ed by the lower ranks,
whom they supplied with fruit of the most exquisite flavour without
charge, they were, for a long time, often the successful opponents,
always the formidable adversaries, of the Vraibleusian aristocracy, who
were the objects of their envy and the victims of their rapaciousness.
The Government at last, by a vigorous effort, triumphed. In spite of the
wishes of the majority of the nation, the whole of the dealers were one
day expelled the island, and the Managers of the Statue immediately took
possession of their establishments.

By distributing the stock of fruit which was on hand liberally, the
Government, for a short time, reconciled the people to the chance; but
as their warehouses became daily less furnished they were daily reminded
that, unless some system were soon adopted, the Islanders must be
deprived of a luxury to which they had been so long accustomed that its
indulgence had, in fact, become a second nature. No one of the managers
had the hardihood to propose a recurrence to horse-chestnuts. Pride and
fear alike forbade a return to their old purveyor. Other fruits there
were which, in spite of the contract with the market-gardener, had at
various times been secretly introduced into the island; but they had
never greatly flourished, and the Statue was loth to recommend to the
notice of his subjects productions an indulgence in which, through the
instigation of the recently-expelled agents, it had so often denounced
as detrimental to the health, and had so often discouraged by the
severest punishments.

At this difficult and delicate crisis, when even expedients seemed
exhausted and statesmen were at fault, the genius of an individual
offered a substitute. An inventive mind discovered the power of
propagating suckers. The expelled dealers had either been ignorant of
this power, or had concealed their knowledge of it. They ever maintained
that it was impossible for pine-apples to grow except in one spot, and
that the whole earth must be supplied from the gardens of the palace of
the Prince of the World. Now, the Vraibleusians were flattered with the
patriotic fancy of eating pine-apples of a home-growth; and the blessed
fortune of that nation, which did not depend for their supply of fruit
upon a foreign country, was eagerly expatiated on. Secure from extortion
and independent of caprice, the Vraibleusians were no longer to be
insulted by the presence of foreigners; who, while they violat