Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
in that neglected spot ! A more considerable house than his 
had formerly stood there, and there were tall green-and- 
crimson-leaved “ Dragon’s-blood,” which I scarcely re- 
cognised for the tiny pot-plants English gardeners cherish 
in greenhouses ; green and yellow parti-coloured Crotons, 
slim-leaved Aralias, a multitude of twining Vines and 
scented Orchids and “Morning Glories,” with their gorgeous- 
hued purple and pink cups, and in one corner Datura 
with drooping white bells. Jacob was amused at my 
raptures over the mass of Maidenhair Fern in the dividing 
ditch by the road ; it did not represent much to him. 
At last, by dint of many visits, he so far opened his heart to 
me that I discovered the old man’s heart was away in the 
wilds of Panama with a son who, attracted by the high 
wages offered by the Frenchman to whoever would come 
and labour at the Canal works, had with other young West 
Indians gone off to Colon, and no news had come of him ! 
At last I wrote a letter to the clerk of the works there in 
hopes of finding out what had become of the poor old 
fellow’s son. Curiously enough, he seemed more wrapped 
up in this one absent boy than in the three who lived 
with him. But there came no answer. At last one day 
the maids came and asked permission to go to old Jacob’s 
for a dance. “ Why is he giving a dance ? ” I asked, and 
was told that his son had come home unexpectedly from 
Panama; so Rosa and Lily, and Mussoo and Queenie 
were all going down in their brightest cotton dresses, with 
their woolly pows elegantly bedecked with ribbon and 
flowers, and surmounted by hats covered with white 
feathers, to help Jacob and his family to make merry. 
They came home late in the evening, along by the river, 
in the Firefly-lit darkness, clinging together for fear of 
“ duppies,” laughing and chattering. 
The next day I saw the hero of the fete, a tall, well- 
built negro, dressed in coloured shirt and grey trousers, 
and sporting a fine watch and chain, which old Jacob told 
me had been given to him by an official he had nursed 
through a bout of fever, that weary malarial fever which 
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