The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-08-27

as MS companion IN bath robe and
slippers joins him you catch the last
part of his brisk remark.
"Beastly early to get up, don't you
know old fellow, but one doesn't have
such an opportunity every day during
the trip, does he? Let me have a loan
of your glasses for a moment, will
you? What do you suppose that light
is burning on the beach for at this in
fernal hour?"
You are looking at that light your
! self too. 1t is the one solitary sign
of life, of human habitation in the
whole gloomy picture. The sea is
very quiet with regular easy swell,
and your captain, shirtless, and with
his brass buttoned white duck coat
buttOned well up to his chin, has seen
fit to drop his anchor off the leeward
side of Tutuila till daylight which
strict regulations require.
The air is ominously still and sultry
and heavy with the wild, seductive
/ perfume of pungent bush blossoms,
which grow in tangled masses in yon-
der forests and groves skirting the
mountains and the sea. The air, one
may say, is permeated with the odor
of these unfamiliar tropical flowers.
There is no sound anywhere. The
] stygian shades surely were incapable
of Boosting a more compelling silence
The sparse remarks passed by your
companions are subdued. There is a
sacred hush over the land and sea.
1t is the hour for prayer and medi-
| tation.
AS you stand there dreaming, thrill
ed by impending revelations, a faint
streak of silver creeps slowly along
theeastern sky, and while embank-
ments of feecy clouds heave gradual
ly on either side, to make way, as it
were, for the path of the oncoming
day.
The shadowy mountains detach them
selves from their celestial background,
unfold their soaring heights, whose
violet tips pierce the assures of the
cloud-raked sky. Their slopes become
sharper, more clearly and perceptibly
defined, the blue-blacB depths of the
sea beneath you are turning purple in
| the ever changing shadows, the soil
tary light upon the sand is extinguish-
ed, the breaking of the languid waves
upon the beach can now be seen.
Only few moments more; moments
full of portent, of promises of beauty,
moments of delicious suspense, when
To- out of the very heart of the sea
behind you, breaks the sudden glory
of the golden sun shining full upon
the land of promise.
The soaring hills, the thrilling silent
grandeur of the veteran mountains
looming up even above the pink crest
ed clouds, the dense, morose, dark
shadows of their dreamy valleys, the
sudden glints of crystal water falls,
the village of half dozen grass huts
nesting together under thetrees with
it's modest little white wooden church
sheltered by tall palms, the thickly
wooded flats, and gently rolling and
prolific hills, sloping to a dazzling
broad white beach, the indescribable
deep deep, sapphire-blue of the sea,
stirred now by fitful gusts of a fresh
morning breeze, and upon whose
bosom a fisherman is but at this mo-
ment padding out to his goal, form
picture in your heart and mind you
will never be able to forget It is
dreamy, poetic, unreal, enshrouded in
Imagination, teeming with color
This, at last then, is Stevenson's Sa-
moa! It is enchanted, inspiring, fas-
cinating, seductive, Samoa, whose pri-
meval man lives ever as of yore, and
meditates with his ancestors as he
idly sings their songs of by gone ages!
Your blissful reveries are abruptly
routed, however, at the awakening of
the donkey engine and the grating of
heavy chains as the anchor is weigh
ed, followed by prolonged resonant
blast from the horn of the steamer
which already has started very Ian
guidly forward towards Page Page.
With startling realization of their
ludicrous attire your fellow passen-
gers dart into the social hall, retiring
to their respective cabins, but having
taken the precaution of dressing you
now make your way forward to watch
the passing scenery before you.
The gentle morning breeze, aug
mented by the progress of the steam
er is delightfully."- cool and refreshing,
but the tropic sun has risen higher,
and the mysterious haze of daybrea6
has disappeared. The mountains are
no longer hidden In obsourity, but are
bold In outline; they are fringed on
their SUBMITS by ooooanut trees. and
from those 10 the very edge OF the sea,