Kopiolani Imagines Her Samoan Dolly

       Swish! A great wave is just curling over its crest ere it breaks and falls. A shriek‚ then several more. Crash! The wave has broken, and comes swirling up the beach as it bubbles and boils in masses of white froth. Yell after yell of laughter, as a number of little laughing children scramble to their feet and grab at their small boards ere the receding wave sucks them back into the sea again. That is the scene I am watching as I sit with my back against a rock, high and dry above the reach of the incoming tide.

       For I am a little Samoan dolly, and a lot of boys and girls from our village are playing at their favorite game of surf-riding. Every one of them is a wonderful swimmer, and this is one of the favorite games. My owner is that lovely bright-eyed girl who has just plunged into the sea again with her board, and her name is Kopiolani. Let us watch. There she goes, making her way through the water as easily as if she were walking on dry land, with her little board held in front of her in one hand. Now‚ see how she is waiting there, in the rough sea, for a big wave to come along. Ah, here it is! Yes, it has caught her up and is racing her towards the shore at a great rate. Crash! how it thundered down! And there is Kopiolani, high and dry upon the sand, laughing as she wipes the water from her face and brushes back her drenching hair. Yes, she has had enough of it now, and is coming towards the rock where she left me before entering the sea.

       Though I am far from beautiful, as you would consider beauty‚ being only cut from a block of wood and quite roughly painted to represent a human face‚ yet I appear to Kopiolani as a very lovable doll indeed, and she makes her way straight back to my resting-place. Up she gathers me in her arms, and, with a whole crowd of other girls who have been surf-riding, we set out to search the rock pools, etc., that are still uncovered by the incoming tide. And what a wonderland this all is, for the whole shore is covered with shells and treasures, as well as small crabs and pieces of coral and seaweed. Kopiolani is very keen on the shells, for she is very busily collecting enough of one particular kind to make a necklace for me. She herself always wears one, and has been trying for a long time to gather enough tiny wee ones of the same kind of shell to make one for me. I have never had a real necklace of my own before, although Kopiolani has often made me one from the different gorgeous flowers that grow so abundantly on all hands in Samoa. To-day she is very lucky, for the strongly running seas have brought immense quantities of shells with them, and debris of all kinds, and she is continually stooping down and picking up another and another, as her sharp eyes spot them lying on the sand. At last the tide comes in so far that all the girls have to return to the spot from which they were surf-riding, and by this time the sun has completely dried their hair and bodies, so that they can proceed to dress. Samoa is a land of continual summer, so that much clothing would be unnecessary, and the girls all wear a skirt that extends from the shoulders to the knees, just the same way that my own dress does. Although I have told you so much of the playtime doings, you must not suppose that Kopiolani does nothing but play, for she has to go to school and perform many other duties.

       For instance, there is water to be fetched, and this is carried in very remarkable bottles made from coconut shells. First of all, a small hole is cut in the top of the nut, and then a number of sharp stones are put inside, and the nut shaken and shaken until all the soft kernel is removed. A cork to stop the hole is then made, from banana leaves rolled tightly together. Often and often I have been with Kopiolani to the stream with a string of these quaint bottles to fill, and as we return she generally picks a flower to stick in her hair, and then one for me. As we come home, she sings, all the way, a lovely " Sleep, Dolly," song, so that at last, when the darkness falls and we are ready to go to bed, we are both as sleepy, as sleepy can be.