month; and time would show the result.

"Good!" said Toussaint. "Some of the finest crops I have seen have
risen from January plants, though it were best it were done in
September. How do you report about the rats?"

"The nuisance is still great," replied the head superintendent; "their
uninterrupted possession of the fields during the troubles has made them
very powerful. Would that your excellency were as powerful to conquer
the rats as the mulattoes!"

"We have allies," said Toussaint, gravely--"an army more powerful than
that which I command. Where are the ants!"

"They have closed their campaign. They cleared the fields for us in the
autumn; but they have disappeared."

"For a time only. While there are rats, they will reappear."

"And when there are no more rats, we must call in some force, if your
excellency knows of such, to make war upon the an Is; for they are only
a less evil than that which they cure."

"If they were absent, you would find some worse evil in their stead--
pestilence, perhaps. Teach your children this, if you hear them
complain of anything to which Providence has given life and an errand
among us. The cocoa walks at Plaisance--are they fenced to the north?"

"Completely. The new wood has sprung up from the ashes of the fires,
like a mist from the lake."

"Are the cottages enlarged and divided, as I recommended?"

"Universally. Every cottage inhabited by a family has now two rooms, at
least. As your excellency also desired, the cultivators have spent
their leisure hours in preparing furniture--from bedsteads to baskets.
As the reports will explain, there are some inventions which it is hoped
will be inspected by your excellency--particularly a ventilator, to be
fixed in the roofs of cottages; a broad shoe for walking over the salt
marshes; and--"

"The cooler," prompted a voice from behind.

"And a new kind of cooler, which preserves liquids, and even meats, for
a longer time than any previously known to the richest planter in the
island. This discovery does great credit to the sagacity of the
labourer who has completed it."

"I will come and view it. I hope to visit all our cultivators--to
verify your reports with my own eyes. At present, we are compelled,
like the Romans, to go from arms to the plough, and from the plough to
arms; but, when possible, I wish to show that I am not a negro of the
coast, with my eye ever abroad upon the sea, or on foreign lands. I