loved relatives.

Every morning she appeared at daybreak, and if Biddy overslept herself
she was sure to awaken her by loudly knocking at the door of the kitchen
in which Biddy slept. They were very good friends, though neither could
understand a word the other said. But Betty quickly learned, after a
certain sort, Biddy's language, and, as may be supposed, a very curious
lingo was the result. Harry declared that any day Betty might be taken
for a black Irish girl.

"Sure we have no naguers in the ould country, Master Harry!" answered
Biddy.

Betty soon learned to perform any work she was shown how to do; but she
preferred tending the children, and if she saw them running down to the
river, or wandering too far from the house, she was after them like a
shot, always bringing them back in her arms, sitting down and lecturing
them after her own fashion--telling them of a fearful monster which had
its abode beneath the water, or of wild men who lay concealed in the
scrub ready to carry them off and eat them. Poor Betty had no notion of
right or wrong, and, although she did not steal or tell falsehoods, it
was from the belief that the white people, who knew everything, would to
a certainty find her out. As soon as she had obtained some knowledge of
English, Mary and Janet endeavoured to instil into her dark mind some
religious ideas. It was long, however, before they were satisfied that
she had comprehended the simplest truths.

The family were now anxiously waiting Paul's return. All the flour in
the store-room had been exhausted, but they were not so badly off as
they might have been in some regions. The captain had an acre or more
planted with the sweet potato--a species of yam, each root weighing from
three to four pounds, and sometimes even more. Biddy had learned to
cook them properly, when they appeared dry and floury. Though the
cousins at first declared that they were too sweet to eat, they
acknowledged, however, when dressed under the roast meat, that they were
very nice. Then they had bananas, a pleasant, nutritious fruit. The
captain, on first coming to the farm, had formed a plantation of these
trees, and as they had been well protected they had escaped destruction
from the hurricane. The trees were raised from suckers, which grew
around the bottom of the parent tree. Within eighteen months from the
time the plants had been set out the trees began to bear fruit. This
comes out from the centre