Aloha Love Read Online Free PDF

when the new teachers come, I will think about letting you go to their school.”
    He’d pleased his family and told himself he would seriously consider it. Pansy’s sister-in-law and niece would likely have the same sweet, loving, gentle nature that Pansy had.

Seven
    October 1889, Hawaii
    “Focus on the horizon,” Jane and the other passengers were told by the captain. “That will get you accustomed to solid ground again. Just like you had to get your sea legs, you’ll now have to get your land legs back.”
    Jane didn’t worry about that. She was ready for land. During those first few days of travel, she had taken care of the others, putting cold cloths on Matilda’s and Pilar’s heads when they had come down with bad cases of seasickness.
    Now, she stood at the railing, focused on the horizon for that first glimpse of land. Once it first appeared like a pencil line across the ocean, it always reappeared, no matter how high the waves.
    “Like oil,” Jane said, glancing at the faces of Matilda and Pilar, who looked as excited as she felt. “No matter how much water, the oil keeps rising to the top.”
    “And often looks like a rainbow of color,” Matilda said.
    “Speaking of rainbows, look.” A rainbow of colors more vivid than she had ever imagined made a halo over the ocean and that speck of land.
    So this was her first glimpse of Hawaii. Swept away like an ocean wave was any concern or fatigue of that long, wearisome, boring, sometimes perilous voyage.
    A sparkling deep blue sea splashed up against high jagged rocks. As they drew nearer, mountainsides of brilliant green appeared, then palm trees. Their tall, slender trunks rose into the clearest blue sky she’d ever seen. The tops of the trees were crowned by fan-shaped leaves, reminding her of peacocks proudly spreading their tail feathers.
    “Oh, that aroma,” Jane said.
    Matilda laughed. “It’s certainly not of cattle droppings and horses.”
    Jane and Pilar laughed, too. As much as Jane enjoyed the smell of horses, she was delighted with this mixture of heady yet delicate flower scents. She’d never thought about smelling an island. She supposed travelers to Texas might think it had the odor of cattle and oil.
    “Oh, look.” Pilar said, pressing her hand against her heart. “They’re getting into canoes and coming out here. Are they—” Her face screwed up like a tight fist. “Are they going to attack us?”
    “Of course not.” Matilda scoffed.
    Pilar wasn’t convinced. “Mr. Buckley said they’re uncivilized. And Miss Matilda, in our history lessons on the way over here, you said they killed Captain Cook.”
    Matilda scoffed again. “You would have failed if I had given you a test on it, Pilar. That was more than a hundred years ago. And the people thought he was a god and couldn’t die. I doubt they’re going to think we are gods.” She laughed.
    Jane smiled and looked out at the big brown men, their muscles bulging as they rowed, moving through the water faster than the ship. “Aunt Matilda,” she said timidly. “Those men are wearing skirts and necklaces.”
    Matilda patted Jane’s hand that was clinging to the ship’s railing. “Those are costumes, dear. Pansy wrote about them. These men are greeters. They don’t always dress like that. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise. And those things around their necks are not called necklaces. Pansy wrote me all about it. Those are. . .” She stood thoughtful for a moment, holding her hat against the sudden swift breeze. “Pansy spelled it l-e-i-s. I suppose they’re called lee-eyes.”
    “ Aloha, Aloha, Komo mai ,” the rowers called. The passengers waved and yelled, “Hello and thank you.”
    “Don’t they speak English?” Jane asked.
    “Pansy said English is the official language,” Matilda said. “But they like to give a Hawaiian greeting.”
    The rowers escorted the boat to the wharf, where passengers disembarked down the gangway.