s of Paul gave notice of the disaster; and then Virginia would suppress
her complaints when she found that Paul was unhappy. When I came hither, I
usually found them quite naked, which is the custom of this country,
tottering in their walk, and holding each other by the hands and under the
arms, as we represent the constellation of the Twins. At night these
infants often refused to be separated, and were found lying in the same
cradle, their cheeks, their bosoms pressed close together, their hands
thrown round each other's neck, and sleeping, locked in one another's arms.

"When they began to speak, the first names they learnt to give each other
were those of brother and sister, and childhood knows no softer
appellation. Their education served to augment their early friendship, by
directing it to the supply of their reciprocal wants. In a short time, all
that regarded the household economy, the care of preparing the rural
repasts, became the task of Virginia, whose labours were always crowned
with the praises and kisses of her brother. As for Paul, always in motion,
he dug the garden with Domingo, or followed him with a little hatchet into
the woods, where, if in his rambles he espied a beautiful flower, fine
fruit, or a nest of birds, even at the top of a tree, he climbed up, and
brought it home to his sister.

"When you met with one of these children, you might be sure the other was
not distant. One day, coming down that mountain, I saw Virginia at the end
of the garden, running toward the house, with her petticoat thrown over her
head, in order to screen herself from a shower of rain. At a distance, I
thought she was alone; but as I hastened towards her, in order to help her
on, I perceived that she held Paul by the arm, who was almost entirely
enveloped in the same cavity, and both were laughing heartily at being
sheltered together under an umbrella of their own invention. Those two
charming faces, placed within the petticoat, swelled by the wind, recalled
to my mind the children of Leda, enclosed within the same shell.

"Their sole study was how to please and assist each other; for of all other
things they were ignorant, and knew neither how to read nor write. They
were never disturbed by researches into past times, nor did their curiosity
extend beyond the bounds of that mountain. They believed the world ended at
the shores of their own island, and all their ideas and affections were
confined within its limits. Th