A Noble Sea Game. 
1 SS 
of a curling sea, and with their long, dark 
locks trailing behind them, rush shoreward 
enveloped in mist and spray like goddesses of 
the waves. Their shrill cries of encouragement 
to each other, the loud thunder of the surf as 
it broke upon its coral barrier, the seething 
hum and hiss of the roller as it impelled them 
to the beach, and the merry shrieks of laughter 
that ensued when some luckless girl over¬ 
balanced or misguided herself in the midst of 
the foam, lent a zest of enjoyment to the scene 
that made one feel himself a child again. 
For two hours we swam out again and again 
to fly shoreward ; and at last we met together 
on the beach, to rest under the shade of the 
palms, the girls to smoke their banana-leaf 
sului of strong negro-head tobacco, and the 
men their pipes, while the younger boys were 
sent to gather us young drinking-coconuts. 
And then we heard a sudden cry of mingled 
laughter and astonishment ; for, tottering along 
the path, surf-board under arm, came an old 
man of seventy, nude to his loins. 
“ Hu ! hu l" he cried, and his wrinkled face 
twisted, and his toothless mouth quivered, “ is 
old Pakia so blind and weak that he cannot 
