“Oh, lady,” he cried, “look at me now! I am changed into a man, and so
handsome!”
“Will you obey me again?” said the woman.
“Always; whatever you command I will do it,” said Pivi, politely.
“Then climb up that cocoa-nut tree, with your legs only, not using your
hands,” said the woman.
Now the natives can run up cocoa-nut trees like squirrels, some using
only one hand; the girls can do that. But few can climb without using
their hands at all.
“At the top of the tree you will find two cocoa-nuts. You must not
throw them down, but carry them in your hands; and you must descend as
you went up, using your legs only.”
“I shall try, at least,” said Pivi. And up he went, but it was very
difficult, and down he came.
“Here are your cocoa-nuts,” he said, presenting them to the woman.
“Now, Pivi, put them in the shed where you lay, and when the sun sets
to cool himself in the sea and rise again not so hot in the dawn you
must go and take the nuts.”
All day Pivi played about in the river, as the natives do, throwing
fruit and silvery showers of water at each other. When the sun set he
went into the hut. But as he drew near he heard sweet voices talking
and laughing within.
“What is that? People chattering in the hut! Perhaps they have taken my
cocoa-nuts,” said Pivi to himself.
In he went, and there he found two pretty, laughing, teasing girls. He
hunted for his cocoanuts, but none were there.
Down he ran to the river. “Oh, lady, my nuts have been stolen!” he
cried.
“Come with me, Pivi, and there will be nuts for you,” said the woman.
They went back to the hut, where the girls were laughing and playing.
“Nuts for you?” said the woman, “there are two wives for you, Pivi,
take them to your house.”
“Oh, good lady,” cried Pivi, “how kind you are!”
So they were married and very happy, when in came cross old Kabo.
“Is this Pivi?” said he. “Yes, it is—no, it isn’t. It is not the same
Pivi—but there is a kind of likeness. Tell me, are you Pivi?”
“Oh, yes!” said Pivi. “But I am much better looking, and there are my
two wives, are they not beautiful?”
“You are mocking me, Pivi! Your wives? How? Where did you get them?
You, with wives!”
Then Pivi told Kabo about the kind woman, and all the wonderful things
that had happened to him.
“Well, well!” said Kabo, “but I want to be handsome too, and to have
pretty young wives.”
“But how can we manage that?” asked Pivi.
“Oh, we shall do all the same things over again—play at slinging, and,
this time, you shall break my leg, Pivi!”
“With all the pleasure in life,” said Pivi, who was always ready to
oblige.
So they went slinging, and Pivi broke Kabo’s leg, and Kabo fell into
the river, and floated into the bamboo, and the woman blew him out,
just as before. Then she picked up Kabo, and put him in the shed, and
told him what to do when the Black Ant came, and what to do when the
Red Ant came. But he didn’t!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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