126 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



At fome diftance from thence, there is a rock, 

 remote enough from the cafcade, to prevent your 

 being deafened with the noife of it's waters, and 

 yet fufEcienily near for you to enjoy the fight of 

 their fall, their frelhnefs, and their murmuring. 

 During the exceffive heats, Madame de la Tour, 

 Margaret, Firgirtia, Paul, and I, fometimes dined 

 under the fhade of this rock. As Virginia always 

 employed her minuteft adions for the benefit 

 of others, Ihe never ate a fruit in the country 

 without planting it's feed, or it's kernel, in the 

 earth. *' Trees," faid (he, " will fpring from 

 ** thefe, which may, one day, give their fruits to 

 *' fome traveller, or, at leaft, to fome bird." Ac- 

 cordingly, once, when fhe had been eating part of 

 a papaya, at the foot of this rock, fhe planted the 

 feeds of that fruit ; there, foon afterwards, feveral 

 papayas grew up, among which was a female plant, 

 that is, one which bears fruit. This tree, at Fir^ 

 ginids departure, was not fo high as her knee, but, 

 as it's growth is very rapid, it attained, three years 

 after, to the height of twenty feet, and the higher 

 part of it's trunk was furrounded with feveral rows 

 of ripe frUit. Paul, having, by chance, wandered 

 to this place, was greatly delighted at feeing fuch 

 a large tree, grown from a feed, which he had feen 

 planted by the hand of his friend ; but, at the fame 

 time, he funk into a profound melancholy, on ob- 

 ferving this teftimony of her long abfence. By ob- 



jeds. 



