Watermelon

“ W. J. Bryan in his lecture on “The Prince of Peace,” “but I have observed the watermelon-seed. It has the power of drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight, and when you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight—when you can explain to me the mystery of a watermelon, you can ask me to explain the mystery of God.” ”

“ If it is cut in slices, the slices should be trimmed so that only the pink pulp that is edible is served, the green rind being discarded. As an appetizer, watermelon is delicious when cut into pieces and served in a cocktail glass with fresh mint chopped fine and sprinkled over the top. Small pieces of watermelon cut with a French vegetable cutter make a very attractive garnish for fruit salads and other fruit mixtures. ”

“ It was one of the nicest dog days days I ever saw, with the heat waves dancing above the fields, short-horned grasshoppers springing up along the sunny path as Poetry and I moseyed along, not wanting to run and get hot on such a hot day. I felt kind of sad because of the watermelon and also on account of our boys’ world had been invaded by a flock of girl campers. Girls in our woods would be a lasso on a boy’s fun. ”

“ The watermelon is said to be indigenous to Africa. It is grown extensively in the United States, especially in the southern part. It is a field crop of considerable importance, especially in the state of Georgia. The watermelon grows best on a sandy soil, though it requires it to be well fertilized. The vines, when they reach their full growth, cover the entire field. The melons often grow to a very large size,—specimens weighing from 50 to 60 pounds being not unusual. ”

“ The true Southern watermelon is a boon apart, and not to be mentioned with commoner things. It is chief of this world’s luxuries, king by the grace of God over all the fruits of the earth. When one has tasted it, he knows what the angels eat. It was not a Southern watermelon that Eve took: we know it because she repented.—Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar. ”

“ If you don’t mind a little fuss and bother, you may after it is cut up sprinkle the melon well with powdered sugar, put it into the freezer and frappé but not freeze it, and then send it to table. To the palates of many of this day and generation watermelon well chilled comes as a boon, for the best of men now and then are afflicted with a thirst these warm mornings which nothing save ice-water seems to quench, [Pg 100] but the physicians and moralists have held forth at such length on the subject that one feels like a guilty thing upon taking a drink of cold water before breaking fast. ”

“ I know the taste of the watermelon which has been honestly come by, and I know the taste of the watermelon which has been acquired by art. Both taste good, but the experienced know which tastes best. I know the look of green apples and peaches and pears on the trees, and I know how entertaining they are when they are inside of a person. I know how ripe ones look when they are piled in pyramids under the trees, and how pretty they are and how vivid their colors. ”

“ The cultivation of the watermelon is practically the same as for the muskmelon, except that the plants grow larger and require more room for development than those of the muskmelon. Watermelons require that the soil should contain a larger percentage of sand than muskmelons, and that the land should be quite rich. Watermelons should be planted 10 feet each way between the hills, or in drills 10 feet apart and thinned to 3 feet apart in the drills. ”

“ Say! when you are wearing a pair of red-striped pajamas and your barrel-shaped friend is wearing a pair of green-striped pajamas, and it is night, and you hear a flock of girls running in your direction and you are half scared of girls even in the daytime, you all of a sudden forget about a plugged watermelon floating in the nice fresh cool water of your spring, and you look for the quickest place you can find to hide yourself! ”

“ Nature, however, has not neglected to provide other agreeable vegetable juices to cool the human body. During the whole summer, we have plenty of musk melons. I can buy one as large as my head for the value of an English penny: but one of the best and largest, weighing ten or twelve pounds, I can have for twelve sols, or about eight-pence sterling. From Antibes and Sardinia, we have another fruit called a watermelon, which is well known in Jamaica, and some of our other colonies. ”

“ Watermelon.—The watermelon is shipped everywhere in such enormous quantities, and it covers so much space in the garden, that home-gardeners in the North seldom grow it. When one has room, it should be added to the kitchen-garden. ”

“ We might look a lot alike to anybody who saw us dressed in the same kind of clothes, but I was not a watermelon thief—and he was, I thought—and the first chance I got I was going to prove to him that even though all men, boys especially, might be created equal, when one boy sneaked out into another boy’s melon patch, stole a melon, and sold it to a girl scout troupe, the other boy was equal to giving him a sound thrashing. ”

“ How does it build a watermelon? Until you can explain a watermelon, do not be too sure that you can set limits to the power of the Almighty and say just what He would do or how He would do it. I cannot explain the watermelon, but I eat it and enjoy it.
The egg is the most universal of foods and its use dates from the beginning, but what is more mysterious than an egg? When an egg is fresh it is an important article of merchandise; a hen can destroy its market value in a week's time, but in two weeks more she can bring forth from it what man could not find in it. ”

“ And Watermelon Pete listened to what the naughty little Blackie said, and then he crawled out of bed, and ran, oh, so fast, down to the fence, and scrooged through a hole in the fence, and ran—pitter-patter, with his little bare black 14 feet—down the path to the watermelon vines.
Then he ate, and he ate, and he ate, so many watermelons! And by and by he went to sleep under a watermelon vine. And Mr. Moon went to bed.
Then pretty soon old Mr. Rooster woke up and said, “Cock-a-doodle-doo-oo! Farmer Brown, I’m calling you-oo-o! It’s time to get up!” ”

“ Some spoil the most delicious watermelon by heaping sugar or salt, or both, upon it. In this way the flavor is lost. There is not a raw fruit on the market which is as finely flavored after it has been sugared as it was before. True, those who have ruined their sense of taste object to the tartness and natural acidity of various foods, but they are not judges and can not be until they have regained a normal taste, which can only be done by living on natural foods for a while. ”

