we left the comparatively arid plain, with its scantier
vegetation, and began to ascend Stony Hill, which is 1,360 feet high
where the road passes over it. The cool air passing through the gap, and
our increasing elevation, now began to temper the heat, and soon the
clouds began to gather again, and a slight rain fell. But I did not
notice it, for every step of the journey now seemed to bring me farther
into the heart of fairyland. It was not any variety of colors, but the
unutterable depth of green, enclosing us, as we ascended, more and more
completely in its boundless exuberance. From that moment the richest
verdure of my native country has seemed pale and poor. Reaching the top
of the hill, we saw above us the higher range, looking down on us
through the shifting mists, with that inexpressible gracefulness which
tempers the grandeur of tropical mountains.

We descended the hill on the other side into a small inland valley,
containing the two estates of Golden Spring and Temple Hall. The
former, which presented nothing very noticeable then, has since passed
under the management of a gentleman who to a judicious and energetic
personal oversight has added a kindliness and strict honesty in his
dealings with the laborers much more desirable than frequent in the
island. As a result of this, Golden Spring has become a garden. A great
many more dilapidated estates would become gardens under the same
efficacious mode of treatment.

The streams were so swollen by the rain that on coming to what is
commonly a trifling rivulet, we found it so high as to cost us some
trouble to cross. However, we all got over, although one servant boy
with his pack horse was caught by the current and carried down several
rods almost into the river, which was rushing by in a turbid torrent. I
ought to have been much alarmed, but having a happy way, in new
circumstances, of taking it for granted that everything which happens is
just what ought to happen then and there, I stood composedly on the
farther bank, nothing doubting that the boy and the beast had their own
good reasons for striking out a new track, and it was not till they were
both safe on land that I learned with some consternation that they had
come within an inch of being drowned.

At length we turned aside into a byroad leading up a steep hill,
slippery with mud, and left this pleasant valley. I passed through it
many a time afterwards, and never lost the impression of its peacef