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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Hooking Watermelons, by Edward Bellamy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hooking Watermelons
+       1898
+
+Author: Edward Bellamy
+
+Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22703]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOOKING WATERMELONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+HOOKING WATERMELONS
+
+By Edward Bellamy
+
+1898
+
+
+The train slackened, a brakeman thrust his head in at the door and
+shouted "Bah,"--a mysterious formality observed on American trains as
+they enter towns,--and an elderly lady, two drummers, and a young
+man with a satchel got out, followed by the languid envy of the other
+passengers, who had longer or shorter penances of heat and dust before
+them. The train got under way again, while the knot of loafers about the
+station proceeded to eye the arrivals as judicially as if they were a
+committee of safety to protect the village from invasion by doubtful
+characters. The old lady, apparently laboring under some such
+impression, regarded them deferentially, as nervous travelers on
+arriving in strange places generally do regard everybody who seems to
+feel at home. The drummers briskly disappeared down the main street,
+each anxious to anticipate the other at the stores. The young man with
+the satchel, however, did not get away till he had shaken hands and
+exchanged a few good-natured inquiries with one of the loungers.
+
+"Who's that, Bill?" asked one of the group, staring after the retreating
+figure with lazy curiosity.
+
+"Why, did n't you know him? Thought everybody knew him. That's Arthur
+Steele," replied the one who had shaken hands, in a tone of cordiality
+indicating that his politeness had left a pleasant impression on his
+mind, as Arthur Steele's politeness generally did.
+
+"Who is he, anyhow?" pursued the other.
+
+"Why, he 's a Fairfield boy" (the brakeman pronounced it "Bah"), "born
+and brought up here. His folks allers lived right next to mine, and now
+he's doin' a rushin' lawyer trade down New York, and I expect he's just
+rakin' the stamps. Did yer see that diamond pin he wore?"
+
+"S'pose it's genooine?" asked a third loafer, with interest.
+
+"Course it was. I tell you he's on the make, and don't you forgit it.
+Some fellers allers has luck. Many 's the time he 'n' I 've been in
+swim-min' and hookin' apples together when we wuz little chaps," pursued
+Bill, in a tone implying a mild reproach at the deceitfulness of
+an analogy that after such fair promise in early life had failed to
+complete itself in their later fortunes.
+
+"Why, darn it all, you know him, Jim," he continued, dropping the tone
+of pensive reminiscence into which he had momentarily allowed himself to
+fall. "That pretty gal that sings in the Baptis' choir is his sister."
+
+After a space of silent rumination and jerking of peanut shells upon
+the track, the group broke up its session, and adjourned by tacit
+understanding till the next train was due.
+
+Arthur Steele was half an hour in getting to his father's house, because
+everybody he met on the street insisted on shaking hands with him.
+Everybody in Fairfield had known him since he was a boy, and had seen
+him grow up, and all were proud of him as a credit to the village and
+one of its most successful representatives in the big outside world. The
+young man had sense and sentiment enough to feel that the place he held
+in the esteem of his native community was a thing to feel more just
+pride in than any station he could win in the city, and as he walked
+along hand-shaking with old friends on this side and that, it was about
+his idea of a triumphal entry.
+
+There was the dear old house, and as he saw 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."
+
+"Oh, dear!" replied Mrs. Steele, with a sigh of vexation, "it was her
+troubles at the Seminary. You know we let her go as a day scholar this
+sum-mer. Some of the girls slight and snub her, and she is very unhappy
+about it."
+
+"Why, what on earth can anybody have against Amy?" demanded Arthur, in
+indignant surprise.
+
+"I suppose it's because some of the little hussies from the city have
+taken the notion that they won't associate with a mechanic's daughter,
+although Amy is very careful not to say it in so many words, for fear of
+hurting my feelings. But I suspect that's about where the shoe pinches."
+
+Arthur muttered something between an oath and a grunt, expressing the
+emphasis of the one and the disgust of the other.
+
+"I tell Amy it is foolish to mind their airs, but I 'm really afraid it
+spoils the poor girl's happiness."
+
+"Why don't you send her away to boarding-school, if it is so serious a
+matter as that?"
+
+"We can't afford it," said his mother, whereto Arthur promptly replied:
+--
+
+"I 'll pay her expenses. I 'm making a good deal more money than I
+know what to do with, and I 'd really like the chance of doing a little
+good."
+
+His mother glanced at him with affectionate pride.
