Koamalu : a story of pioneers on Kauai, and of what they built in that island garden / by Ethel M. Damon. [Vol. 1, no. 2]

EXPANDING INTERESTS

767

schweig, there had been homesick days aplenty, for no
one spoke a word of English-who would pay much
attention to a girl of fifteen? And the only ray of comfort
had been occasional permission to visit Tante Ehlers,
Mama's sister, who had been in Honolulu. She talked
English and had, oh, so many English books that one
could read. But after being in Gifhorn several months
the strangeness wore off and German began to seem quite
natural. In the fall of 1879, however, Papa had to go
back to the islands again, and, fearing that another winter might be too severe for Dora, decided to take her with
~him. Grandmother joined them at Cheyenne and came
on out to the islands for a visit with her children here.
Then there was Christmas together on Kauai and many
happy days in Aunt Anna's little house on King Street
in Honolulu. In April came a trip to the volcano, accompanied by her mother's girlhood friend of Koloa, Miss
Mary Burbank. And shortly afterward Grandmother
took Dora, greatly to her joy, back to Colorado Springs,
where Grandmother had her own house and where there
was Uncle George with the prairie wagon and the horses
and the streams full of trout.