How beautiful wuz the shore as we approached it, its scenery different
from Jonesville scenery, but yet worth seein'--yes, indeed! Mountain
and valley, rock and green velvet verdure, tall palm trees shadin'
kinder low houses, but still beautiful and attractive. And what
beautiful colors greeted our weary eyes as we drew nigher. I thought
of that gate of Jerusalem the Golden, all enamelled with emerald,
amethyst, chalcedony, and pearl sot in gold. The golden brown earth
made from melted lava, the feathery foliage of the palms that riz up
beyend the dazzlin' white beach, the crystal blue waters with
myriad-hued fishes playing down in its crystal depths. Oh, how fair
the seen as we approached nearer and see plainer and plainer the
pictured beauty of the shore. Shinin' green valley, emerald-topped
mountain, amethyst sea; which wuz the most beautiful it wuz hard to
say.
Evangeline Noble stood off by herself leanin' on the rail of the deck
as if she see through the beauty into the inner heart of things, and
see in her mind's eye all the work her own people, the missionaries,
had done there. The thought that they had taken the natives like
diamonds incrusted in dirt and cleansed them of the blackest of their
habits. She see in the past natives burying their children alive,
putting to death the mentally weak, worshipping horrible idols,
killing and eating their enemies, etc., etc. But now, under the
blessed light of the torch, that long procession of martyrs had held
up, the former things wuz passin' away, and she, too, wuz one of that
blessed host of God's helpers. She looked riz up and radiant as if she
see way beyend the islands of the sea and all she hoped to do for her
Master on earth, and as if he wuz talking to her now, teaching her his
will.
Nigher to us Elder Wessel wuz standing, and he sez, lifting up his
eyes to heaven:
"Oh islands of the sea! where every prospect pleases and only man is
vile."
And Arvilly hearn him and snapped out, "I d'no as they're so very vile
till traders and other civilized folks teach 'em to drink and cheat
and tear round." His eyes lost in a minute that heavenly expression
they had wore and sez he:
"Oh, islands of the sea! where every prospect pleases and eat each
other up and etcetery."
"Well, I d'no," sez she, "but I'd ruther be killed to once by a club
and eat up and be done with than to die by inches as wimmen do under
our civilized American license laws. The savages kill their enemies,
but the American savage kills the one that loves him best, and has to
see her children turned into brutes and ruffians, under what is called
a Christian dispensation. There hain't no hypocrisy and Phariseeism in
a good straight club death, and most likely whilst he wuz eatin' me up
he wouldn't pose before foreign nations as a reformer and civilizer of
the world."
"Oh, Sister Arvilly," sez he, "think of the hideous idols they
worship! You can't approve of that," sez he.
But Arvilly, the ondanted, went on, "Well I never see or hearn of any
savage idol to compare in hegiousness with the Whiskey Power that is
built up and pampered and worshipped by Americans rich and poor, high
and low, Church and State. Let any one make a move to tear that idol
down from its altar, made of dead men's bones, and see what a flutter
there is in the camp, how new laws are made and old laws shoved aside,
and new laws fixed over, and the highest and the lowest will lie and
cringe and drag themselves on their knees in front of it to protect it
and worship it. Don't talk to me about your wood idols; they hain't
nothin' to be compared to it. They stay where they're put, they don't
rare round and kill their worshippers as this Whiskey idol duz. I'd
think enough sight more of some men high in authority if they would
buy a good clean basswood idol and put it up in the Capitol at
Washington, D. C., and kneel down before it three times a day, than to
do what they are doin'; they wouldn't do half the hurt and God knows
it, and He would advise 'em that way if they ever got nigh enough to
Him so's He could speak to 'em at all."
"Oh, Sister Arvilly!" sez Elder Wessel, and he looked as if he would
faint away. And I too wuz shocked to my soul, specially as Josiah
whispered kinder low to me:
"Samantha, we might git a small idol whilst we're here. You know it
would come handy in hayin' time and when the roads are drifted full."
I looked at him in a way that he will remember through his hull life,
and sez he quick, "I shan't do nothin' of the kind unless you're
willin'."
