Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/24

4 were already prepared. "Then you've been up here before?"

"No, sir, I haven't been anywhere but to Hilo and to the great volcano. I had a chance to take the trip to Hilo on a lumber boat, and I took it, just to take a run up to Kilauea. My, but that volcano is a grand sight!" and the boy shook his head enthusiastically.

"It's the greatest volcano in the world. Evidently you like to travel around."

"I do."

"You're an American, I take it?"

"Yes, sir, and I guess you are, too."

"Yes, but I'm not from the States. I came from Canada. I've been in the Sandwich Islands eight years now, doing one thing and another. I used to have a restaurant down in Honolulu, but the Chinese cut me out of my trade, and so I thought I'd try my luck up here. But business is awfully dull. Everybody said it would be better after the monarchy was overthrown and we had set up our own republic, but I don't find it so."

"I guess they are going to annex Hawaii to the United States—at least, I heard them talk about it in San Francisco, and down in Honolulu."