The days passed to the young lovers as a dream. All day long they would
wander under the cool shade of the fragrant trees, listening to the
songs of sweet-voiced birds, gathering flowers and weaving them into
wreaths with which to adorn each other, or disporting themselves in the
warm sea; Mabel had become a very expert swimmer. Gay groups of happy
young people were constantly to be seen enjoying the delights of surf
riding and swimming; our friends were often of the number.
So drifted on their happy life for three months, with no thought of care
entering their lives, no idea of concealment of their pure love for one
another, until one day, about three months after the festival, Ahleka
came early to the cottage of the girls, bringing fruits and flowers to
them, as it was his custom to do each morning. As Mabel met him at the
door her loving eyes soon saw that there was something that troubled the
heart of him whom she loved. Running to him, she asked: “What is it,
Ahleka, what has happened?”
“My father,” he answered, “is sick. I know not what he says. He speaks
of strange things of which I know nothing.”
“Oh, Ahleka, I will go to him. I am a good nurse and may be able to help
Kaelea in caring for him.” So saying, she started in the direction of
Captain Thornton’s cottage, Ahleka walking by her side.
“Mabel,” he said, “should I not go to Howcu to tell my father’s son,
Allen, of his illness? and it tears my heart to think of leaving him
now, when, perhaps, he may die at any moment, to go for the son whom he
has only had with him so short a time. But he calls his name more often
than mine, which shows that he loves the son of his fair wife, who died
beyond the seas, better than he does the son of the wife who rests
beneath our warm sun.” He spoke so tenderly, that Mabel was moved to
tears, but answered: “No, Ahleka, I am sure he does not love Allen best,
but he calls on Allen’s name, because he is away, while you are by his
side. Can you not understand that?”
“Well, perhaps so, but at any rate I must go after him, so good-bye,
sweet one.”
“Stay a moment. I am sure Captain Gray would be glad to go after Allen
for you, and then you may remain by the side of your father. There he
comes now.” Saying which she ran to the captain, who was now close
behind them and made the request that he should go.
“Certainly, I will go, but first, Ahleka, I will see your father,”
saying which he entered the cottage which they had reached while they
were talking. He found Captain Thornton indeed very ill. He realized
that if Allen was to see his father before he died that no time was to
be lost. Captain Gray, in company with two Nahua boys, left immediately
for Howcu to bring Allen to his father’s bedside.
Mabel was soon comforting Kaelea and trying to sooth her grief by tender
words.
It was some time before Allen had reached his father’s bedside as the
village of Howcu, as we have already explained, was on the other side of
the arm of the sea which divided the island; so the trip had to be made
partly by canoe and in part by land. The news of his father’s serious
illness was a great shock to Allen, who immediately started, accompanied
by Maula, for Nahua. On arriving there he was met by Ahleka who
conducted him to their father. He saw at a glance that his father was
very near the dread valley of death. The thought of losing his father
was very hard to bear.
“Oh, father, why did you not send for me before!”
“My son, I was not ill until to-day, but now I know my days among you
all are numbered, and before I die I want to talk to you of your future.
It is my wish that you should remain always here, in this land of
happiness.”
“Why, father, I am not likely to leave here. There seems no possibility
of such a thing.”
“But still, Allen, the day may come when you will be given an
opportunity to leave this heaven blessed land, and return to your own
country. It is of that day I wish to speak. Think well, Allen, before
you leave this paradise where all is happiness and contentment, where
strife and contention are unknown, to return to the cold-hearted,
calculating world to meet, you know not what evils, but remain here
among a people who have their every want provided for by nature, thus
relieving them of the drudgery of existence, where men live as God
intended men should live; where love is love, not licentiousness; where
each man is proud to claim his own children; where no woman blushes with
shame when she beholds the fruits of her unhappy love; where the tender
life of no unfortunate infant is taken that it may not be a living shame
to the authors of its being. Here, in this land where money cannot buy
man’s honesty or woman’s love. Here, my dear son, is to be found true
happiness, and it is the dying request of your father that you live
among this gentle, lovable people as your father has done.” The old man
dropped his head upon his breast exhausted by his effort.
“Do not think,” replied Allen, “that I shall ever want to go back to a
false state of civilization. I learned to despise it long before I
landed here and now that I have lived here so long and have learned to
appreciate the honesty and truthfulness of these people, I do not wish
to leave them. And then, is not my wife, whom I love more deeply each
day, one of these people? No, father, I shall never leave this land of
plenty, peace and quiet. No, I am too happy, as I now live, to desire
any change.”
Captain Thornton grew rapidly worse, and, ere the dawn of another day he
had left the island, where he had passed so many peaceful years, for
that unknown land beyond the grave. All day long could be heard the
mournful wailing of the people of Nahua who had gathered around the
house to mourn. The weird cries and the slow, measured beat of the tom
toms that accompanied this peculiar chant was kept up all the day and
night that Captain Thornton’s body lay unburied. The mourning was
sincere, as the gentle old man had been loved as a father by the people
of the island of Kaahlanai.
The next morning at daybreak, for in this hot climate the body could be
kept no longer, funeral rites were held over the remains of Captain
Thornton. The body had been wrapped in many layers of palm leaves and
then placed in a slender, light canoe; it was now resting on a bier
formed of branches of bamboo. The mourners are already gathered around,
Ahleka, Allen and Kaelea having each placed a handful of lime on their
heads as a token of their grief, it being the outward mark of mourning
bourn by these peculiar people. The melancholy chant was still kept up.
Eight young men having lifted the bier upon their shoulders, the funeral
march began. On each side of the bier walked eight young girls, each
having upon her head the customary handful of lime, and bearing in her
hand a long wand of waving feathers; holding the wands so as to form an
arch over the canoe which contained the dead. After them came Ahleka and
Kaelea, Allen and Maula and next Mabel and Etta walking on each side of
Captain Gray; following these came the chiefs and their families and the
people of the villages, each one carrying a stone in one hand and
branches of flowers in the other. The procession moved slowly up the
hill which was to be the burial place. The broad disc of the rising sun
was now to be seen coming slowly above the sea, throwing broad shafts of
light over the water, dyeing the sky coppery red which shaded into gold,
then into the softest tints of yellow as the rays ascended. It was a
sight never to be forgotten by any of the little group who stood for the
first time on this funeral mountain, looking out over the grief bowed
heads of the throng of people, beyond the tree embowered islands, beyond
the reef with the surf glistening and ever changing in the rays of the
rising sun, far out to the glorious ruler of day. The canoe was now
placed upon the ground, the company turned, and raising their sprays of
flowers toward the sun, chanting an invocation to the source of light
and warmth. One after another they drew near the canoe, beginning with
Ahleka and Allen, placing upon it the flowers held in their hands until
it was hidden from view beneath a fragrant mound. After all the flowers
were deposited, the stones were piled high over them, making a rocky
monument to mark the resting place of Captain Thornton—the Alii Mahina.
Then slowly they retraced their steps to the village.