The Southern herald., 1910-11-04

Waila Nambuka. "the Child of the Sun" To the
simpIeminded islanders he was always looked
upon as a supernatural being. His recent death
has plunged his people in gloom. The mourning
robes OF his subjects have been brought out OF
the napa huts and worn In the dead kings honor.
His two little sons, the princengs Of Naikeva,
will reign in his stead and King Waila sleeps at
the crest Of a gentle slope overlooking coral
reef. where the league-long breakers thunder
hour after hour. His bones lie far from those Of
Bcotch-Amerlcan forbears. who settled in south
ern Illinois nearly century ago.
disappointment in love started him out upon
the long road of adventure when ho was youth
of nineteen or twenty years. One of these unfor-
tunates who run to extremes in matters Of senti-
ment, he fell in love with one Of the pretty vii
lage girls Of old Albion. Things move slowly in
this one OF the Oldest and proudest towns OF ILL
nois In the natural course of events 1t was to
be expected that the two would marry In the full
ness of time. There was home to be built and
preparations made for a start in life. Something
Of the methodlcal slowness Of their English an
cestors clung then. and still clings, to the every
day life of the citizens of Albion. The town has
changed but little in the years that have flown
since Thompson left under cover Of nghtfall. The
same houses line the spacious public square. The
same homesteads that sheltered the pioneers now
shelter their descendants of the third and fourth
generations Red brick homes, low-eaved and
with wide doorsteps still line the older streets Of
the little southern Illinois town.
Outwardly the town has changed but little,
and in spirit not at all, since the days when
young Thompson waited for his girlish sweet
heart at the haflighted corner Of the court house
square The Albion Of the Flowers, the Thomp-
sons, the Hulmes. the Birkbecks, Of Park House"
and marlborough Place" stlll remains Had the
white monarch Of the savage Isle Of Naikeva
come back to the place of his birth in the last
year Of his life he would have found Little Brit
ain" as the region is known much as he left It.
Tt is the same little city Of schools and churches
Of nuiet homes and uuieter streets that 1t was
when he was a barefoot lad stealing away to
nsh and loaf along Bonpas creek. The future
;ruIer Of Naikeva spent many an Idle hour with
sIrsOk, and line along the shadows OF old Banpas,
rifAhetraditions Of the folk Of Little Britain are
true. He was fond of making long trips to the
shores of the Wabash with his chums but he
seemed to lack the ambition dear to every boyish
heart the hope Of getting out and seeing the big,
round world There was nothing to set him
anart from his fellows as one who would taste OF
strange adventures before his death In the an
t,podes. The prosy, uneventful life Of a farmer,
Z atorekeeper or at the most humdrum profes-
e,onal man in a country town was all TO which
he could look forward
There came an interruption, an awakening to
his loves young dream that drove him out Of his
home town between sundown and sunrise one
aummers night This spur to his pride, this
wound TO his selflove sent him adventurins
among the spicy isles Of the south seas and made
him king in his own right before ne was twenty
ava He was Of that shy, retiring, loyal type oi
the Scotch who love deeply when they love at ell
T4e had become engaged to the village beauty
THE day had been set for the ceremony and the
unmarried youth Of the town looked upon him al
one already lost to the fun and frolics Of th'
single state
About this time new business house wa
opened in the little town and youthful eastern
manager was sent on by the owners 10 look aftei