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“He meant so far as size went, but George took it the other way, and there was more trouble. Finally Julius come to the rescue.

“‘I tell you,’ says he. ‘We’ll be square and draw straws!’

“‘W’at?’ hollers George. ‘Well, I guess not!’

“‘And I’ll hold the straws,’ says Jule, winking on the side.

“So they drew straws, and, strange as it may seem, Rosy got stuck. He cried all night, and though the others tried to comfort him, telling him what a lucky man he was to marry a queen, he wouldn’t cheer up a mite.

“And next day the wedding took place in the temple in front of a wood idol with three rows of teeth, and as ugly almost as the bride, which was saying a good deal. And when ’twas over, the three shipmates come and congratulated the groom, wishing him luck and a happy honeymoon and such. Oh, they had a bully time, and they was still laughing over it that night after supper, when down comes a file of big darkies with spears, the Kanaka interpreter leading ’em.

“‘Cappy,’ says he. ‘The king say you no stay in this house no more. He say too good for you. Say, bimeby, when the place been clean up, maybe he use it himself. You got to go.’

“‘Who says this?’ roars Cap’n George, ugly as could be.

“‘The king, he say it.’

“‘The queen, you mean. There ain’t no king.’

“‘Yes, sir. King AND queen now. Mr. Rosy he king. All tribe proud to have witch king.’

“The three looked at each other.

“‘Do you mean to say,’ says the skipper, choking so he could hardly speak, ‘that we’ve got to take orders from ‘IM?’

“‘Yes, sir. King say you no mind, we make.’

“Well, sir, the language them three used must have been something awful, judging by Jule’s tell. But when they vowed they wouldn’t move, the spears got busy and out they had to get and into the meanest, dirtiest little hut in the village, one without hardly any sides and great holes in the roof. And there they stayed all night in a pouring rain, the kind of rains you get in them islands.

“‘Twa’n’t a nice night. They tried huddling together to keep dry, but ‘twa’n’t a success because there was always a row about who should be in the middle. Then they kept passing personal remarks to one another.

“‘If the skipper hadn’t been so gay and uppish about choosing Rosy,’ says Julius, ‘there wouldn’t have been no trouble. I do hate a smart Aleck.’

“‘Who said draw straws?’ sputters George, mad clean through. ‘And who ‘eld ’em? ‘Ey? Who did?’

“‘Well,’ says Teunis, ‘I didn’t do it. You can’t blame me.’

“‘No. You set there like a bump on a log and let me and the mate put our feet in it. You old fat ‘ead! I–‘

“They pitched into the cook until he got mad and hit the skipper. Then there was a fight that lasted till they was all scratched up and tired out. The only thing they could agree on was that Rosy was what the skipper called a ‘viper’ that they’d nourished in their bosoms.

“Next morning ’twas worse than ever. Down comes the Kanaka with his spear gang and routs ’em out and sets ’em to gathering breadfruit all day in the hot sun. And at night ’twas back to the leaky hut again.

“And that wa’n’t nothing to what come later. The lives that King Rosy led them three was something awful. ‘Twas dig in and work day in and day out. Teunis had to get his majesty’s meals, and nothing was ever cooked right; and then the royal army got after the steward with spear handles. Cap’n George had to clean up the palace every day, and Rosy and the queen–who was dead gone on her witch husband, and let him do anything he wanted to–stood over him and found fault and punched him with sharp sticks to see him jump. And Julius had to fetch and carry and wait, and get on his knees whenever he spoke to the king, and he helped up again with a kick, like as not.