Reminiscences of A Match-

Maker

By Pereti

IT was one of those pleasantly cool evenings, and my friend and I were sitting on my verandah, overlooking the lagoon. We had dined and wined in reasonably good fashion, and this maybe put me Into a reminiscent mood.

From where we were sitting" we could dimly see a native preparing to push off from the beach in his canoe, evidently intent on catching his morning meal.

I recognised him as Kaitoa, one of my local lads. Rather a good specimen, too. Tall and well built for his age, which would be round about twenty, and with a happy and cheerful personality.

“You know,” I remarked, “it’s strange, how things work out. I’ve just been thinking that if it hadn’t been for me, there wouldn’t be a Kaitoa going out fishing tonight.”

"What happened?” asked my friend. “Did you save his life some time?”

“Oh, no,” I answered, “nothing as simple as that. It was more a case of a joke going the right or wrong way, according to your point of view.

“I was living on Aitutaki at the time and I became rather amused over the behaviour of my house girl, Paere. She hud apparently fallen in a big way for one of the boys over in the copra shed—Teina by name, a bit of a harum-scarum, but for all that a really good and likeable lad. I would perhaps, catch Paere resting comfortably on a broom, with a faraway look in her eyes.

“ ‘Come on,’ I would admonish, ‘what about the sweeping? What about forgetting Teina for a little while?' “Then she would giggle and blush, deny all thoughts of Teina and come back to earth.

“Sometimes I would catch them having a whispering confab at the back of the house and I’d have to pretend to be stern and send them about their respective tasks. Actu ally I thought their affair was pro gressing very nicely, until one day Teina came to me looking rather worried.

“It appeared the schooner was going to’ Malden Island very shortly with a commission to take 50 Aitutaki boys to work the guano deposits. The company were offer ing exceptionally good* wages, more than I could afford to pay, and Teina was tempted to go.

“ ‘Yes,’ I advised him, ‘go by all means. There’ll be a good job here

when you come back. It’s only for 12 months, and,’ I added with a smile, TTI keep an eye on Paere for you.’

“So in due course Teina departed for Malden. 1 little reckoned that my part of the bargain was going to be so difficult. Out of sight out of mind was the story, and ‘keeping an eye’ on Paere developed into al most a full-time occupation.

“My chief worry, after a while concentrated on Tiko, a handsome young devil from a neighbouring plantation. The way that lad could strum a guitar and croon a melody was in itself enough to do funny things to any poor girl’s heart, and although I tried to keep him away from the house,' I felt it a losing battle, with Teina’s chances slipping badly.

“It so happened that about six months later I took a trip around the northern group on the schooner's regular run, calling in at Malden to drop some stores. Ashore I was greeted by Teina, and one of his first questions was ‘How is Paere?’

" ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘she’s fine. Always talking about you.’

“ 'Why she not write to me?’ he wanted to know. This I laughed off with the remark, 'I guess she’s too busy keeping my house clean.’

“Teina seemed happy enough with this. But I thought, afterwards, ‘Why the devil I should have be come an interfering matchmaker beats me.’

“Back on Aitutaki things had deteriorated still further, and there was no doubt Tiko had made the most of my absence. I would some times say to Paere: 'Look out when Teina comes back,’ but most of my remarks were met with just an enigmatical smile, and I felt that: my efforts on Teina’s behalf were of not much avail.

“A short time later Brown, my neighbour, called to see me one night. In the course of conversation he happened to mention he was sending a dozen of his boys across to Manuae Island to gather copra.

“ ‘Like to do me a favour?’ I asked.

“ ‘lf I can,’ he answered.

“ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘what about includ ing Tiko in the gang?’

“I then explained the whole silly business, and how I’d somehow be come the champion of Teina’s cause.

Brown thought it rather a joke, but he co-operated, with the outcome that Tiko was wangled out of the scene.

“Paere seemed a little broken hearted at first, so I started some subtle propaganda. Teina was due back shortly, so I casually men tioned the big, fat, pay cheque he would have, and also said something about making him a foreman when he returned to me. Then I’d say what a fine chap he was and, in general gave him a pretty good build up, “I think a good deal of it must have registered, for on the day the schooner from Malden was sighted beating up to the island, Paere, with best dress on, was observed well in the foreground of the crowd wait ing on the jetty.

“Well,” I concluded, “this is really a fairy book story, for after a hint to Teina that he should not waste too much time for (I was secretly rather afraid of Tiko’s return), the day came when I lost a good house girl, and at the same time had to find a wedding present. Strange to say, they lived happily ever after.”

“Wait a minute,” remarked my friend. “What has all this to do with Kaitoa out there?”

“Let me finish,” I said. “You see, I brought Kaitoa over from Aitutaki a couple of years ago. He happens, to be their eldest son.”