"
"I'm trying not to."
"Oh, for that matter--" She tossed her head, opened her mouth to
complete the retort, then changed her mind. "I shall go on with my
history. Dad had practically nothing left, and he decided to return to
the sea. He'd always loved it, and I half believe that he was glad
things had happened as they did. He was like a boy again, busy with
plans and preparations from morning till night. He used to sit up half
the night talking things over with me. That was after I had shown him
that I was really resolved to go along.
"He had made his start, you know, in the South Seas--pearls and pearl
shell--and he was sure that more fortunes, in trove of one sort and
another, were to be picked up. Cocoanut-planting was his particular
idea, with trading, and maybe pearling, along with other things, until
the plantation should come into bearing. He traded off his yacht for a
schooner, the _Miele_, and away we went. I took care of him and studied
navigation. He was his own skipper. We had a Danish mate, Mr. Ericson,
and a mixed crew of Japanese and Hawaiians. We went up and down the Line
Islands, first, until Dad was heartsick. Everything was changed. They
had been annexed and divided by one power or another, while big companies
had stepped in and gobbled land, trading rights, fishing rights,
everything.
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