A TALE TOO TRUE. 243 



to the Boca St. Juan or to Granada, to pay- 

 all expenses and save something besides. He 

 even cleared a small adjacent island, and built 

 a sort of four-oared gig to communicate be- 

 tween the two islands. He planted the 

 second small island with sugar-cane, and was 

 superintending it with his boat's crew, when 

 the dreadful catastrophe alluded to took place 

 in the larger one. 



The major-domo had been strongly stricken 

 with admiration for the fair German lady of 

 the isles, and had told her so in very plain 

 terms for several weeks before the tragical 

 occurrence. She very foolishly never ac- 

 quainted her husband with the fact, for fear 

 he should involve himself in a quarrel w r ith 

 one who might be too much for him ; but, 

 the evening before the fatal day, she told her 

 husband that she could no longer live in a 

 place where insulting proposals were being 

 constantly made to her. He promised to 

 arrange it all the next day, and that the 

 major-domo should be sent to the main land. 



Early next morning, the German went with 

 his boat's crew to the small island, leaving, 

 very imprudently, nobody but the major- 

 domo on the island except his wife. After 

 two or three hours' work on the small island, 



