rp acclivity. Bridget, with her light active step,
and great eagerness to behold a scene that Mark had described with so
much eloquence, was the first, by a quarter of an hour, on the plain.
When the others reached the top, they saw the charming young thing
running about in the nearest grove, that in which her husband had dined,
collecting fruit, and apparently as enchanted as a child. Mark paused as
he gained the height, to gaze on this sight, so agreeable in his eyes,
and which rendered the place so very different from what it had been so
recently, while he was in possession of its glorious beauties, a
solitary man. Then, he had several times likened himself to Adam in the
garden of Eden, before woman was given to him for a companion. Now, now
he could feast his eyes on an Eve, who would have been highly attractive
in any part of the world.

The articles brought up on the plain, at this first trip, comprised all
that was necessary to prepare and to partake of a breakfast in comfort.
A fire was soon blazing, the kettle on, and the bread-fruit baking. It
was almost painful to destroy the reed-birds, or _becca fichi_ so
numerous were they, and so confiding. One discharge from each barrel of
the fowling-piece had enabled Heaton to bring in enough for the whole
party, and these were soon roasting. Mark had brought with him from the
Reef a basket of fresh eggs, and they had been Bridget's load, in
ascending the mountain. He had promised her an American breakfast, and
these eggs, boiled, did serve to remind everybody of a distant home,
that was still remembered with melancholy pleasure. A heartier, or a
happier meal, notwithstanding, was never made than was that breakfast.
The mountain air, invigorating though bland, the exercise, the absence
of care, the excellence of the food, which comprised fresh figs, a tree
or two of tolerable sweetness having been found, the milk of the
cocoa-nut, the birds, the eggs, the bread-fruit, &c., all contributed
their share to render the meal memorable.

The men, and the three labouring women, were employed two days in
getting the cargo of the Neshamony up on the plain; or to Eden, as
Bridget named the spot, unconscious how often she herself had been
likened to a lovely Eve, in the mind of her young husband. Two of the
marquees had been brought, and were properly erected, having board
floors, and everything comfortably arranged within and without them. A
roof, however, was scarcely necessar