my attendant telling me that
the gardener had an important communication to make. I bade him enter.
He came to make known to me that my labours had been so far successful,
that, in the vase of earth in which the seed had been planted, a little
white bud was bursting from the ground. He brought the vase in his arms,
and I will not deny that I shed tears of joy.

About three years from that time, to my delight, fruit made its
appearance. I watched with greedy eagerness the day when it would ripen.

I cannot tell you with what anxiety I tended its growth. I fancy at this
moment I feel the heart-beatings that always accompanied me as I
approached the spot where the plant was placed.

The gardener, desiring to save me some of the pain of deferred hope,
told me that the time of ripening would be later than I had anticipated.

A little in advance, however, of the time I had foretold, the gardener
entered my study, with a face radiant with joy, and placed before me one
of the prettiest little baskets I had ever seen, though the beauty of
our basket-work is, as I have said, remarkable. I thought it must be a
present from his wife, for she was very skilful and often presented me
with baskets of her own work. Loving my people as I did and looking on
them all as my children, I saw the nervous state of the man, and to
reassure him, I said, "This is kind of your fair Lineena." At the same
time I admiringly examined the basket, but its weight indicating that
there was something inside, I raised the lid, and beholding its contents
I uttered a cry, such a cry of joy as might escape a parent on finding a
long-lost child.

The basket contained a specimen of the precious fruit quite ripe. I
turned it on every side with anxious interest, and, having congratulated
my faithful gardener, who had so zealously carried out my wishes, I
descended to the culinary department, for I would not trust the precious
treasure to others, and I immediately proceeded to cook the vegetable of
my creation.

I directed a small bird to be prepared with which to eat the new
condiment, that I might thus test its properties; when it had been
served, I directed the gardener to sit at my table. The success was
beyond my best hopes. By the process of cooking, the fruit-vegetable had
been dissolved to the consistency of a jelly, and formed the most
relishing sauce ever tasted,--aromatic, stimulating, and appetising.

To a richness like cream was added the pungen