"Willin'!" sez I, in heart-broken axents. "What will happen next to
me?" And then indignation dried my tears before they fell and I sez,
"I command you, Josiah Allen, to never speak to me on this subject
agin; or think on't!" sez I fiercely.
He muttered sunthin' about thinkin' what he wuz a mindter. And I
turned to Arvilly and sez, to git her mind off:
"See that native, Arvilly, standin' up on that board!"
For as our good ship bore us onward we see crowds of natives standin'
up on little tottlin' boards, dartin' through the water every which
way, risin' and fallin' on the waves. I couldn't done it to save my
life. No, Josiah nor me couldn't stood on boards like that on our
creek, to say nothin' of the Pacific Ocean. But we should never have
appeared in public dressed in that way--it wuzn't decent, and I told
Josiah I wouldn't look at 'em if I wuz in his place; I mistrusted that
some on 'em might be wimmen. And then I thought of the Garden of Eden,
when Adam and Eve first took the place, and I didn't really know what
to think. But I drawed Arvilly's attention to one on 'em that seemed
extra dextrious in managin' his board and sez, "How under the sun duz
he do it, Arvilly?"
"I d'no," sez she, and she added dreamily, "I wonder if he would want
a copy of the 'Twin Crimes,' or the 'Wicked and Warlike.' If I do sell
any here to the natives it'll put some new idees in their heads about
idol worship wickeder and warliker than they ever had." Miss Meechim
and Dorothy wuz approachin' and Robert Strong I see looked off with
rapt eyes onto the glorious seen. And as no two can see the same
things in any picture, but see the idees of their own mind, blended in
and shadin' the view, I spozed that Robert Strong see rared up on the
foreground of that enchantin' seen his ideal City of Justice, where
gigantic trusts, crushin' the people's life out, never sot its feet,
but love, equality and good common sense sot on their thrones in the
middle on't, and the people they ruled wuz prosperous and happy. And
anon he looked down into Dorothy's sweet face as if no foreign shore
or any inner vision ever looked so good to him.
Miss Meechim hated to have Dorothy see them natives, I see she did;
actin' so skittish towards the male sect always, it wuz dretful
galdin' to her to see 'em in that state and specially to have Dorothy
see 'em. She looked awful apprehensive towards them swimmers and board
riders and then at her niece. But when she catched sight of Robert by
her side a look of warm relief swep' over her anxious face, as if in
her mind's eye she see Dorothy by his help walkin' through the future
a prosperous and contented bacheldor maid.
Tommy wuz kinder talkin' to himself or to his invisible playmate. He
wonnered how he wuz goin' to git on shore, wonnerin' if he could stand
up on one of them little boards and if his grandpa and grandma would
each have one to stand up on, and kinder lookin' forward to such an
experience I could see, and Josiah wuz wonderin' how soon he could
git a good meat dinner. And so as on shore or sea each one wuz seein'
what their soul's eye had to see, and shakin' ever and anon their own
particular skeletons, and shettin' 'em up agin' in their breast
closets.
Well, as we approached nigher and nigher the wharf we see men dressed
in every way you could think on from petticoats to pantaloons, and men
of every color from black down through brown and yeller to white, and
wimmen the same. Well, it wuzn't long before we wuz ensconced in the
comfortable tarven where we put up. Elder Wessel and his daughter and
Evangeline Noble went to the same tarven, which made me glad, for I
like 'em both as stars differin'. Elder Wessel I regarded more as one
of the little stars in the Milky Way, but Evangeline as one of the big
radiant orbs that flashed over our heads in them tropic nights.
The tarven we went to wuz called the Hawaiian Hotel. We got good
comfortable rooms, Arvilly's bein' nigh to ourn and Dorothy's and Miss
Meechim's acrost the hall and the rest of the company comfortably
located not fur away. Well, the next mornin' Josiah and I with Tommy
walked through some of the broad beautiful streets, lined with houses
built with broad verandas most covered with vines and flowers and
shaded by the most beautiful trees you ever see, tall palms with their
stems round and smooth as my rollin' pin piercin' the blue sky, and
fur, fur up the long graceful leaves, thirty feet long some on 'em.
