Or myriad hosts of microscopic creatures--the Red Sea
owes to the tribe its name--the multitudinous sea dully incarnadine; or
the boat rides buoyantly on the shoulders of Neptune's white horses, while
funnel-shaped water spouts sway this way and that. Land is always near,
and the flotsam and jetsam, do they not supply that smack of
excitement--if not the boisterous hope--bereft of which life might seem
"always afternoon?"
These chronicles are toned from first to last by perceptions which came
to the Beachcomber--perceptions which lead, mayhap, to a subdued and sober
estimate of the purpose and bearing of the pilgrimage of life. Doubts
become exalted and glorified, hopes all rapture, when long serene days
are spent alone in the contemplation of the splendours of sky and sea,
and the enchantment of tropic shores.
TROPICAL INDUSTRIES
Was there not an explicit contract that some of the experiences and
events of a settler's life should be duly described and recorded? How to
fulfil that obligation and at the same time avoid what is ordinarily
regarded as the dull and prosaic, the stale, the flat, the unprofitable,
is the trouble. I would gladly shirk even this small responsibility, even
as greater ones have been outmanoeuvred, but a written promise
unfulfilled may be troublesome to a conscience, which, when reminiscent
of ante-beachcombing days, is not altogether unimpressionable.
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