The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 17Stevenson, Robert Louis
History
The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition, Vol. 17
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Islands of the Pacific -- Fiction; Samoan Islands -- History; Short stories
Now, the house stood on the mountain side, visible to ships. Above, the
forest ran up into the clouds of rain; below, the black lava fell in
cliffs, where the kings of old lay buried. A garden bloomed about that
house with every hue of flowers; and there was an orchard of papaia on
the one hand and an orchard of bread-fruit on the other, and right in
front, toward the sea, a ship's mast had been rigged up and bore a flag.
As for the house, it was three stories high, with great chambers and
broad balconies on each. The windows were of glass, so excellent that it
was as clear as water and as bright as day. All manner of furniture
adorned the chambers. Pictures hung upon the wall in golden frames:
pictures of ships, and men fighting, and of the most beautiful women,
and of singular places; nowhere in the world are there pictures of so
bright a colour as those Keawe found hanging in his house. As for the
knick-knacks, they were extraordinary fine; chiming clocks and musical
boxes, little men with nodding heads, books filled with pictures,
weapons of price from all quarters of the world, and the most elegant
puzzles to entertain the leisure of a solitary man. And as no one would
care to live in such chambers, only to walk through and view them, the
balconies were made so broad that a whole town might have lived upon
them in delight; and Keawe knew not which to prefer, whether the back
porch, where you got the land-breeze, and looked upon the orchards and
the flowers, or the front balcony, where you could drink the wind of the
sea, and look down the steep wall of the mountain and see the _Hall_
going by once a week or so between Hookena and the hills of Pele, or the
schooners plying up the coast for wood and ava and bananas.
When they had viewed all, Keawe and Lopaka sat on the porch.
"Well," asked Lopaka, "is it all as you designed?"
"Words cannot utter it," said Keawe. "It is better than I dreamed, and I
am sick with satisfaction."
"There is but one thing to consider," said Lopaka; "all this may be
quite natural, and the bottle imp have nothing whatever to say to it. If
I were to buy the bottle, and got no schooner after all, I should have
put my hand in the fire for nothing. I gave you my word, I know; but yet
I think you would not grudge me one more proof."
"I have sworn I would take no more favours," said Keawe. "I have gone
already deep enough."
"This is no favour I am thinking of," replied Lopaka. "It is only to see
the imp himself. There is nothing to be gained by that, and so nothing
to be ashamed of; and yet, if I once saw him, I should be sure of the
whole matter. So indulge me so far, and let me see the imp; and, after
that, here is the money in my hand, and I will buy it."
"There is only one thing I am afraid of," said Keawe. "The imp may be
very ugly to view: and if you once set eyes upon him you might be very
undesirous of the bottle."
"I am a man of my word," said Lopaka. "And here is the money betwixt
us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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