204 MYSTIC ISLES 



it to a knob of coral. Then I stepped out upon the 

 reef itself, my tennis shoes keeping the sharp edges 

 from cutting my feet. It was the low tide succeeding 

 sunrise, and the water over the reef was a few inches 

 deep, so that I could see the marine life of the wall, the 

 many kinds of starfish, the sea-urchins, and the curious 

 bivalves which hide with their shell-ti23S just even with 

 the floor of the lagoon, and, keeping them barely even, 

 wait for foolish prey. 



The floor of the lagoon was most interesting; the 

 prodigality of nature in the countless number of low 

 forms of life, their great variety, their beauty, and their 

 ugliness, and, appealing to me especially, the humor of 

 nature in the tricks she played with color and shape, 

 her score of clowns of the sea equaling her funny fel- 

 lows ashore, the macaws, the mandi'ills, the dachshunds, 

 and the burros. 



The sunlight on the water at that hour was like silver 

 spangles on a sapphire robe. I paddled near to the 

 Marara, and watched her let go her anchor and send her 

 boat ashore with a stern line. Fastened to a cannon 

 and passed around a bitt on the schooner, the crew 

 hauled her close to the embankment, and soon she was 

 broadside to, and her gangway on the quay. Her cap- 

 tain, M. Moet, Woronick, a pearl merchant, a govern- 

 ment physician, and the passengers from the Paumotus 

 were soon ashore shaking hands with friends. I walked 

 behind them to Lovaina's for coffee, and was introduced 

 to them all. 



Woronick took me to his house across the street from 

 the Tiare Hotel, and there opened a massive safe and 

 showed me drawer after drawer of pearls. They were 