And eucalyptus and begoniea and algebora with its lovely foliage, and
pepper trees and bananas and pomegranates and tamarind and bread fruit
and rose apples, tastin' and smellin' a good deal like a rosy. And
magnificent oleanders and fuchias and geraniums and every other
beautiful tree and blossom you ever hearn on.
And take it with these rich colored posies and luxuriant green foliage
and the white suits and hats of the men, and the gay colored clothing
of the women we met, lots of them with wreaths of flowers round their
necks hangin' most to their feet, take it all together it wuz a seen
long, long to be remembered. And then we walked up on Punch Bowl
Hill, five hundred feet above the level of the sea, and looked off on
a broad beautiful picture of sea, mountain and valley soft and
beautiful and a-bloom with verdure, and anon bold, rugged and sublime,
and I sez to Josiah:
"This very place where we're standin' now wuz once a volcano and
belched forth flames, and that also," sez I, pintin' to Tantalus that
riz up two thousand feet. "And," sez I, "they say that the view from
that is glorious."
"Well," sez he, "I guess we hadn't better climb up there; it might
bust out agin. And I wouldn't have you sot fire to, Samantha, for a
thousand worlds like this," (he didn't want the work of climbin', that
wuz it). And I didn't argy with him, for I thought it would be quite a
pull for us to git up there and git Tommy up, and I didn't know as the
child ort to climb so fur, so I didn't oppose my pardner when he
propsed to go back to the tarven, and we santered back through the
streets filled with citizens of all countries and dressed accordin',
to the grounds around the tarven. We put Tommy into a hammock and sot
down peaceful nigh by him. The sun shone down gloriously out of a
clear blue sky, but we sot in the shade and so enjoyed it, the bammy
air about us seemed palpitating with langrous beauty and fragrance,
and I sez to my pardner:
"Don't this remind you, Josiah, of what we've heard Thomas J. read
about:
"'The island valley of Avileon
Where falls not rain nor hail nor any snow.'"
"Where it seems always afternoon."
"I d'no," sez Josiah, "as I ever hearn of such a land. I never wuz any
hand to lay abed all the forenoon."
"But, Josiah, there is sunthin' so dreamy and soothin', so restful in
the soft slumbrous atmosphere, it seems as if one could jest lay down
in that hammock, look off onto the entrancin' beauty around,
breathin' the soft balmy air, and jest lay there forever."
"I guess," sez he, "that the dinner bell would be apt to roust you out
the second or third day."
But Miss Meechim jined us at jest this minute, and she sez to me, "I
feel just as you do, I feel as though I would fain dwell here
forever."
And Josiah sez: "I believe it would be a good thing for you, Miss
Meechim, to stay here right along; you could probable do considerable
good here preachin' to the natives aginst marriage, they're pretty apt
to marry too much if they're let alone, and you might curb 'em in
some." (Josiah can't bear Miss Meechim, her idees on matrimony are
repugnant to him.) But she didn't argy with him. She sez: "Robert is
planning a trip to the Pali, and wants to know if you won't join us."
And Josiah says, "Who is Pali?"
And she sez, "It is the precipice five hundred feet high, where King
Kamehameha drove off his enemies."
Well, we wuz agreeable and jined the party. Robert had got a wagonette
and he and Dorothy, Miss Meechim and Arvilly and Josiah and I jest
filled the seats, Tommy sot in Josiah's lap or between us.
It is quite a long ride to the Pali, but we didn' realize it, because
the scenery all along is so lovely and so novel. That view from the
top I hain't a-goin' to try to describe, nor I sha'n't let Josiah try;
I don't like to have that man flat out in his undertakin's. Good land!
do you want us to tell how many sands there wuz on the flashing white
beach that stretched out milds and milds? And we might as well as to
describe that enchantin' panorama and take up all the different
threads of glory that lay before us and embroider 'em on language. No,
you must see 'em for yourself, and then you hain't goin' to describe
'em. I d'no but Carabi could. I hearn Tommy talkin' and "wonnerin'" to
him as he stood awestruck beside me, but no mortal can.
