Music MXL: [[MusicMXL]]
CHAPTER VII
Father O’Leary’s Confessional Box—Penitent Natives, Chiefs, Dethroned Kings and Queens—Waylao goes into the Confessional Box—Father O’Leary’s Philosophy
THAT dance of Waylao’s in the grog shanty created a strange impression in my mind. Henceforth I looked upon her as some half-wild faery creature of the forest. I do not wish to give the impression that I was in love with Waylao. It was only a romantic boy’s fancy, a clinging to something that faintly resembled his immature ideals. I cannot tell the events that followed in their exact progression. I recall that about this period I started off with Grimes seeing the sights of the isles. I could not tolerate sitting in a grog shanty for any length of time, though I must admit the tales I heard there and much that occurred was deeply interesting to one who wished to see more sides of life than one.
I think Grimes and I were away from Tai-o-hae two or three weeks. Things were about the same when we returned. The natives were still singing as they toiled on the various plantations. A few fresh schooners were in the bay, and others loaded and ready to go seaward on their voyages to the far-scattered isles of the Pacific.