r; he turned hand-springs the rest of the way.

"Breakfast!"

I thought I would make one more effort to get some conversation out of
this being.

"Have you called the Reverend, or are--"

"Yes s'r!"

"Is it early, or is--"

"Eight-five."

"Do you have to do all the 'chores,' or is there somebody to give
you a--"

"Colored girl."

"Is there only one parish in this island, or are there--"

"Eight!"

"Is the big church on the hill a parish church, or is it--"

"Chapel-of-ease!"

"Is taxation here classified into poll, parish, town, and--"

"Don't know!"

Before I could cudgel another question out of my head, he was below,
hand-springing across the back yard. He had slid down the balusters,
headfirst. I gave up trying to provoke a discussion with him. The
essential element of discussion had been left out of him; his answers
were so final and exact that they did not leave a doubt to hang
conversation on. I suspect that there is the making of a mighty man or a
mighty rascal in this boy--according to circumstances--but they are going
to apprentice him to a carpenter. It is the way the world uses its
opportunities.

During this day and the next we took carriage drives about the island and
over to the town of St. George's, fifteen or twenty miles away. Such
hard, excellent roads to drive over are not to be found elsewhere out of
Europe. An intelligent young colored man drove us, and acted as
guide-book. In the edge of the town we saw five or six mountain-cabbage
palms (atrocious name!) standing in a straight row, and equidistant from
each other. These were not the largest or the tallest trees I have ever
seen, but they were the stateliest, the most majestic. That row of them
must be the nearest that nature has ever come to counterfeiting a
colonnade. These trees are all the same height, say sixty feet; the
trunks as gray as granite, with a very gradual and perfect taper; without
sign of branch or knot or flaw; the surface not looking like bark, but
like granite that has been dressed and not polished. Thus all the way up
the diminishing shaft for fifty feet; then it begins to take the
appearance of being closely wrapped, spool-fashion, with gray cord, or of
having been turned in a lathe. Above this point there is an outward
swell, and thence upward for six feet or more the cylinder is a bright,
fresh green, and is formed of wrappings like those of an ear of green
Indian corn. Then comes the gre