+
+"You 're always wanting to pay somebody's expenses, or make somebody a
+present. It's really unsafe, when you 're around, to indicate that one
+is n't perfectly contented. But you caught me up too quickly. I was
+going to say that we could n't spare her from home, anyhow. She's the
+light of the house. Besides that, if it comes to objections, I 've my
+notions about boarding-schools, and I 'd trust no girl of mine at one
+that wasn't within sight of her home. No, she'll have to keep on here
+and bear it as she can, though it's pretty hard, I know. The trouble
+to-night was, that Lina Maynard, who is one of the older girls, has
+invited nearly everybody at the Seminary except Amy to a birthday party
+to-morrow. Little minx, I could shake her. And the worst of it is, Amy
+thinks there 's nobody like Lina Maynard."
+
+After tea it was still light, and Arthur and Amy went out to walk. In
+spite of the ten years difference in their ages, he always enjoyed
+her company as well as anybody's in the world, because she was so
+refreshingly childlike and natural. Every chord of feeling answered so
+true and clear to the touch, that to talk with her was like playing on a
+musical instrument, only far more delightful. Arthur had looked
+forward to walks and talks with Amy as among the jolliest treats of his
+vacation. She tried her best now to seem light-hearted, and to entertain
+him with the local gossip, for which he always depended on her. But she
+could n't simulate the vivacious and eager air that had been the chief
+charm of her talk. As he glanced down, he was grieved to see the sad
+set of the pretty child face at his side, and how still had grown
+the fountain of smiles in the hazel eyes that were wont to send their
+ripples outward in constant succession. It is to be feared that under
+his breath he applied some very ungentlemanly language to Lina Maynard
+and her clique, whose nonsenical ill-nature had hurt this little
+girl's feelings so sorely, and incidentally spoiled half the fun of his
+vacation.
+
+"There, there, you need n't talk any more," he finally said, rather
+rudely, half vexed with her, as helpful people are wont to be with those
+they can do nothing to help.
+
+She looked up in grieved surprise, but before he could speak again, they
+came face to face with a party of girls coming from the direction of the
+Seminary.
+
+There were six or seven of them, perhaps, but Arthur only got the
+impression of one and a lot of others. The one was a rather tall girl
+of lithe figure and unusually fine carriage. Her olive complexion
+was lighted with great black eyes that rested on you with an air of
+imperturbable assurance, as penetrating as it was negligent. She was
+talking, and her companions were listening and laughing. As they came
+face to face with Arthur and Amy, he saw that they barely noticed her,
+while glancing at him rather curiously, with the boldness of girls in a
+crowd of their own sex. They evidently observed that he was a stranger
+to the village, and of quite a different style from that of the country
+bumpkins and rural exquisites they were accustomed to meeting. There
+was in the big black eyes, as they had met his a moment, a suggestion
+of interest that was strangely flattering, and left a trace of not
+unpleasant agitation.
+
+"Who was that?" he asked, as they passed out of hearing.
+
+He only thought of asking for one, although there were six, nor she
+apparently of answering differently.
+
+"Lina Maynard. They are 'Sem.' girls."
+
+It was a dulled voice she spoke in, quite unlike her usual eager way of
+giving information. She, poor thing, was terribly afraid he would ask
+her why they did not seem acquainted with her, and it would have been a
+painful humiliation to have explained. Arthur was conscious that he no
+longer had exactly the same feeling of merely contemptuous annoyance
+toward Lina Maynard, on account of her treatment of Amy. He sympathized
+as much with his sister, of course, but somehow felt that to be
+recognized by Lina Maynard was not such a childish ambition as he had
+taken for granted.
+
+It was dusk when they reached home and found Mr. and Mrs. Steele on the
+piazza, which served as an out-door parlor in summer, with a neighbor
+who had dropped in to see Arthur. So he got out his cigar-case and told
+stories of city life and interesting law cases to an intent audience
+till the nine o'clock bell rang, and the neighbor "guessed he 'd go
+home," and forthwith proved that his guess was right by going.
+
+"'Gad, I'd forgotten all about the watermelons! Perhaps they 're at 'em
+already!" cried Arthur, jumping up and running around the end of the
+piazza to the garden.
