some plan of accommodation for their little society. Here hediscovered that the paths were rough; there that the family circle was illseated: sometimes the young arbours did not afford sufficient shade, andVirginia might be better pleased elsewhere.
"In the rainy seasons the two families assembled together in the hut, andemployed themselves in weaving mats of grass, and baskets of bamboo. Rakes,spades, and hatchets were ranged along the walls in the most perfect order;and near those instruments of agriculture were placed the productions whichwere the fruits of labour: sacks of rice, sheaves of corn, and baskets ofthe plantain fruit. Some degree of luxury is usually united with plenty;and Virginia was taught by her mother and Margaret to prepare sherbet andcordials from the juice of the sugar-cane, the orange, and the citron.
"When night came, those families supped together by the light of a lamp;after which, Madame de la Tour or Margaret related histories of travellerslost during the night in such of the forests of Europe as are infested bybanditti; or told a dismal tale of some shipwrecked vessel, thrown by thetempest upon the rocks of a desert island. To these recitals their childrenlistened with eager sensibility, and earnestly begged that Heaven wouldgrant they might one day have the joy of showing their hospitality towardssuch unfortunate persons. At length the two families separated and retiredto rest, impatient to meet again the next morning. Sometimes they werelulled to repose by the beating rains, which fell in torrents upon the roofof their cottages; and sometimes by the hollow winds, which brought totheir ear the distant murmur of the waves breaking upon the shore. Theyblessed God for their personal safety, of which their feeling becamestronger from the idea of remote danger.
"Madame de la Tour occasionally read aloud some affecting history of theOld or New Testament. Her auditors reasoned but little upon those sacredbooks, for their theology consisted in sentiment, like that of nature: andtheir morality in action, like that of the gospel. Those families had noparticular days devoted to pleasure, and others to sadness. Every day wasto them a holiday, and all which surrounded them one holy temple, wherethey for ever adored an Infinite Intelligence, the friend of human kind. Asentiment of confidence in his supreme power filled their minds withconsolation under the past, with fortitude for the present, and with hopefor the future. Thus, compelled by misfortune to return to a state ofnature, those women had unfolded in their own bosoms, and in those of theirchildren, the feelings which are most natural to the human mind, and whichare our best support under evil.
"But as clouds sometimes arise which cast a gloom over the best regulatedtempers, whenever melancholy took possession of any member of this littlesociety, the rest endeavoured to banish painful thoughts rather bysentiment than by arguments. Margaret exerted her gaiety; Madame de la Touremployed her mild theology; Virginia, her tender caresses; Paul, hiscordial and engaging frankness. Even Mary and Domingo hastened to offertheir succour, and to weep with those that wept. Thus weak plants areinterwoven, in order to resist the tempests.
"During the fine season they went every Sunday to the church of theShaddock Grove, the steeple of which you see yonder upon the plain. Afterservice, the poor often came to require some kind office at their hands.Sometimes an unhappy creature sought their advice, sometimes a child ledthem to its sick mother in the neighbourhood. They always took with themremedies for the ordinary diseases of the country, which they administeredin that soothing manner which stamps so much value upon the smallestfavours. Above all, they succeeded in banishing the disorders of the mind,which are so intolerable in solitude, and under the infirmities of aweakened frame. Madame de la Tour spoke with such sublime confidence of theDivinity, that the sick, while listening to her, believed that he waspresent. Virginia often returned home with her eyes wet with tears and herheart overflowing with delight, having had an opportunity of doing good.After those visits of charity, they sometimes prolonged their way by theSloping Mountain, till they reached my dwelling, where I had prepareddinner for them upon the banks of the little river which glides near mycottage. I produced on those occasions some bottles of old wine, in orderto heighten the gaiety of our Indian repast by the cordial productions ofEurope. Sometimes we met upon the seashore, at the mouth of little rivers,which are here scarcely larger than brooks. We brought from the plantationour vegetable provisions, to which we added such as the sea furnished ingreat variety. Seated upon a rock, beneath the shade of the velvetsunflower, we heard the mountain billows break at our feet with a dashingnoise; and sometimes on that spot we listened to the plaintive strains ofthe water curlew Madame de la Tour answered his sorrowful notes in thefollowing sonnet:--
SONNET
TO THE CURLEW.
