Chapter 52 five two

The next three years were, I think, the happiest of Strickland's life.Aita's house is eight kilometers away from the road around the island. To get there, you need to walk a narrow path covered in the shade of the tropical jungle.This is a bungalow made of wood with a verandah. There are two rooms in total, and there is a small shed used as a kitchen outside the house.There is no furniture in the room, and mats are spread on the floor for beds.There was only one rocking chair on the verandah. The plantain tree grew right up to the house; its huge leaves were tattered like the rags of a doomed queen.There is a pear tree behind the house, and coconut trees that can be sold for money are planted around the house.Ata's father had planted a ring of crotons around the property; these crotons now grew densely and bloomed like a wall of flames around the coconut grove.In addition, there is a mango tree facing the house, and there are two sister trees beside the open space in front of the house, with fiery red flowers blooming, competing with the golden coconut trees of the coconut tree.

Strickland lived off the produce of the field, and seldom visited Papeete.There is a small river not far from where he lives, and he often takes a bath in it.Sometimes schools of fish appeared in the river, and the natives came from everywhere with spears, and made a great noise to bring up the great frightened harpoons that were swimming out to sea.Strickland also went to the beach sometimes, and always came back with a basket of small fish of all colors.Ata fried the fish in coconut oil, sometimes with a giant prawn, and she often made him a delicious plate of crabs, which crawled under your feet and could be caught with your hands. live.There were wild orange trees growing on the hill; occasionally Ata would go up the hill with two or three female companions from the village, and they would always come back with loads of small green oranges, fragrant and luscious.Soon after, the coconuts are ripe and it's time to pick them.Ata's cousins, cousins ​​(like all the natives, her relatives were too numerous to count) climbed the trees in droves and threw down the big ripe coconuts.They split up the coconuts and put them in the sun to dry.After drying, take out the coconut meat and put it in a cloth bag.The women carry sacks of copra to traders in a village near the lagoon, in exchange for rice, soap, canned meat and a little money.Sometimes when there is a celebration banquet in a neighboring village, pigs must be slaughtered.The people in the neighborhood flocked there, dancing, singing hymns, eating and drinking so much that everyone was about to vomit.

But their house is far away from the nearby villages, and Tahitians don't like to move around.They love to travel, they love to chat, they just don't like to walk.Sometimes no one came to Strickland and Ata's house for weeks at a time.Strickland painted, read, and after dark sat on the verandah with Ata, smoking and looking at the sky.Ata later bore him a child.An old lady who came to serve her when she gave birth stayed and never left.Soon, a granddaughter of the old woman came to live with them, and then a young man came here, no one knew where this person came from, who he was related to, and he settled here without any worries.In this way they gradually became a big family.