The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-08-25
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 X ONSIEUR DE LA TOUR, a native N of Normandy, after having in 4 4 vain sought commission in the French army or some support from his own family, emgrated to the French is land colony of Mauritius, that earthly par adise whose delights are tempered by ep- idemics and tornadoes. Here cut off by the sunlit waters of the Indian Sea from the disappointments which had oppressed him in Europe, the young man thought to establish himself with his limited means as a planter and to live long in the com panionship of the sweet young wife whom he had married shortly before and whose family had disowned her for marrying 8 plebian.
 But during trip to Madagascar to pur- chase slaves M. de la Tour died from fever, and all his money which he had taken with him, was seized by rapacious strangers.
 Mne de la Tour found herself a widow and about to become a mother in a coun- try where she had neither credit nor friends, and no earthly possessions, or, rather, support, except one negro woman But misfortune armed her with courage She resolved to seek out some unoccuped bit of land and to cultivate it with the help of her single slave. She selected for her refuge a valley, fertile and well watered on the side of the great noun tain that hangs over Port St. Louisa valley surrounded on three sides by cliffs and openings on the east toward the sea- All sensitive and suffering creatures, from a sort of common instinct, fly for refuge amid their pains to haunts the most wild and lonely as if rocks could form a rampant against misfortune-as if the calm of nature could hush the tu- mults of the soul.
 That Providence which lends it's sup port when we ask but the supply of our necessary wants had a blessing in re- serve for Mime. de la Tour which neither riches nor greatness can purchase. That blessing was a friend.
 The spot to which the distressed woman fled had been inhabited for year by young woman Margaret peasant girl of Brittany. She had listened to the false promises of rich man of her neighbor- hood who had in time cruelty abandoned her. She had fled from her native Vil- lage, where she had lost the only DOT ton of peasant girl, her reputation, and taking ship for Mauritius she had pur- chased there with some borrowed money an old negro slave and begun the cultlva- tion of corner of this remote valley.
 Here her son was born shortly after her arrival. When Mime. de la Tour came to the valley she saw Margaret sitting be- fore her hut with her child in her arms. Soothed and touched by the sight of a person in a situation so much resembling her own she was moved to tell some thing of her past history and her present wants. Margaret was deeply touched by the recital and, anxious rather to merit confidence than to create esteem, she con- fessed without disguise the error of which she had been guilty, and offered Mime. de la Tour both her hut and her friendship.
 An, surely" cried the young widow, 'heayen has put an end to my misfor- tunes since 1t inspires you, to whim l am a stranger with more goodness toWaSi me than 1 have ever experienced from my own relatives.
 A league and half away, in the woods behind the sloping mountain, there made his solitary habitation a man who, dis gusted with the vain ambitions and pomps of Europe, had, like Margaret and Mme. de la Tour. sought home in the heart of nature where, reading his books and tilling his small plantation, life should glide unvexed by him to the boundless sea of the hereafter. He knew Margaret and had often helped her; he had stood god father to her boy, little Paul; and when he heard that she had a companion he hastened to the valley in the hope of being useful to both.
 He partitioned the valley. through which ran the little river of the Fan Palms, into two parts, and owing to the situation of Margaret's hut he was able to build the hut of Mime. de la Tour close to it, but in such a place that each would reside upon her own land.
 Barely had the second cottage been completed than Mime. de la Tour gave birth to a daughter, who was chrstened by the name of Virginia. Then was begun in that happy valley an ideal existence; and the sorrows of the two mothers be- came only memory, the grief of which was swallowed up in present con tent, the maternal love which they bore their children and the mutual kindness which they experienced from each other amid scenes of a luxuriant and prodigal nature that supplied their simple wants and even their trfing luxuries.
 Margaret's slave, Domingo. was still robust and healthy, though advanced in years, and he cultivated indiscriminateiy on the two plantations the spots of ground which seemed most fertile. and sowed whatever grain ne deemed most congenal to each particular soil. Where the ground was poor he strewed maize; where it was