Label text doesn't show up in a applet created with Visual J++

The first day I am using the Visual J++. I tried to create an applet with the following code :

<APPLET
class=HelloVisualJ
style="LEFT: 0px; VISIBILITY: visible; TOP: 0px"
name=HelloVisualJ
code=HelloVisualj.class
width=320 height=200>

  <PARAM NAME="foreground" VALUE="FFFFFF">
  <PARAM NAME="background" VALUE="008080">
  <PARAM NAME="label" VALUE="This string was passed from the HTML host."> //<=== Line (A)
</APPLET>

Also, in the code of the applet, I inserted :

  public void paint(Graphics p1)
  {
    p1.drawString("My First Visual J++ Applet", 10,35); //<=== Line (B)
    return;
    }

right under:

    public class HelloVisualJ extends Applet
    {
     
where "HelloVisualJ" is the applet class name.

I was told that the applet should look like:

+--------------------------------------------+
| This string was passed from the HTML host. |
| My First Visual J++ Applet                 |
|                                            |
|                                            |
|                                            |
+--------------------------------------------+

but it showed up in my browser as a blank applet --- both Line (A) and Line (B) were not showing up

Does anyone know what's going on ????????