“John had got the whole crowd dispersed to go and cut wood for the lime pits (you know he is of a rather practical turn of mind and likes to utilize the most unlikely occasions), which they did with great energy, having the steam up; so she was left alone, as the women had all to run and cook food. I had a grand donation for the labourers besides the tea, that day, as we had a calf killed the evening before, and I was giving orders about it when I saw John waving me to the study with such an amused face. It seems that Hutshi’s _old_ sweetheart had rushed to him in eager haste, saying, ‘Missi, I never will have such a chance for a wife! Will you marry me to Hutshi, if I untie her?’ John said he certainly could not, and that if he took her it must be _à la Native_, and that he would have to discontinue his attendance at the Candidates’ Class, of which he was a member. He explained, at the same time, that it was not like running away with another man’s wife, as her behaviour (which in Britain would have divorced her) had led her husband to give her up; only that, for the sake of example, he could not countenance such proceedings on the part of intending Communicants. Sarra said, in that case he would have nothing to do with her. But, alas, female influence prevailed, and he unloosed her an hour or two after, amid the Hurrahs of the passers-by and our intense though secret delight; for though Sarra is obliged to confess he has ‘caught a Tartar,’ yet he manages to keep her in tolerable check, being a determined fellow.
“We heartily re-echoed the sentiments of one of our Church members, when speaking of Hutshi, viz., ‘that it was awful what a _woman_ could do, when she was bent upon mischief!’ Indeed, according to the Natives, we have her, along with the two murderers, to thank for those awful Earthquakes which nearly frightened us out of our senses, though on Aniwa very little damage accrued from them.
“The first, at least the first to speak of, occurred near midnight on the 28th March (the second anniversary of our Lena’s birth), and woke us up with a vengeance, being the worst we ever had, the Earth heaving so awfully that we expected every moment to be swallowed up, and were almost paralyzed with terror, but M. and F. slept through it all. After it, _a tremendous_ rush of the sea seemed to take place, from the noise it made, and which we found next morning was the case, carrying our boat from where it lay, high and dry about one hundred yards inland, also canoes, two of which were smashed.
“I lay in awful terror after the Earthquake till three o’clock, and was dropping off to sleep, when another terrible one sent us flying out of the house in our night gowns, John dragging the children out of their beds, and the girls rushing out of their house. There was not a breath of wind, and it was awful to see in the bright moonlight the great trunks of the trees swaying back and forward, and to feel the ground going to and fro with such force. We had one or two slight ones after that, and then just at daybreak an awful repetition,—every one of us simultaneously rushing out of doors! This was number _five_; and before breakfast we went to see the damage done to the boat (but it was uninjured); and we had two more violent shocks ere we got home, making _seven_ in all before breakfast, after which we had a commotion of another kind.
“John felt so exhausted, and had just got fast asleep on the study sofa (a most unusual occurrence with him), when I heard high words between Taia, one of our Church members, and Nalihi, an Erromangan. I knew not what to do, for Natives never waste time on high words—they at once rush to arms; and I was unwilling to wake John to more excitement, as it was exactly that day two years since he had been seized with that awful fever, and I had been in fear of its return, as people predicted it would, about the same time of the year. Well, I actually made up my mind to show my wifely devotion,—and it was a good test for me, I beg leave to say, I always had such a foolish terror of a loaded musket anywhere, and infinitely more so in the hands of an enraged Savage,—by going between the combatants myself. To make matters worse, all the men about had gone that morning to bring lime-coral, and only a few women had collected, and one or two timid fellows who stood at a safe distance.