Feet of rain fall here in the year the air is
not damp. Wet clothes hung up in the verandah even during rain, dry
rapidly, and a substance so sensitive to damp as botanical paper
does not mildew.
I met Deborah on horseback near Onomea, and she told me that the
Austins were expecting me, and so I spent three days very pleasantly
with them on my way here.
I.L.B.
That old Kilauea has just come in, and has brought the English mail,
and a United States mail, an event which sets Hilo agog. Then for a
few hours its still, drowsy life becomes galvanized, and people
really persuade themselves that they have something to do, and all
the foreigners write letters hastily, or add postscripts to those
already written, and lose the mail, and rush down frantically to the
beach to send their late letters by favour of the obliging purser.
The mail to-day was an event to me, as it has brought your long-
looked-for letters.
LETTER XXVII.
HILO. June 1.
Mr. and Mrs. Severance and I have just returned from a three-days'
expedition to Puna in the south of Hawaii, and I preferred their
agreeable company even to solitude! My sociable Kahele was also
pleased, and consequently behaved very well.
