pon the dark branches of the trees, from which they are easily
distinguished by their gray and greenish skin, and their black visages.
Some hang, suspended by the tail, and swing themselves in air; others
leap from branch to branch, bearing their young in their arms. The
murderous gun has never affrighted these peaceful children of nature.
You hear nothing but sounds of joy,--the warblings and unknown notes of
birds from the countries of the south, repeated from a distance by the
echoes of the forest. The river, which pours, in foaming eddies, over
a bed of rocks, through the midst of the woods, reflects here and there
upon its limpid waters their venerable masses of verdure and of shade,
along with the sports of their happy inhabitants. About a thousand paces
from thence it forms several cascades, clear as crystal in their fall,
but broken at the bottom into frothy surges. Innumerable confused sounds
issue from these watery tumults, which, borne by the winds across the
forest, now sink in distance, now all at once swell out, booming on the
ear like the bells of a cathedral. The air, kept ever in motion by
the running water, preserves upon the banks of the river, amid all the
summer heats, a freshness and verdure rarely found in this island, even
on the summits of the mountains.

At some distance from this place is a rock, placed far enough from the
cascade to prevent the ear from being deafened with the noise of its
waters, and sufficiently near for the enjoyment of seeing it, of feeling
its coolness, and hearing its gentle murmurs. Thither, amidst the heats
of summer, Madame de la Tour, Margaret, Virginia, Paul, and myself,
sometimes repaired, to dine beneath the shadow of this rock. Virginia,
who always, in her most ordinary actions, was mindful of the good of
others, never ate of any fruit in the fields without planting the seed
or kernel in the ground. "From this," said she, "trees will come, which
will yield their fruit to some traveller, or at least to some bird."
One day, having eaten of the papaw fruit at the foot of that rock, she
planted the seeds on the spot. Soon after, several papaw trees sprang
up, among which was one with female blossoms, that is to say, a
fruit-bearing tree. This tree, at the time of Virginia's departure, was
scarcely as high as her knee; but, as it is a plant of rapid growth, in
the course of two years it had gained the height of twenty feet, and
the upper part of its stem was encircled