Hooking Watermelons 1898 — Text and Context

w it his memory of it started out vividly in his mind as if to attest how faithfully it had kept each detail. It never would come out so clearly at times when he was far away and needed its comfort. He opened the door softly. The sitting-room was empty, and darkened to keep out the heat and flies. The latched door stood open, and, hearing voices, he tiptoed across the floor with a guileful smile and, leaning through the doorway, saw his mother and sister sitting by the cool, lilac-shaded window, picking over currants for tea, and talking tranquilly. Being a provident young man, he paused a minute to let the pretty, peaceful scene impress itself upon his mind, to be remembered afterward for the cheer of bleak boarding-house Sunday afternoons. Then there was a sudden glancing up, a cry of joyful consternation, and the pan of currants rolled from Amy's lap like a broken necklace of rubies across the uncarpeted floor, while Arthur held mother and sister in a double embrace. And when at length the kissing had all been done, he established himself in his familiar boyish attitude on the window-seat, kicking his heels against the mopboard, with his elbows on his knees, and the three talked away steadily till the shop-bell rang, and Mrs. Steele sprang up in a panic, exclaiming: “Father will be here in five minutes, and the currants are on the floor. Come, Amy, quick; we must pick some more, and you shall help, Arthur.”

But though he went out into the garden with them readily enough, it was quite another thing to make him pick currants, for he insisted on wandering all over the place and demanding what had become of everything he missed, and the history of everything new. And pretty soon Mr. Steele also appeared in the garden, having found no one in the house on reaching home. He had learned on the street that Arthur had arrived, and came out beaming. It was good to see the hearty affection with which the two shook hands.

The transition of the son from the pupilage of childhood and youth to the independence of manhood is often trying to the filial relation. Neither party fully realizes that the old relation is at an end, or just what the new basis is, or when the change takes place. The absence of the son for two or three years at this period has often the best results. He goes a boy and returns a man; the old relation is forgotten by both parties, and they readily fall into the new one. So it had fared with Arthur and his father.

“You've got a splendid lot of watermelons,” said the former, as they arrived at the upper end of the ample garden in their tour of inspection.

“Yes,” replied Mr. Steele, with a shrug; “only thus far they've been stolen a little faster than they 've ripened.”

“What made you plant them so near the fence?”

“That was my blunder; but you see the soil is just the thing, better than lower down.”

“Why don't you buy a bulldog?”

“I think it's more Christian to shoot a man outright than to set one of those devils on him. The breed ought to be extirpated.”

“Put some ipecac in one or two. That 'll fetch 'em. I know how sick it made me once.”

“I did; but more were stolen next night. I can't afford to medicate the whole village. Last night I sat up to watch till twelve o'clock, when mother made me go to bed.”

“I'll watch to-night,” said Arthur, “and give 'em a lesson with a good load of beans from the old shotgun.”

“It would n't pay,” replied his father. “I concluded last night that all the melons in the world were n't worth a night's sleep. They 'll have to go, and next year I 'll know more than to plant any.”

“You go and help Amy pick currants, and let me talk to the boy a little,” said Mrs. Steele, coming up and taking Arthur off for a promenade up the broad path.

“How pretty Amy has grown,” said he, glancing with a pleased smile at the girl as she looked up at her father. “I suppose the young men are making sheep's eyes at her already.”

“It does n't do them any good if they are,” said Mrs. Steele, decisively. “She's only sixteen and a little girl yet, and has sense enough to know it.” “What had she been crying for when I arrived? I saw her eyes were as red as the currants.”