and Margaret used to relate their misfortunes, was called, The Tears wiped
away. They gave the names of Britany and Normandy to little portions of
ground where they had sown corn, strawberries, and peas. Domingo and Mary,
wishing, in imitation of their mistresses, to recall the places of their
birth in Africa, gave the names of Angola and Foullepointe to the spots
where grew the herb with which they wove baskets, and where they had
planted a calbassia tree. Thus, with the productions of their respective
climates, those exiled families cherished the dear illusions which bind us
to our native country, and softened their regrets in a foreign land. Alas!
I have seen animated by a thousand soothing appellations, those trees,
those fountains, those stones which are now overthrown, which now, like the
plains of Greece, present nothing but ruins and affecting remembrances.

"Neither the neglect of her European friends, nor the delightful romantic
spot which she inhabited, could banish from the mind of Madame de la Tour
this tender attachment to her native country. While the luxurious fruits of
this climate gratified the taste of her family, she delighted to rear those
which were more graceful, only because they were the productions of her
early home. Among other little pieces addressed to flowers and fruits of
northern climes, I found the following sonnet to the Strawberry.

SONNET.

TO THE STRAWBERRY.

The strawberry blooms upon its lowly bed:
Plant of my native soil! The lime may fling
More potent fragrance on the zephyr's wing,
The milky cocoa richer juices shed,
The white guava lovelier blossoms spread: