Page:Fairytales•Tregear•1891.pdf/68

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62
THE MAIDEN SWIMMER.

puted this and said that her favours were for the speaker then boasting, but Tu was the only one speaking truly when he declared that her affection was pledged to him. The others all laughed bitterly at this, saying, “It is likely that a low-born churl like you would be the favoured lover of such a haughty beauty as Hine.” But Tu told his father to remember hereafter what he had said, and in what manner his brothers and their friends had mocked him. For he had secretly made arrangements with the girl for her elopement to him, and agreed that he would sound a trumpet at a certain time every night so that she might guide her canoe in the direction of the sound. This promise was carried out by Tu, but Hine was unable to fulfil her part, for her friends suspected something unusual was intended and the canoes were kept hauled up on the beach at night. As time passed and she found herself unable to obtain a canoe, her feelings grew more impassioned, and, reckless with intense desire for her lover’s presence, she determined to try and swim across the broad belt of water separating her from her beloved. Casting herself into the lake she swam fearlessly on in the darkness, sometimes floating for awhile to rest, till she reached the stump of a tree standing in the water, whereon