Sooth'd by the murmurs on the sea-beat shore His dun grey plumage floating to the gale, The curlew blends his melancholy wail With those hoarse sounds the rushing waters pour. Like thee, congenial bird: my steps explore The bleak lone seabeach, or the rocky dale, And shun the orange bower, the myrtle vale, Whose gay luxuriance suits my soul no more. I love the ocean's broad expanse, when dress'd In limpid clearness, or when tempests blow. When the smooth currents on its placid breast Flow calm, as my past moments us'd to flow; Or when its troubled waves refuse to rest, And seem the symbol of my present wo.
"Our repasts were succeeded by the songs and dances of the two youngpeople. Virginia sang the happiness of pastoral life, and the misery ofthose who were impelled, by avarice, to cross the furious ocean, ratherthan cultivate the earth, and enjoy its peaceful bounties. Sometimes sheperformed a pantomime with Paul, in the manner of the negroes. The firstlanguage of man is pantomime; it is known to all nations, and is so naturaland so expressive, that the children of the European inhabitants catch itwith facility from the negroes. Virginia recalling, amongst the historieswhich her mother had read to her, those which had affected her most,represented the principal events with beautiful simplicity. Sometimes atthe sound of Domingo's tantam she appeared upon the greensward, bearing apitcher upon her head, and advanced with a timid step towards the source ofa neighbouring fountain, to draw water. Domingo and Mary, who personatedthe shepherds of Midian, forbade her to approach, and repulsed her sternly.Upon which Paul flew to her succour, beat away the shepherds, filledVirginia's pitcher, and placing it upon her head, bound her brows at thesame time with a wreath of the red flowers of the Madagascar periwinkle,which served to heighten the delicacy of her skin. Then, joining theirsports, I took upon me the part of Raguel, and bestowed upon Paul mydaughter Zephora in marriage.
"Sometimes Virginia represented the unfortunate Ruth, returning poor andwidowed to her own country, where after so long an absence, she foundherself as in a foreign land. Domingo and Mary personated the reapers.Virginia followed their steps, gleaning here and there a few ears of corn.She was interrogated by Paul with the gravity of a patriarch, and answered,with a faltering voice, his questions. Soon touched with compassion, hegranted an asylum to innocence, and hospitality to misfortune. He filledVirginia's lap with plenty; and, leading her towards us, as before the oldmen of the city, declared his purpose to take her in marriage. At thisscene, Madame de la Tour, recalling the desolate situation in which she hadbeen left by her relations, her widowhood, the kind reception she had metwith from Margaret, succeeded by the soothing hope of a happy union betweentheir children, could not forbear weeping; and the sensations which suchrecollections excited led the whole audience to pour forth those luxurioustears which have their mingled source in sorrow and in joy.
"These dramas were performed with such an air of reality, that you mighthave fancied yourself transported to the plains of Syria or of Palestine.We were not unfurnished, with either decorations, lights, or an orchestra,suitable to the representation. The scene was generally placed in anopening of the forest, where such parts of the wood as were penetrableformed around us numerous arcades of foliage, beneath which we weresheltered from the heat during the whole day; but when the sun descendedtowards the horizon, its rays, broken upon the trunks of the trees,d
iverged amongst the shadows of the forest in strong lines of light, whichproduced the most sublime effect. Sometimes the whole of its broad diskappeared at the end of an avenue, spreading one dazzling mass ofbrightness. The foliage of the trees, illuminated from beneath by itssaffron beams, glowed with the lustre of the topaz and the emerald. Theirbrown and mossy trunks appeared transformed into columns of antique bronze;and the birds, which had retired in silence to their leafy shades to passthe night, surprised to see the radiance of a second morning, hailed thestar of day with innumerable carols.
"Night soon overtook us during those rural entertainments; but the purityof the air, and the mildness of the climate, admitted of our sleeping inthe woods secure from the injuries of the weather, and no less secure fromthe molestation of robbers. At our return the following day to ourrespective habitations, we found them exactly in the same state in whichthey had
Paul and Virginia from the French of J.B.H. de Saint Pierre Page 8
