CHAPTER II

    GRORGE:  A mixed character
    YAB-oo-RAGOO:  Otherwise “Mickie”
    Tom:  His wives:  His Battles
    “Little Jinny”:  In life and in death
    the language test
    last of the line

CHAPTER III

    Attributes and anecdotes
    common and individual rights
    the “Debil-debil”
    Clothing superfluous
    brother and sister
    the rainbow
    swimming feats
    smoke signals
    thunder factory
    the Oracle
    A real letter
    A black degenerate
    jumped at A conclusion
    pride of race
    “Yankee Charley”
    MYALL’S baking
    everything for A name
    the Knightly growth
    honour and glory
    fire jump up
    slop teeth
    A fascinated boy
    awkward cross-examination
    the only rock
    saw the joke
    zebra’s vanity
    Laura’s traits
    royal blankets
    his daily bread
    human nature
    an apt Retort
    missis’s trousers
    dull-witted
    strategy
    literal truth
    magic that did not work
    anti-climax
    little fella creek sailor
    A fateful bargain
    excusable bias
    the trial scene
    A reflection on the horse
    Triumph of matter over mind
    the Ruse that failed
    the big word
    Mickie’s version
    honourable Johnny
    the transformation
    money-making trick
    honourable chastisement
    “And you too”
    Paradise

CHAPTER IV

    And this our life

* * * * *

PART I

THE CONFESSIONS OF A BEACHCOMBER

INTRODUCTION

Does the fact that a weak mortal sought an unprofaned sanctuary—­an island removed from the haunts of men—­and there dwelt in tranquillity, happiness and security, represent any just occasion for the relation of his experiences—­experiences necessarily out of the common?  To this proposition it will be for these pages to find answer.

Few men of their own free will seek seclusion, for does not man belong to the social vertebrates, and do not the instincts of the many rule?  And when an individual is fain to acknowledge himself a variant from the type, and his characteristics or idiosyncrasies (as you will) to be so marked as to impel him to deem them sound and reasonable; when, after sedate and temperate ponderings upon all the aspects of voluntary exile as affecting his lifetime partner as well as himself, he deliberately puts himself out of communion with his fellows, does the experiment constitute him a messenger?  Can there be aught of entertainment or instruction in the message he may fancy himself called upon to deliver? or, is the fancy merely another phase of the tyranny of temperament?