I'll say this for the land you govern, the hospitality is rich and rare."
"In what way, Boland?"
"Why, your honour, it is the custom for a man and his whole family to go
on a visit to a neighbour, perhaps twenty or forty miles away, bring
their servants--maybe a dozen or more--and sit down on their neighbour's
hearthstone. There they eat his food, drink his wine, exhaust his fowl-
yard and debilitate his cook--till all the resources of the place are
played out; then with both hands round his friend's neck the man and his
people will say adieu, and go back to their own accumulated larder and
await the return visit. The wonder is Jamaica is so rich, for truly the
waste is harmful. We have the door open in Virginia, but not in that
way. We welcome, but we don't debauch."
The governor smiled. "As you haven't old friends here, you should make
your life a success--ah, there is the open door, Boland, and your
mistress standing in it. But I come without my family, and with no fell
purposes. I will not debilitate the cook; I will not exhaust the fowl-
yard. A roasted plantain is good enough for me.
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