TIME AND CHANGE 



in the horizon marked the place of Oahu. The 

 ocean rose in the vast horizon and blended with the 

 sky. The eye could not tell where one ended and the 

 other began. 



The mules had had a comfortable night in a rude 

 stone stable against the rocks, and were more eager 

 to hit the down trail than were we. The descent 

 proved more fatiguing than the ascent, the con- 

 stant plunging motion of the animals' shoulders 

 being a sore trial. We dropped down through the 

 belt of clouds that had begun to form, and out into 

 the grassy region of the singing skylarks, past herds 

 of grazing cattle, and at noon were again at Idle- 

 wild, resting our weary limbs and comforting the 

 inner man. 



In the afternoon Mr. Aiken drove us back to his 

 home farm, where we again passed a very pleasant 

 night. In the morning I walked with him through 

 his pineapple plantation. It was a new kind of farm- 

 ing and fruit-growing to me. I forget now how 

 many hundred thousand plants his field contained. 

 They are set and cultivated much as cabbage is 

 with us, but present a strangely stiff and forbidding 

 aspect. The first cutting is when the plants are 

 about eighteen months old, one large solid apple 

 from each plant. The second crop is called the 

 "raggoon" crop, and yields two apples from each 

 plant, but smaller and less valuable than the first. 

 The field is then reset. I also walked with Mr. 



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