ree
hours, and when we remounted our carriage it seemed to me only
reasonable that Eveena should be weary both in mind and body. I
proposed, therefore, to return at once, but against this she earnestly
protested.

"Well," I said, "we will finish our excursion, then. Only remember
that whenever you do feel tired you must tell me at once. I do not
know what exertion you can bear, and of course it would be most
inconsiderate to measure your endurance by my own."

She promised, and we drove on for another hour in the direction of a
range of hills to the north-eastward. The lower and nearer portion of
this range might he 400 feet above the general level of the plain;
beyond, the highest peaks rose to perhaps 1500 feet, the average
summit being about half that height. Where our road brought us to the
foot of the first slope, large groves of the _calmyra_, whose fruit
contains a sort of floury pulp like roasted potato, were planted on
ground belonging to the State, and tenanted by young men belonging to
that minority which, as Esmo had told me not being fortunate enough to
find private employment, is thus provided for. Encountering one of
these, he pointed out to us the narrow road which, winding up the
slope, afforded means of bringing down in waggons during the two
harvest seasons, each of which lasts for about fifty days, the fruit
of these groves, which furnishes a principal article of food. The
trees do not reach to a higher level than about 400 feet; and above
this we had to ascend on foot by a path winding through meadows, which
I at first supposed to be natural. Eveena, however, quickly undeceived
me, pointing out the prevalence of certain plants peculiar to the
cultivated pastures we had seen in the plain. These were so
predominant as to leave no reasonable doubt that they had been
originally sown by the hand of man, though the irregularity of their
arrangement, and the encroachment of one species upon the ground of
another, enabled my companion to prove to me with equal clearness that
since its first planting the pasture had been entirely neglected. It
was, she thought, worth planting once for all with the most nutritious
herbage, but not worth the labour of subsequent close cultivation. Any
lady belonging to a civilised people, and accustomed to a country
life, upon Earth might easily have perceived all that Eveena
discovered; but considering how seldom the latter had left her home,
how few opportunities she had