The days passed to the young lovers as a dream. All day long they would wander under the cool shade of the fragrant trees, listening to the songs of sweet-voiced birds, gathering flowers and weaving them into wreaths with which to adorn each other, or disporting themselves in the warm sea; Mabel had become a very expert swimmer. Gay groups of happy young people were constantly to be seen enjoying the delights of surf riding and swimming; our friends were often of the number.
So drifted on their happy life for three months, with no thought of care entering their lives, no idea of concealment of their pure love for one another, until one day, about three months after the festival, Ahleka came early to the cottage of the girls, bringing fruits and flowers to them, as it was his custom to do each morning. As Mabel met him at the door her loving eyes soon saw that there was something that troubled the heart of him whom she loved. Running to him, she asked: “What is it, Ahleka, what has happened?”
“My father,” he answered, “is sick. I know not what he says. He speaks of strange things of which I know nothing.”
“Oh, Ahleka, I will go to him. I am a good nurse and may be able to help Kaelea in caring for him.” So saying, she started in the direction of Captain Thornton’s cottage, Ahleka walking by her side.
“Mabel,” he said, “should I not go to Howcu to tell my father’s son, Allen, of his illness? and it tears my heart to think of leaving him now, when, perhaps, he may die at any moment, to go for the son whom he has only had with him so short a time. But he calls his name more often than mine, which shows that he loves the son of his fair wife, who died beyond the seas, better than he does the son of the wife who rests beneath our warm sun.” He spoke so tenderly, that Mabel was moved to tears, but answered: “No, Ahleka, I am sure he does not love Allen best, but he calls on Allen’s name, because he is away, while you are by his side. Can you not understand that?”
“Well, perhaps so, but at any rate I must go after him, so good-bye, sweet one.”
“Stay a moment. I am sure Captain Gray would be glad to go after Allen for you, and then you may remain by the side of your father. There he comes now.” Saying which she ran to the captain, who was now close behind them and made the request that he should go.
“Certainly, I will go, but first, Ahleka, I will see your father,” saying which he entered the cottage which they had reached while they were talking. He found Captain Thornton indeed very ill. He realized that if Allen was to see his father before he died that no time was to be lost. Captain Gray, in company with two Nahua boys, left immediately for Howcu to bring Allen to his father’s bedside.
Mabel was soon comforting Kaelea and trying to sooth her grief by tender words.
It was some time before Allen had reached his father’s bedside as the village of Howcu, as we have already explained, was on the other side of the arm of the sea which divided the island; so the trip had to be made partly by canoe and in part by land. The news of his father’s serious illness was a great shock to Allen, who immediately started, accompanied by Maula, for Nahua. On arriving there he was met by Ahleka who conducted him to their father. He saw at a glance that his father was very near the dread valley of death. The thought of losing his father was very hard to bear.
“Oh, father, why did you not send for me before!”
“My son, I was not ill until to-day, but now I know my days among you all are numbered, and before I die I want to talk to you of your future. It is my wish that you should remain always here, in this land of happiness.”
“Why, father, I am not likely to leave here. There seems no possibility of such a thing.”
“But still, Allen, the day may come when you will be given an opportunity to leave this heaven blessed land, and return to your own country. It is of that day I wish to speak. Think well, Allen, before you leave this paradise where all is happiness and contentment, where strife and contention are unknown, to return to the cold-hearted, calculating world to meet, you know not what evils, but remain here among a people who have their every want provided for by nature, thus relieving them of the drudgery of existence, where men live as God intended men should live; where love is love, not licentiousness; where each man is proud to claim his own children; where no woman blushes with shame when she beholds the fruits of her unhappy love; where the tender life of no unfortunate infant is taken that it may not be a living shame to the authors of its being. Here, in this land where money cannot buy man’s honesty or woman’s love. Here, my dear son, is to be found true happiness, and it is the dying request of your father that you live among this gentle, lovable people as your father has done.” The old man dropped his head upon his breast exhausted by his effort.
“Do not think,” replied Allen, “that I shall ever want to go back to a false state of civilization. I learned to despise it long before I landed here and now that I have lived here so long and have learned to appreciate the honesty and truthfulness of these people, I do not wish to leave them. And then, is not my wife, whom I love more deeply each day, one of these people? No, father, I shall never leave this land of plenty, peace and quiet. No, I am too happy, as I now live, to desire any change.”
Captain Thornton grew rapidly worse, and, ere the dawn of another day he had left the island, where he had passed so many peaceful years, for that unknown land beyond the grave. All day long could be heard the mournful wailing of the people of Nahua who had gathered around the house to mourn. The weird cries and the slow, measured beat of the tom toms that accompanied this peculiar chant was kept up all the day and night that Captain Thornton’s body lay unburied. The mourning was sincere, as the gentle old man had been loved as a father by the people of the island of Kaahlanai.
The next morning at daybreak, for in this hot climate the body could be kept no longer, funeral rites were held over the remains of Captain Thornton. The body had been wrapped in many layers of palm leaves and then placed in a slender, light canoe; it was now resting on a bier formed of branches of bamboo. The mourners are already gathered around, Ahleka, Allen and Kaelea having each placed a handful of lime on their heads as a token of their grief, it being the outward mark of mourning bourn by these peculiar people. The melancholy chant was still kept up. Eight young men having lifted the bier upon their shoulders, the funeral march began. On each side of the bier walked eight young girls, each having upon her head the customary handful of lime, and bearing in her hand a long wand of waving feathers; holding the wands so as to form an arch over the canoe which contained the dead. After them came Ahleka and Kaelea, Allen and Maula and next Mabel and Etta walking on each side of Captain Gray; following these came the chiefs and their families and the people of the villages, each one carrying a stone in one hand and branches of flowers in the other. The procession moved slowly up the hill which was to be the burial place. The broad disc of the rising sun was now to be seen coming slowly above the sea, throwing broad shafts of light over the water, dyeing the sky coppery red which shaded into gold, then into the softest tints of yellow as the rays ascended. It was a sight never to be forgotten by any of the little group who stood for the first time on this funeral mountain, looking out over the grief bowed heads of the throng of people, beyond the tree embowered islands, beyond the reef with the surf glistening and ever changing in the rays of the rising sun, far out to the glorious ruler of day. The canoe was now placed upon the ground, the company turned, and raising their sprays of flowers toward the sun, chanting an invocation to the source of light and warmth. One after another they drew near the canoe, beginning with Ahleka and Allen, placing upon it the flowers held in their hands until it was hidden from view beneath a fragrant mound. After all the flowers were deposited, the stones were piled high over them, making a rocky monument to mark the resting place of Captain Thornton—the Alii Mahina. Then slowly they retraced their steps to the village.