Well, I thought I must not slight the volcano Kilauea, which means the
House of Everlasting Fire. And how that volcano and everything in
Hawaii reminded me of the queen who once rained here--and the
interview I once had with her. We happened to be visitors to the same
summer resort. You know she lives in Washington, D. C., now.
I sent word that I wuz there and craved a augence, which wuz gladly
granted. She had hearn of me and I had hearn of her, which made
everything agreeable. So at the appinted hour I wuz ushered by one of
her hired men into her presence. I liked her looks first rate; of
course she hain't what you may call handsome, and her complection is
pretty middlin' dark, but she has a good look and a good way with her.
She came forward and greeted me with great cordiality and gin the hand
I extended a warm grasp, and I hern visey versey, and sez she:
"I am glad to see you, Josiah Allen's wife." And I sez, speakin' the
name Liliukolani well as I could, "I also am glad to hail the Queen of
the Sandwich Islands."
That tickled her, and she sez: "I was not deceived in you; you are one
who can recognize royalty if the cloud of adversity and trouble is
wreathin' it in its black folds."
And I sez, "Clouds often covers the sun and moon, but the light is
there jest the same." I felt to pity her as she went on and related
her troubles to me. Her throne kicked out from under her by them that
wanted to set down on it, the high chairs of her loyal friends took by
her enemies who craved the soft cushions. Even her private property
grabbed away from her. Why, how should any of us feel to have a
neighbor walk in when we wuz havin' a family quarrel and jest clean us
out of everything--kitchen stove, bureau, bed and beddin' and
everything; why, it would rile us to our depths, any on us.
She sez, "I feel that my kingdom wuz stole away from me." And I sez:
"I know jest how you feel. There wuz a woodsy island down in our
creek that Josiah had called hisen for years and years, rained
peaceful and prosperous over so we spozed, it made a dretful handy
place for our young stock to stand in the shade in the summer, and our
ducks and geese jest made their hum there, but what should Bill Yerden
do when he bought the old Shelmadine place but jest scoop up that
island and try to prove that it wuz hisen. It wuz jest stealin',
Josiah and I always felt so. But he wuz down with tizik at the time,
and I wore out nussin' him, and Bill put bob iron fence round it, real
sharp bobs, too, and we had to gin in. Of course it wuzn't a big spot,
but we despised the idee of havin' it took from us just as much as
though it wuz the hull contient of Asia, and we can't git over it,
Josiah nor me can't. And I know jest how you feel, and I sympathize
with you."
And she sez, "Sympathy is sweet, but justice is sweeter."
And I sez, "That is so, but when you can't git justice, sympathy is
better than nothin'."
"Yes," sez she, "I know it, but I am lookin' forward to the day when I
shall git my rights agin. I am jest as much a queen as Queen Alexandra
is to-day, and my kingdom is just as much mine."
Sez I, "That is just the way Josiah and I feel; we can't help lookin'
forward to gittin' our rights, but don't spoze we ever shall, for life
is short, and Josiah don't want any more of our live stock tore up on
them bobs; and, as I've said to Josiah many a time, Bill Yerden feels
guilty, or he wouldn't rare up such sharp defences round it."
Well, we had a good deal more of jest such profitable and interestin'
talk as two such great wimmen would naterally, and we parted away from
each other with a cordial hand shake and mutual good feelin'. But she
called me back and sez she: "I want to give you one word of solemn
warnin' before we part," and I stopped stun still and listened.
"I don't know," sez she, "as you'll ever be a queen."
"Well, mebby not," sez I, "but I am thought a sight on in Jonesville,
and there is no knowin' what may happen."
"Well," sez she, "if you ever are a queen, a ruler of a kingdom, don't
let any other nation protect you. Protectin'," sez she, "has been the
ruin of more than one individual and nation."
And I promised her that I would look out for it if I ever wuz a queen,
but reminded her that there wuz times too when it came handy, and
saved our necks to be protected, and then I finished, gracefully
backin' out of her presence. I like her first rate, and believe she is
a likely woman; I believe she has been lied about, she jest the same
as told me she had; if she wuz a woman that took in washin's for a
livin' there wouldn't have been so much said about her. Why, it is
jest as easy for envious folks to run them high in position and try to
demean 'em as it is to fall off a log.