All Balmy From The Groves Of Tahiti Came An Indolent Air, Cooled By
Its Transit Over The Waters; And Grateful Underfoot Was The Damp And
Slightly Yielding Beach, From Which The Waves Seemed Just Retired.
The doctor was in famous spirits; removing his Koora, he went
splashing into the sea; and, after swimming a few yards, waded
ashore, hopping, skipping, and jumping along the beach; but very
careful to cut all his capers in the direction of our journey.
Say what they will of the glowing independence one feels in the
saddle, give me the first morning flush of your cheery pedestrian!
Thus exhilarated, we went on, as light-hearted and care-free as we
could wish.
And here I cannot refrain from lauding the very superior inducements
which most intertropical countries afford, not only to mere rovers
like ourselves, but to penniless people generally. In these genial
regions one's wants are naturally diminished; and those which remain
are easily gratified; fuel, house-shelter, and, if you please,
clothing, may be entirely dispensed with.
How different our hard northern latitudes! Alas! the lot of a "poor
devil," twenty degrees north of the tropic of Cancer, is indeed
pitiable.
At last, the. beach contracted to hardly a yard's width, and the dense
thicket almost dipped into the sea. In place of the smooth sand, too,
we had sharp fragments of broken coral, which made travelling
exceedingly unpleasant. "Lord! my foot!" roared the doctor, fetching
it up for inspection, with a galvanic fling of the limb.
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