and Li helped with the early preparations. They dug a deep pit in which a pig would be roasted.

“Anything else we can do, sir?” Biff asked.

“Not now, Biff,” his Hawaiian friend replied.

“Then how about a swim, Li?” Biff inquired.

“Want to try real surfing this morning?” Li asked.

“Do I! Let’s go.”

Since Biff had arrived, the boys had swum before breakfast, after breakfast, and practically all their free time. Li was an expert swimmer, especially under water. At first, Biff became worried when his new friend dived and seemed to remain under water long past the safety point. But always, Li’s laughing face would break the water just when Biff was about to dive for him.

Biff and Li hit the water and swam out into the ocean with powerful strokes. Biff was just a bit faster than Li. They took the plunge first to loosen up their muscles and became accustomed to the water. Next they tackled the surfboards.

Li swam most of the way back under water.

“You still worry me, Li. I don’t know how you can hold your breath that long,” Biff remarked as the boys walked up the beach.

“Just practice, Biff. I’ve been doing it since I could walk, I guess. Dad tells me I could swim before I could walk.”

The boys paused to watch an outrigger come plunging toward the shore atop a long, rolling wave.

The outrigger was being paddled furiously by two Hawaiian boys. On one side of the canoe, its outrigging extended out in two arching arms, connected by a buoyant float of wiliwili wood to give the slender canoe more stability.

The canoe ground ashore, and its laughing passengers scrambled out.

“All set, Biff? Ready to make a real try at it today?”

“By me that’s fine. I think I almost got the knack of it yesterday.”

“When it comes to you, it comes all of a sudden. You just sort of feel it.”

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