288 
Wild Life in Southern Seas. 
sugarcane, or bananas, set out to work before 
the heat of the sun gets too great. But they 
must be back in time for morning service. 
Others—and these are in a majority—will loll 
outside the trader’s store door waiting for him 
to open, and here they will lie and loaf about 
half the day, buying nothing themselves, but 
watching the people from other villages bring in 
their baskets of copra, sea-island cotton, fungus, 
bundles of arrowroot, vegetables, fruit, and 
other native produce to sell to the white man. 
One monotonous day succeeds another, only 
to be broken by the cry of “ Sail, Ho!” Then 
the village wakes up, and for the next two or 
three days the wildest activity prevails. After 
the ship has gone the white traders and their 
wives visit each other in succession, and hear 
or tell the latest news from Sydney or Auck¬ 
land, for month after month has passed and no 
ship has come. Perhaps there is a fono (the tapu 
of other islands) on the coconut trees, and no 
copra can be made for six months; and the 
cotton is not yet ripe for picking. Then the 
trader knows what ennui means. He has read 
all the books on the station, and life becomes a 
weariness. There are no white, sandy beaches on 
