded the more with every
day. Her laundry in the stream 8 bee
was filed with the silt from the ditch
and the brook itself was always turbiG
with the debris and offseourings of the
laborers' camp above. Kama took il
with seeming Indifference, nor could al
Miliana s nagging stir him to any ae
ton
Then. one day, as Mi1iana stood al
the stream disgustedly endeavoring tc
draw water clear enough for next morn
ing s coffee. the water began to shallow
about the stepping stones. Before hel
eyes the tiny cascade just above dwin.
died in width, and presently only a
thread of musky liquid dribbled over
the stones. Miliana called to Kama ex.
citedlv. and when her husband appeared
she pointed an accusing finger at the
slimy bed of the stream, where the
little shrimps scuttled and hoped
among the bedraggled and mud-stained
water-plants.
"You wouldn It take the foreigner e
money" said Miliana, fbut he has tax
en- the water, just as he promised. What
shall we do now for the taro patches
How shall we wash our clothess How
viii the Chinese keep their rice from
burning up in the hot sunlight oh,
You fooll You might have made bar
gain with the foreigner and sold him
part of our water. Now he's taken it
all. ALI What shall we dos What
shall we dos"
She sat down upon the bank and
burst into tears, interspersed now and
then with fierce denunciation of the
predatory foreigners. and seornfui
filings at the incompetence and stupid
itv of her husband.
Kama stood in silence through it all,
his eyes bent upon the empty bed of
the stream. Then. of sudden, he lifted
his two clenehed hands above his head
and swore terrible oath. All the pent-
up passion that had been seething with.
in him since that first day when the
engineers had invaded his peaceful val
lev, burst forth at once.
He seized the collar of his shirt in
his two fists and tore the garment from
his back, standing forth naked, save for
his breech- cloth-a huge mountain of a
man, thick of chest and body, with legs
as great in girth as a full-grown coco
nut tree His brown skin still cleaned
with the sweat of his toll in the taro
patches. his breast heaved, and he
waved the shreds of his shirt in his two
hands.
ftBy the great god Kamapuaai" he
beloved. ssThese foreigners have gone
too far All the best of our islands
have they seized, and driven those of
the soil away from their homes. They
have come into my valley, they have
cut down the trees. and SCARED the
green hillside with their ugly ditch, and
fouled the clear waters of the stream.
Now they take the stream itself. It's
waters dry up before my eyesl I would
not sell the water. Shall now let
them steal it? No, by the gods of my
fathers! Noi'
Miliana's tears had dried and she
crouched at her husband s feet, awe
struck and silent under his rage Now
she looked up at him with wide eyes.
What are you going to dot" she
whispered
Kama cast aside the two pieces of his
shirt and ran into the grass hut. AL
most instantly he emerged bearing a
heavy shovel. Up the hillside he climb
ed, brushing his way through the Ian
tana thicket, careless of the thorns
which clutched and tore at his naked
body.
Fifty feet above the house the plan
tation ditch wound about a point of
the hillside. Its prisoning bank was
stout and thick. and as Kama scrambled
up it and stood upon its top, he found
the ditch running full with a brown
flood. He stood moment, brandishing
his shovel in the air. Then he fell to
digging frantically at the bank.
From below Miliana watched him as
If fascinated, and presently she began a
low, weird chant, an ululating song that
rose and fell, and rose again. Kama's
labors were enormous; it seemed as
though his rage had stripped his sixty
years from him and left him a vouth
again. The sounds of his shovel-strokes
echoed loudly from across the valley
and the great clods of earth tumbled
NAes@sAA'A'S iHtu tHc NtASt jungle Qei0W.
A loosened boulder plunged through
the underbrush and rolled down upon a
mango-tree Just above the house. burst
ing into a thousand fragments some of
which rolled to the very feet of Mill
ana. crouehed by the silent stream bed.
grooming her wild melody, pregnant
with disaster.
III.
In an incredibly short time Kama
had made great breach in the bank.
and soon a. yellow stream came cours-
ing down the hillside, increasing in
volumn every moment It peeped ont
Of the thicket above the house like the
head of an ugly lizard, and erept down
the dry slope under the mango-trees.
pushing before it a mass of twigs and
dried leaves. It sent sudden little dart
ing branches, like veRomous tongues.
TINS way and that, and then almost in
an instant it swelled in volume and
overran all the little dooryard before
the house, and everything was afoat.
Suddenly with a rush and roar the
ioosed waters of the ditch, bursting
away the last barrier that confined
them, dashed in full volume down the
Their mighty downpour.
ing in an instant brushed from the hill
side all its clothing verdure. The huge
cataract fell upon Kama s homestead
IN a single avalanche of water and mud
u -~@v