THE LIFTING VEIL
Jean, and Alison Evans, and Mary Stuart found the tubby youngsters, and
especially the little round, brown babies, irresistibly attractive.
Such merry, mischievous little imps the former, and each newcomer such
a wonder of soft, sleek, dimpled, black-velvet-eyed brownness, that
their hearts went out to them, and the mothers laughed at their doting
absorption and cackled strenuously and meaningly among themselves. And
Aunt Jannet, never having had any children of her own, knew more about
the rights and wrongs of their upbringing than any single mother ever
knew in this world before, and had to be restrained by main force at
times from putting some of her more strenuous theories into practice.
But the good-natured brown women came to understand even Aunt Jannet's
peculiarities in time, and to accept her efforts, so far as they
accorded with their own ideas, with something like appreciation.
For educative purposes the children were, up to a certain age, left
entirely to the care of the ladies, and it would have been hard to say
whether pupils or teachers enjoyed most the time spent in nominal study
in the wide, open schoolroom, or the still merrier jinks on the beach
and river bank.
If Jean Blair's quondam friends in London could have seen her at play
with her naked brown boys and girls on Kapaa'a front--well, in the
first place they would not have known her, and when they did they would
have renounced her acquaintance at once.
For the purpose of opening their little minds to better things than
their fathers and mothers had known, she brought herself down to their
level, became almost one of themselves, romped and played and danced
with them, in the water and out of it, and captured all their hearts.
And she enjoyed this partial and temporary reversion to nature as she
had never enjoyed life before. The children learned many things
without knowing that they were being taught, and Jean herself learned
not a little also.
Aunt Jannet looked on with surprise, and spasms of doubt at times--it
was all so different from her ideas of missionary work. But she had
much to occupy her in connection with the other women, and as regards
things generally she held an open mind, with a reserve of gentle
sarcasm in case these extremely odd ways should turn out worse than she
knew her own more precise methods would have done.
The men took the older boys in hand and employed ways quite as
unconventional and with equally happy results, and the girls of size
were well left to the care of Alison Evans and Mary Stuart, whose
special training had fitted them excellently for the work.
In addition to the extraordinary curriculum of their school, the men
were working hard at the new foundations of life in Kapaa'a.
It was a beginning of things such as Kenneth Blair's soul delighted in.
He was at it night and day, and suffered no whit from all the hard
work. For it was better even than recreation, since to all intents and
purposes it was creation itself, the bringing of order out of chaos,
the evolution of new life.
Ha'o, in the large hope of becoming a nation, worked with them hand to
hand, and heart to heart. Savage born and all untutored, he was gifted
with a sharp wit and a clear understanding, and he was a born ruler of
men. He was tall in stature, and his bearing they had noted even in
the hold of the _Blackbirder_. Of late his presence had seemed to
increase in dignity, possibly from his own large belief in the future,
possibly because they viewed him in the light of what they hoped to
make him. Whatever it was, his own people noticed it also, and even
the last returned prodigals never ventured to cross him.
His confidence in the wisdom and good faith of the white men was
implicit. When he placed his hand in Blair's, the day they landed, and
proclaimed himself his man, and again when they discussed the delicate
subject of man-eating after his illness, he meant what he said and
stuck to it loyally.
Not that he by any means assented at once to every suggestion they
made. He could argue like an Old Bailey lawyer, and until a matter was
explained to him so that he understood all the ins and outs, and the
ultimate end and aim of it, and saw from his own point of view just how
it would affect his people and himself, he would have none of it.
He would listen politely, follow with the most patient intentness,
question till it was clear, argue-bargle occasionally, as Captain
Cathie put it, and then,--"Kenni, it is good. It shall be,"--and some
new brick was ready for the foundations.
They all enjoyed an argument with Ha'o. The turns of his quick mind
were so odd and illuminating at times, that, as Evans said, it was
actually educational.
Stuart especially delighted in him.
"He's an absolute revelation," he said, "And I'm more and more certain
that there's more than ordinary savage blood in him. It's very queer
to think of, you know, Blair. It's a clear case of reversion."
"And of evolution."
"I wonder now, if, by any conjunction of circumstances, we in Great
Britain could ever go back like that."
"Impossible. The very suggestion is horrible."
"Nothing is impossible," said Evans. "The whole country might be
devastated by a pestilence, and the few survivors might lapse into
anything."
"Unless the whole earth were devastated in the same way, the survivors
would have common sense enough to get back to their kind. But all this
won't help Kapaa'a boys, so let's get to business."
They went very wisely to work, with the wisdom of long deliberation on
other men's failures and successes. They imposed no restrictions save
such as were absolutely necessary for the general well-being, and even
these made for freedom. For the freedom of savagery is bondage worse
than slavery.
They promulgated through Ha'o simple rules for the protection of life
and property, and saw them carried out with the most rigid
inflexibility. Any disputes, and there were many, were brought before
the chief sitting in judgment on the verandah of his house on certain
days, with the white men in attendance to assist his deliberations.
At first the _Torch_ men acted as police when necessary, and carried
out the orders of the court. But before long certain of the tribesmen,
becoming distinguished above their fellows for their sobriety of
conduct and general demeanour, were nominated to headships of sections,
and did all that was necessary.
And Kapaa'a slept of a night, freed for ever from the stealthy terrors
of the dark.