+
+When he returned, it was to meet a combined volley of protestations
+against his foolish project of keeping watch all night, from his father,
+his mother, and Amy. But he declared it was no use talking; and where
+were the gun and the beans? So they adjourned from the piazza, a lamp
+was lit, the articles were hunted up, and the gun duly loaded with a
+good charge of powder and a pint of hard beans. It was about ten o'clock
+when Arthur, with a parting protest from his mother, went out into
+the garden, lugging his gun and a big easy-chair, while Amy followed,
+bringing one or two wraps, and a shocking old overcoat hunted up in the
+garret, for the chill hours after midnight.
+
+The front of Mr. Steele's lot abutted on one of the pleasantest and most
+thickly housed streets of the village; but the lot was deep, and the
+rear end rested on a road bordered by few houses, and separated from
+the garden by a rail fence easy to climb over or through. 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. The surreptitious
+appropriation of the former class of chattels is known in common
+parlance as "hooking," while the graver term "stealing" describes the
+same process in other cases. The distinction may arise from a feeling
+that, so long as crops remain rooted to the ground, they are nature's,
+not man's, and that nature can't be regarded as forming business
+contracts with some individuals to the exclusion of others, or in fact
+as acceding to any of our human distinctions of _meum_ and _tuum_,
+however useful we find them. Ethical philosophers may refuse to
+concede the sanction of the popular distinction here alluded to between
+"hooking" and stealing; but, after all, ethics is not a deductive but an
+empirical science, and what are morals but a collection of usages, like
+orthography and orthoepy? However that may be, it is the duty of the
+writer in this instance merely to call attention to the prevalent
+popular sentiment on the subject, without any attempt to justify it,
+and to state that Arthur Steele had been too recently a boy not to
+sympathize with it. And accordingly he laid his plans to capture the
+expected depredators to-night from practical considerations wholly, and
+quite without any sense of moral reprobation toward them.
+
+Closely adjoining the edge of the melon-patch was a patch of green corn,
+standing ten feet high, and at the fullest perfection of foliage. This
+Arthur selected for his ambush, its position being such that he could
+cut off the retreat to the fence of any person who had once got among
+the melons. Hewing down a hill of corn in the second row from the front,
+he made a comfortable place for his easy-chair. Amy lingered for a
+while, enjoying the excitement of the occasion, and they talked in
+whispers; but finally Arthur sent her in, and as her dress glimmered
+away down the garden path, he settled himself comfortably for his watch.
+
+In the faint moonlight he could just descry the dark shapes of the
+melons on the ground in front of him. The crickets were having a high
+time in the stubble around, and the night air drew sweet autumnal
+exhalations from the ground; for autumn begins by night a long time
+before it does by day. The night wind rustled in the corn with a crisp
+articulateness he had never noticed in daytime, and he felt like
+an eavesdropper. Then for a while he heard the music of some roving
+serenaders, down in the village, and grew pensive with the vague
+reminiscences of golden youth, romance, and the sweet past that nightly
+music suggests,--vague because apparently they are not reminiscences
+of the individual but of the race, a part of the consciousness and ideal
+of humanity. At last the music was succeeded by the baying of a dog in
+some distant farmyard, and then, ere the ocean of silence had fairly
+smoothed its surface over that, a horse began to kick violently in a
+neighboring barn. Some time after, a man chopped some kindlings in a
+shed a couple of lots off. Gradually, however, the noises ceased like
+the oft-returning yet steadily falling ebb of the tide, and Arthur
+experienced how many degrees there are of silence, each more utter than
+the last, so that the final and absolute degree must be something to
+which the utmost quiet obtainable on earth is uproar. One by one the
+lights went out in the houses, till the only ones left were in the
+windows of the Seminary, visible over the tree-tops a quarter of a mile
+away.
+
+"The girls keep late hours," thought Arthur. And from that he fell to
+thinking of Lina Maynard and the careless, almost insolent, grace of her
+manner, and that indifferent yet penetrating glance of hers. Where did
+she come from? Probably from California, or the far West; he had heard
+that the girls out there were of a bolder, more unconventional type than
+at the East. What a pity she did not fancy Amy!
+
+What was that moving across the melon-patch? He reached for his gun. It
+was only a cat, though, after all. The slight noise in the corn-patch
+attracted the animal's attention, and it came across and poked its head
+into the opening where Arthur sat. As the creature saw him, its start of
+surprise would have shattered the nervous system of anything but a cat.
