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ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 229 
CHAPTER XIV. 
A MONTH ON A SUGAR ESTATE. 
OUT OF THE FOREST. — INTO A SICK-BED. — MY GOOD ANGEL. — 
CONVALESCENCE. — RUTLAND VALE. — THE HAPPY VALLEY. — 
NOCTURNAL NEIGHBORS. — THE LABOR QUESTION. — A PLANT- 
ER’S TRIALS. — COOLIE IMMIGRATION. — THE NEGRO, RETURN- 
ING TO SAVAGERY.— A SELF-APPOINTED PHYSICIAN. — GOV- 
ERNMENT HOUSE. —- TREES OF THE TROPICS. — BREAD-FRUIT 
AND COCOA-PALM: — FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH BREAD-FRUIT. 
—ITS APPEARANCE. — TASTE. — HISTORY OF ITS INTRODUC- 
TION. — ABUNDANCE IN ST. VINCENT. — THE PALMS, THEIR 
GREAT BEAUTY AND UTILITY. — COCOA-PALM, PALMISTE, GROO- 
GROO AND GRIS-GRIS, ARECA AND MOUNTAIN PALMS, — THE 
VINE WITH PERFORATED LEAVES.—THE INDIAN MAIDEN. 
N the morning of the twentieth of December I 
cantered into town from Carib Country; at 
night I lay stretched out with fever, having galloped, 
as it were, from the woods to my bed. For ten days 
I had been suffering from the effects of a severe cold, 
caught in the cave on the volcano. In two weeks 
there remained but a wretched apology of my former 
self, and the doctor ordered that I remove what little 
there was left of me to the country as soon as I could 
walk, or mount a horse. 
The days passed wearily. I had exhausted all the 
resources of the room; had watched my favorite 
lizard as he caught flies on the window-pane, and 
