“I told you to drop that skunk,” said an old woman, “and had you minded me you would not now be sneezing and spitting so violently. Go down to the spring and wash yourself.” Just then a cocoanut flying through the air, struck the woman in the eye, and for a moment she did not know whether it was the odor from the skunk, or a ball from the players that knocked her down. “I told you to be careful with your cocoanuts,” she said, “and had you minded me you would not get this shaking;” at which she seized the nearest player by the hair and administered several pulls and scratches. Finally Koree made his appearance, leading Orlee by the hand. His first anxiety was to know whether Sosee had returned, whom he was alarmed not to see among the players. The mother of Orlee ran franticly to receive her child, which she fondled with an incoherent chattering. “Where is Sosee?” asked Koree. “Where is Sosee?” asked the mother at the same time. Both looked at each other in amazement, and no words were needed to express their mutual disappointment. “Have you restored to me one child only to lose another?” asked the mother reproachfully. “Have I lost a lover,” replied Koree, “only to rescue a baby?” Both, forgetful of what they had, were about to quarrel over what they had not. Koree, however, was the more inconsolable, because he had lost all that he went for, which he had, indeed, before starting, and went to retain rather than to acquire. For he went for Sosee rather than for Orlee, seeking the latter only that he might not lose the former. “Wait,” said Gimbo, the grandfather of Sosee, “and she may yet return. She is doubtless in the swamp detained by some attraction or difficulty.” “Sosee, unincumbered and swift of foot,” replied Koree, “would not be longer in returning than I with the child. She has either been re-captured by the Lali, or else met with a disaster in the swamp. Perhaps the lion I saw chasing the tapirs devoured her;” and he grieved like Pyramus mourning for Thisbe. Little did he think that at that moment she was the cause of a quarrel between Oboo and Ilo in the far off land of the Lali. The mother was less concerned, both because she was in the first joys of receiving a restored child, and because, in addition to the uncertainty as to whether Sosee would not return, it was not customary for our ancestors of that day to concern themselves about their grown children. When their offspring had passed the disabilities of infancy, they were allowed to shift for themselves. Orlee, being still a child, was, therefore, dearer to the mother than Sosee; and so, measurably content with the former, she was willing to trust the other to her lover or herself. When Koree, however, became satisfied that Sosee was lost, he resolved to find her; and, as his fears early persuaded him that she was lost (since fear acts faster in the absence and confidence in the presence of lovers,) he resolved at once to get up an expedition for her recapture.