those are the loveliest isles, except, may be, the West Indies, that ever I saw.'
'Tell me about them, please,' entreated Lucy 'Here's one; its name is-is Ysabel-such a little wee one.'
[Illustration: Lucy had a great sneezing fit, and when she looked again into the smoke, what did she see but two little black figures.
'I can't tell you much of those South Sea Isles, Missie, being that I only made one voyage among them, when Bunker chartered the
'Tell me all about it,' said Lucy, following the old woman hither and thither as she bustled about, talking all the time, and stirring her pan of ginger over the hot plate.
How it happened, it is not easy to say; the room was very warm, and Mother Bunch went on talking as she stirred, and a steam rose up, and by and by it seemed to Lucy that she had a great sneezing fit, and when she looked again into the smoke, what did she see but two little black figures, faces, heads, and feet all black, but with an odd sort of white garment round their waists, and some fine red and green feathers sticking out of their woolly heads.
'Mrs. Bunker, Mrs. Bunker,' she cried, 'what's this? who are these ugly figures?'
[Illustration: 'I am so glad to see you. Hush, Don! don't bark so!'
'Ugly!' said the foremost; and though it must have been some strange language, it sounded like English to Lucy. 'Is that the way little white girl speaks to boy and girl that have come all the way from Ysabel to see her?'
'Oh, indeed! little Ysabel boy, I beg your pardon. I didn't know you were real, nor that you could understand me! I am so glad to see you. Hush, Don! don't bark so!'
'Pig, pig, I never heard a pig squeak like that,' said the black stranger.
'Pig! It is a little dog. Have you no dogs in your country?'
'Pigs go on four legs. That must be pig.'
'What, you have nothing that goes on four legs but a pig! What do you eat, then, besides pig?'
'Yams, cocoa-nut, fish-oh, so good, and put pig into hole among hot stones, make a fire over, bake so nice!'
'You shall have some of my tea and see if that is as nice,' said Lucy. 'What a funny dress you have; what is it made of?'
'Tapa cloth,' said the little girl. 'We get the bark off the tree, and then we go hammer, hammer, thump, thump, till all the hard thick stuff comes off;' and Lucy, looking near, saw that the substance was really all a lacework of fibre, about as close as the net of Nurse's caps.
'Is that all your clothes?' she asked.
'Yes, till I am a warrior,' said the boy; 'then they will tattoo my forehead, and arms, and breast, and legs.'
'Tattoo! what's that?'
'Make little holes, and lines all over the skin with a sharp shell, and rub in juice that turns it all to blue and purple lines.'
'But doesn't it hurt dreadfully?' asked Lucy.
'Hurt! to be sure it does, but that will show that I am brave. When Father comes home from the war, he paints himself white.'
'White!'
'With lime made by burning coral, and he jumps and dances and shouts: I shall go to the war one of these days.'
'Oh no, don't!' said Lucy, 'it is horrid.'
The boy laughed, but the little girl whispered, 'Good white men say so. Some day Lavo will go and learn, and leave off fighting.'
Lavo shook his head. 'No, not yet; I will be brave chief and warrior first,-bring home many heads of enemies.'
'I-I think it nice to be quiet,' said Lucy; 'and-and-won't you have some dinner?'
'Have you baked a pig?' asked Lavo.
'I think this is mutton,' said Lucy, when the dish came up,-'it is sheep's flesh.'
Lavo and his sister had no notion what sheep were. They wanted to sit cross-legged on the floor, but Lucy made each of them sit in a chair properly; but then they shocked her by picking up the mutton-chops and stuffing them into their mouths with their fingers.
'Look here!' and she showed the knives and forks.
'Oh!' cried Lavo, 'what good spikes to catch fish with! and knife-knife-I'll kill foes! much better than shell knife.'
[Illustration: 'I can eat much better without,' said Lavo.
'And I'll dig yams,' said the sister.
'Oh no!' entreated Lucy, 'we have spades to dig with, soldiers have swords to fight with, these are to eat with.'
'I can eat much better without,' said Lavo, but to please Lucy his sister did try; slashing hard away with her knife, and digging her fork straight into a bit of meat. Then she very nearly ran it into her eye, and Lucy, who knew it was not good manners to laugh, was very near choking herself. And at last, saying the knife and fork were 'great good-great good; but none for eating,' they stuck them through the great tortoiseshell rings they had in their ears and noses. Lucy was distressed about Uncle Joseph's knives and forks, which she knew she ought not to give away; but while she was looking about for Mrs. Bunker to interfere, Don seemed to think it his business, and began to growl and fly at the little black legs.
[Illustration: Lavo had climbed up the side of the door, and was sitting astride on the top of it.
'A tree, a tree!' cried the Ysabelites, 'where's a tree?' and while they spoke, Lavo had climbed up the side of the door, and was sitting astride on the top of it, grinning down at the dog, and his sister had her feet on the lock, going up after him.
'Tree houses,' they cried; 'there we are safe from our enemies.'
And Lucy found rising before her, instead of her own nursery, a huge tree, on the top of a mound.[1] Basket- work had been woven between the branches to make floors, and on these were huts of bamboo cane; there were ladders hanging down made of strong creepers twisted together, and above and around the cries of cockatoos and parrots and the chirp of grasshoppers rang in her ears. She laid hold of the ladder of creeping plants and began to climb, but soon her head swam, she grew giddy, and called out to Lavo to help her. Then suddenly she found herself curled up in Mrs. Bunker's big beehive chair, and she wondered whether she had been asleep.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] See the
CHAPTER III. ITALY.
'SUPPOSE and suppose I could have such another funny dream,' said Lucy. 'Mother Bunch, have you ever been to Italy?' and she put her finger on the long leg and foot, kicking at three-cornered Sicily.
'Yes, Missie, that I have; come out of this cold room and I'll tell you.'
Lucy was soon curled in her chair; but no, she wasn't! she was under such a blue, blue sky, as she had never dreamt of: clear sharp purple hills rose up against it. There was a clear rippling little fountain, bursting out of a rock, carved with old, old carvings, broken now and defaced, but shadowed over by lovely maidenhair fern and trailing bindweed; and in a niche above a little roof, sheltering a figure of the Blessed Virgin. Some way off stood a long low house propped up against the rich yellow stone walls and pillars of another old, old building, and with a great
