' One day having eaten of
the papaw fruit, at the foot of that rock she planted the seeds. Soon after
several papaws sprung up, amongst which was one that yielded fruit. This
tree had risen but a little from the ground at the time of Virginia's
departure; but its growth being rapid, in the space of two years it had
gained twenty feet of height, and the upper part of its stem was encircled
with several layers of ripe fruit. Paul having wandered to that spot, was
delighted to see that this lofty tree had arisen from the small seed
planted by his beloved friend; but that emotion instantly gave place to a
deep melancholy, at this evidence of her long absence. The objects which we
see habitually do not remind us of the rapidity of life; they decline
insensibly with ourselves; but those which we behold again, after having
for some years lost sight of them, impress us powerfully with the idea of
that swiftness with which the tide of our days flows on. Paul was no less
overwhelmed and affected at the sight of this great papaw tree, loaded with
fruit, than is the traveller, when, after a long absence from his own
country, he finds not his contemporaries, but their children, whom he left
at the breast, and whom he sees are become fathers of families. Paul
sometimes thought of hewing down the tree, which recalled too sensibly the
distracted image of that length of time which had clasped since the
departure of Virginia.
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