the sea and they rolled soft jelly-fish round me to keep me from being roughly touched, and then the Ancient One of the Sea took me up and nursed me until I grew to manhood. Will you not give me a little love now, mother, as you have for so many years to my brothers?” Then his mother’s heart was sorrowful for all her harshness and forgetfulness of her youngest born, and from that day she loved him so much better than any of her other children that they grew quite jealous of the stranger, and called him all sorts of names such as “vagrant,” and “waif,” and “refuse of the sea.” But Maui, who was already very wise, proved to them how foolish as well as wicked it was for brothers to quarrel, and that it was the duty of everyone to do the best he could for others.
Now, Maui and his brothers were very much puzzled because their mother always left them just before the break of day. They would try to keep awake and see whither she went, but, she always managed to elude them and disappear just at dawn. The elder brothers were quite tired out with trying to find out where she went, but cunning little Maui one night plugged up all the crevices and chinks of the house and made the door and window quite dark so that no light could enter the house. At last she felt
