LIFE ON A CORAL ISLAND. 813 



physician, finding that there is no other doctor within a hundred 

 miles, kindly allows the people to call upon him for gratuitous service 

 in his profession. In a few days, as his desire to help those who need 

 him has become known, we are besieged at all hours by patients, who 

 stand in the street and call out, " Is the pill-doctor at home ? " He is 

 now so fully employed that his own studies are seriously obstructed, 

 and he has been forced to establish office-hours. 



His usefulness is seriously impaired by the fact that a merchant to 

 whom the poor people take their prescriptions to have them forwarded 

 to the apothecary at Nassau is apt to suggest as a substitute a purchase 

 from his stock of strengthening-plasters, or from an invoice of liver- 

 pills which he imported some years ago. 



I am surprised to learn from Dr. Mills that in this delightful cli- 

 mate, where the temperature is almost uniform throughout the year, 

 and the thermometer seldom rises above 85 or falls below 80, there 

 are many cases of consumption. A death from this disease took 

 place in one of the little huts near our house a few hours after our 

 arrival. 



We are much pleased that, although our home is close to the street, 

 there is no building opposite, but a vacant lot, planted with cocoanut- 

 trees and bananas, and surrounded by an open cast-iron railing, which 

 does not obstruct our view, or cut off the cool sea-breeze which blows 

 continuously. 



Our first day on the island ended in a beautiful cloudless evening, 

 with a gentle breeze and a full moon, and as we sat on our veranda 

 and rested after our hard day's work, the sun set and in a few minutes 

 the moon and stars were in full splendor, for we are so far south that 

 the sun drops straight down, and we have no twilight. As we sat and 

 listened to the mocking-birds, which were singing on all sides, and 

 watched the long, graceful, fern-like plumes of the tall cocoanut-trees 

 swaying against the clear sky in the breeze and reflecting the moon- 

 light from their glossy surfaces, a feeling of perfect rest after our 

 long voyage stole over us, and, while everything reminded us of the 

 long miles of water between us and our friends in Baltimore, we felt 

 almost at home in our new abode. 



We watched the half -naked negro children at play in our street, 

 and listened with great interest to wild music which came from one of 

 the huts, and was, as we learned next day, the song of friends gath- 

 ered at the bedside of our dying neighbor ; and at last we ate our 

 first meal of pineapples and bananas and sapodillas and fresh cocoa- 

 nuts, and then turned in, happy in the thought that we could sleep 

 without holding on, and delighted with our first experience of a coral 

 island. 



