His Mistake !

IT was told me by one of the best known Cook Islands identities.

“Yes, my boy,” he said, “I’ve traded right through from the Solomons to the Marquesas. Exciting job in the Solo mons? Too right! In those days you had to keep your wits about you. to keep one jump ahead of the stew-pot!

“I well remember one night. I was sit ting in the house reading, and waiting for my dinner, when I heard my wife approaching along the verandah. Sud denly I was startled by a scream and the crash of falling crockery.

“Grabbing my gun and rushing out, I found mv wife unhurt, but pinned to the wall, by her dress, by a quivering arrow.

“I jumped to the verandah rail and roared, ’Hey! You s! What the hell do you well think you’re doing of?’ That shook them up a bit!” (Author’s note: I can quite believe it!) “There was silence for a moment.

Then a voice called from the darkness — in native, of course: ‘Oh! Sorry, boss!

We thought it was the missionary’s

wife!’

W.S.B.