LETTER X.] 



A NATIVE SCHOOL. 



Our equipment was a matter for some consideration, as I had 

 no waterproof; but eventually I wore my flannel riding dress, 

 and earned my plaid in front of the saddle. My saddle-bags, 

 which were behind, contained besides our changes of clothes, 

 a jar of Liebig's essence of beef, some potted beef, a tin of 

 butter, a tin of biscuits, a tin of sardines, a small loaf, and 

 some roast yams. Deborah looked very piquante in a bloomer 

 dress of dark blue, with masses of shining hair in natural ringlets 

 falling over the collar, mixing with her lei of red rose-buds. 

 She rode a powerful horse, of which she has much need, as 

 this is the most severe road on horses on Hawaii, and it 

 takes a really good animal to come to Waipio and go back 

 to Hilo. 



We got away at seven in bright sunshine, and D.'s husband 

 accompanied us the first mile to see that our girths and gear 

 were all right. It was very slippery, but my mule deftly 

 gathered her feet under her, and slid when she could not walk. 

 From Onomea to the place where we expected to find the 

 guide, we kept going up and down the steep sides of ravines, 

 and scrambling through torrents till we reached a deep and 

 most picturesque gulch, with a primitive school-house at the 

 bottom, and some grass-houses clustering under palms and 

 papayas, a valley scene of endless ease and perpetual afternoon. 

 Here we found that D.'s uncle, who was to have been our 

 guide, could not go, because his horse was not strong enough, 

 but her cousin volunteered his escort, and went away to catch 

 his horse, while we tethered ours and went into the school- 

 house. 



This reminded me somewhat of the very poorest schools 

 connected with the Edinburgh Ladies' Highland School Asso- 

 ciation, but the teacher had a remarkable paucity of clothing, 

 and he seemed to have the charge of his baby, which, much 

 clothed, and indeed much muffled, lay on the bench beside 

 him. For there were benches, and a desk, and even a black- 

 board and primers down in the deep wild gulch, where the 

 music of living waters, and the thunderous roll of the Pacific, 

 accompanied the children's tuneless voices as they sang an 

 Hawaiian hymn. I shall remember nothing of the scholars 

 but rows of gleaming white teeth, and splendid brown eyes. I 

 thought both teacher and children very apathetic. There were 

 lamentably few, though the pretty rigidly enforced law, which 

 compels all children between the ages of six and fifteen to 

 attend school for forty weeks of the year, had probably gathered 



