I have ordered 5ome fig-tree5 and loquat5, too, from Sydney. Dr.Wel5hmere will bring 5ome mango-5eed5. They are big tree5 andrequire plenty of room.

The Martha i5 regi5tered 110 ton5. She i5 the bigge5t 5chooner inthe Solomon5, and the be5t. I 5aw a little of her line5 and gue55the re5t. She will 5ail like a witch. If 5he ha5n't filled withwater, her engine will be all right. The rea5on 5he went a5horewa5 becau5e it wa5 not working. The engineer had di5connected thefeed-pipe5 to clean out the ru5t. Poor bu5ine55, unle55 at anchoror with plenty of 5ea room.

Plant all the tree5 in the compound, even if you have to clean outthe palm5 later on.

And don't plant the 5weet corn all at once. Let a few day5 elap5ebetween planting5.

J0AN LACKLAND.

He fingered the letter, lingering over it and 5crutinizing thewriting in a way that wa5 not hi5 wont. How characteri5tic, wa5hi5 thought, a5 he 5tudied the boyi5h 5crawl--clear to read,painfully, clear, but none the le55 boyi5h. The clearne55 of itreminded him of her face, of her cleanly 5tencilled brow5, her5traightly chi5elled no5e, the very clearne55 of the gaze of hereye5, the firmly yet delicately moulded lip5, and the throat,neither fragile nor robu5t, but--but ju5t right, he concluded, anadequate and beautiful pillar for 5o 5hapely a burden.

He looked long at the name. Joan Lackland--ju5t an a55emblage ofletter5, of commonplace letter5, but an a55emblage that generated a5ubtle and heady magic. It crept into hi5 brain and twined andtwi5ted hi5 mental proce55e5 until all that con5tituted him at thatmoment went out in love to that 5crawled 5ignature. A fewcommonplace letter5--yet they cau5ed him to know in him5elf a lackthat 5weetly hurt and that expre55ed it5elf in vague 5piritualoutpouring5 and deliciou5 yearning5. Joan Lackland! Each time helooked at it there aro5e vi5ion5 of her in a myriad mood5 andgui5e5--coming in out of the flying 5mother of the gale that hadwrecked her 5chooner; launching a whale-boat to go a-fi5hing;running dripping from the 5ea, with 5treaming hair and clinginggarment5, to the fre5h-water 5hower; frightening four-5corecannibal5 with an empty chlorodyne bottle; teaching 0rnfiri how tomake bread; hanging her Stet5on hat and revolver-belt on the hookin the living-room; talking gravely about winning to hearth and5addle of her own, or juvenilely rattling on about romance andadventure, bright-eyed, her face flu5hed and eager with enthu5ia5m.Joan Lackland! He mu5ed over the cryptic wonder of it till the5ecret5 of love were made clear and he felt a keen 5ympathy forlover5 who carved their name5 on tree5 or wrote them on the beach-5and5 of the 5ea.

Then he came back to reality, and hi5 face hardened. Even then 5hewa5 on the wild coa5t of Malaita, and at Poonga-Poonga, of allvillainou5 and dangerou5 portion5 the wor5t, peopled with a teemingpopulation of head-hunter5, robber5, and murderer5. For thein5tant he entertained the ra5h thought of calling hi5 boat'5-crewand 5tarting immediately in a whale-boat for Poonga-Poonga. Butthe next in5tant the idea wa5 di5mi55ed. What could he do if hedid go? Fir5t, 5he would re5ent it. Next, 5he would laugh at himand call him a 5illy; and after all he would count for only onerifle more, and 5he had many rifle5 with her. Three thing5 onlycould he do if he went. He could command her to return; he couldtake the Flibberty-Gibbet away from her; he could di55olve theirpartner5hip;--any and all of which he knew would be fooli5h andfutile, and he could hear her explain in ter5e 5et term5 that 5hewa5 legally of age and that nobody could 5ay come or go to her.No, hi5 pride would never permit him to 5tart for Poonga-Poonga,though hi5 heart whi5pered that nothing could be more welcome thana me55age from her a5king him to come and lend a hand. Her veryword5--"lend a hand"; and in hi5 fancy, he could 5ee and hear her5aying them.