“ It was explained that if one took the fruit and planted it in the same hill with the watermelon seeds, would there be many watermelons,—that is, the watermelon would be influenced to become as prolific as the small plant.
"Every one is familiar with the clematis bearing fluffy bunches of seeds having long, hair-like appendages. An Indian lecturing on a collected specimen of the clematis said: 'This is very good to make the hair grow. You make a tea of it and rub it on the head, and pretty quick your hair will hang down to your hips,' indicating by a gesture the extraordinary length. ”

“ I said to Poetry and to all of us, “look! There’s another watermelon! In a gunny sack!”
“You’re crazy,” Poetry answered. “That’s not a watermelon; that’s a water jug!” And to my very sad disappointment, Poetry was right.
71 There was a great big water jug like the kind we used in the Sugar Creek threshing ring, wrapped round and round with a gunny sack, and tied on with binder twine.
I remembered then that many a time I had carried drinking water to Pop from our iron pitcher pump out across the barnyard to whatever field he was in at the time. First I would soak the burlap bag in cold water. ”

“ Pop and I had had the soil of our truck patch tested, and it was just right for melons, which means it was well-drained, well-ventilated, with plenty of natural plant food. We would never have to worry about moisture in case there would ever be a dry summer, on account of we could carry water from the iron pitcher pump which was just inside the south fence. As you maybe know, our family had another pitcher pump not more than fifteen feet from the back door of our house—both pumps getting mixed up in the mystery of the stolen watermelon, which I’m going to tell you about right now. ”

“ Best of all, I liked the watermelon which came at the end, cut in little balls, looking like strawberry water ice, and soaked in champagne. I hope that all the things to eat in America won't be so nice, or I may grow stout before I go back; and Vic says it is better for a girl to hang herself. ”

“ It goes without saying that most of the fruits and staple products of the tropics are to be found both at Concepcion and at the port of Talcahuano. Each place we visit seems to have some specialty in this line. Here, it is the watermelon. Favored by the soil and the climate, this fruit is developed to its maximum in weight, richness of flavor, and general perfection. They are sold cheap enough everywhere. A centavo will buy a large ripe one. Street carts and donkeys are laden with them, and so are the decks of all outgoing vessels. ”

“ The shops and stalls were lighted up by lanterns, or lamps suspended from the roof, and formed a charming scene, all spangled and glistening with spots of brilliancy. Watermelons, with their green rind and rosy pulp, cactus figs, some in their prickly shells and others ready skinned, sacks of garbanzos, monster onions, yellow, amber-coloured grapes, that would put to the blush those brought from the Land of Promise, alder wreaths, spices, and other violent products, were heaped up in picturesque confusion. ”

“ The average size, however, is much less than that. The Georgia melon is somewhat oval in shape, reaching generally from a foot to eighteen inches in length and from a foot to fifteen inches in diameter. The flesh is generally red and the seeds usually black. The watermelon is in the market from early summer until the late autumn. It bears shipping quite well, [286] and is sent usually in box cars without crating, and, if kept at a low temperature, will remain palatable for many days or even weeks. ”

“ Before I get into the middle of the stolen watermelon story, I’d better explain that my wonderful grayish-brown-haired mother had been having what is called “insomnia” that summer, so Pop had arranged for her to sleep upstairs in our guest bedroom—that being the farthest away from the night noises of our farm, especially the ones that came from the direction of the barn. Mom simply had to have her rest or she wouldn’t be able to keep on doing all the things a farm mother has to do every day all summer. ”

“ The watermelon patch was located close to this fence, and thus in full view and temptingly accessible from the road.
Undoubtedly the human conscience, and especially the boyish article, recognizes a broad difference between the theft of growing crops—of apples on the trees, for instance, or corn on the stalk, or melons in the field—and that of other species of property. ”

“ Europe, Asia, Africa and South America are all more richly endowed than we. I used to think the watermelon was ours, but, bless you! the north African tribes grew the big, juicy fellows and gave us our first seeds. As to the musk-melon, it is a vegetable of such lineage that, like the cabbage and lettuce, nobody knows just who were their first wild progenitors. The melon, at any rate, came out of Persia as a developed table delicacy, while the Adam of the cabbage family is agreed by botanists to have flourished way back there in Central Asia, where they say the Caucasian race came from. ”

“ I asked.
"The same thing that makes you grow," said Uncle Peabody. "You can do lots of things but there's only one thing that a watermelon can do. It can just grow. See how it reaches out toward the sunlight! If we was to pull them vines around and try to make 'em grow toward the north they wouldn't mind us. They'd creep back and go reachin' toward the sunlight ag'in just as if they had a compass to show 'em the way." ”

“ Take young watermelons, cucumbers or cantelopes; scrape the melons, and cut the rinds in shapes--leave the cucumbers whole; put them in a preserving kettle with alum and water; cover them, and let them boil till they are transparent; take them out, wash them in cold water, and wipe each piece separately; have your kettle nicely cleaned, and give them rather more than their weight in sugar; put a layer of sugar, and a layer of melon, some slices of green ginger, and the rind and juice of a lemon; let them stew over the fire till the syrup is rich ”

“ I saw her in the tent back over there by the cornfield, when I dashed in for the jug.”
That’s when our big bully of an overgrown boy growled into the middle of everything that was happening and said, “Maybe I took it myself. I was going to use a watermelon for a piggy bank instead of the water jug—now are you satisfied?” And he started in twisting and fighting and trying to get away again—and couldn’t. ”

“ Ice-cole water-melon; ice-cole water-melon; the biggest slice of ice-cole, ripe, red, ice-cole, rich an' rare; the biggest slice of ice-cole watermelon ever cut by the hand of man! Buy our ice-cole watermelon? ”