436 MYSTIC ISLES 



tradicted his balanced head, intellectual face, and gen- 

 eral air of knowledge and world experience that I said: 



"You have the horniest palm in Tahiti." 



"I am a planter," he rejihed. "We have been here 

 a few years, and after buying the ground I had to clear 

 it, because it had been permitted to go to bush. There 

 w^ere a few hundred cocoanut-trees, but nothing else 

 worth while. I began at the highest point and worked 

 to the sea." 



I drew from him that he had bought eighteen acres 

 of land for twelve hundred dollars, and had spent most 

 of a year in preparing it for vanilla, cocoanuts, a few 

 breadfruit, a small area of coffee and taro, and a vege- 

 table patch. 



"We have very little money," he explained, "and live 

 largely on catches in the sea and stream, and fruit and 

 vegetables, with a dozen chickens for eggs. I pull at 

 the net with the village. Actually, we figure that fifteen 

 dollars a month covers our expenditures. This house 

 cost five hundred and eight dollars, but, of course, I 

 did a lot of work on it. The chief items for us are 

 books, reviews, and postage." 



Three walls of the house were covered with books, and 

 the fourth stopped at the floor to make the wide veranda 

 over the lagoon. 



Mrs. Lermontoif had on the peignoir of the natives^ 

 and was barefooted within the house, but wore sandals 

 outside. She sat before a sewing-machine. 



"I am making a gown or two for a neighbor who is 

 sick," she said. "I do not give many hours to sewing. 

 I like better the piano." 



She knew all the Russian composers well, had studied 