+It stood half thrown back on its haunches, its ears flattened, its eyes
+glaring in a petrifaction of amazement. Arthur sat motionless as marble,
+laughing inwardly. For full two minutes the two stared at each other
+without moving a muscle, and then, without relaxing its tense attitude,
+the cat by almost imperceptible degrees withdrew one paw and then
+another, and, thus backing out of the corn-patch, turned around when at
+a safe distance and slunk away.
+
+A few minutes later a dog, that enthusiast in perfumes, jumped through
+the fence and trotted across the melon-patch, his nose to the ground,
+making a collection of evening smells. Arthur expected nothing but that
+he would scent his neighborhood, find him out, and set up a barking.
+But, chancing to strike the cat's trail, off went the dog on a full run
+with nose to the ground.
+
+Such were the varying humors of the night. After the episode of the dog,
+feeling a little chilly, Arthur enveloped himself in the tattered old
+overcoat and must have dropped into a nap. Suddenly he awoke. Within
+ten feet of him, just in the act of stooping over a huge melon, was a
+woman's figure. He saw the face clearly as she rose. Immortal gods! it
+was--But I am anticipating.
+
+The discipline at Westville Seminary had been shockingly lax since the
+long illness of the principal had left the easy-going first assistant
+teacher at the head of affairs. The girls ran all over the rules,--had
+private theatricals, suppers, and games of all sorts in their rooms at
+all hours of day or night. In the course of the evening whose events in
+another sphere of life have been narrated, several girls called at Lina
+Maynard's room to notify her of the "spread" at Nell Barber's, No. 49,
+at eleven o'clock. They found her sitting in a low rocking-chair, with
+an open letter in her hand and a very pensive, discontented expression
+of countenance.
+
+"Does he press for an answer, Lina? We 're just in time to advise you,"
+cried Nell Barber.
+
+"Don't say Yes unless his eyes are blue," drawled a brunette.
+
+"Unless they 're black, you mean," sharply amended a bright blonde.
+
+"Make him elope with you," suggested Nell, "It will be such fun to have a
+real rope-ladder elopement at the Seminary, and we'll all sit up and see
+it."
+
+"Oh, do, do, Lina!" chorused the others.
+
+But Lina, apparently too much chagrined at something to be in a mood for
+jests, sat with her eyebrows petulantly contracted, her feet thrust out,
+and the hand holding the letter hanging by her side, her whole attitude
+indicating despondence.
+
+"Still pensive! It can't be he's faithless!" exclaimed Nell.
+
+"Faithless to those eyes! I should say not," cried the blonde, whom Lina
+called her sweetheart, and who claimed to be "engaged" to her according
+to boarding-school fashion.
+
+"Don't mind him, dear," she went on, throwing herself on the floor,
+clasping her hands about Lina's knee, and leaning her cheek on it. "You
+make me so jealous. Have n't you got me, and ain't I enough?"
+
+"Plenty enough, dear," said Lina, stroking her cheek. "This is only from
+my brother Charley."
+
+"The one at Watertown 'Sem.'?"
+
+"Yes," said Lina; "and oh, girls," she went on, with gloomy energy,
+"we don't have any good times at all compared with those boys. They
+do really wicked things, hook apples, and carry off people's gates and
+signs, and screw up tutors' doors in the night, and have fights with
+what he calls 'townies,'--I don't know exactly what they are,--and
+everything. I thought before that we were doing some things too, but
+we 're not, compared with all that, and I shall be so ashamed when I meet
+him at home not to have anything to tell except little bits of things."
+
+A depressing pause followed. Lina's disparaging view of achievements in
+the way of defying the proprieties, of which all the girls had been very
+proud, cast a profound gloom over the circle. The blonde seemed to voice
+the common sentiment when she said, resting her chin on Lina's knee, and
+gazing pensively at the wall:--
+
+"Oh, dear! that comes of being girls. We might as well be good and done
+with it. We can't be bad so as to amount to anything."
+
+"Good or bad, we must eat," said Nell Barber. "I must go and get the
+spread ready. I forgot all about it, Lina; but we came in just to invite
+you. Eleven sharp, remember. Three knocks, a pause, and another, you
+know. Come, girls."
+
+The brunette followed her, but Lina's little sweetheart remained.
+
+"What have they got?" demanded the former listlessly.
+
+"Oh, Nell has a jar of preserves from home, and I smuggled up a plate of
+dried beef from tea, and cook let us have some crackers and plates. We
+tried hard to get a watermelon there was in the pantry, but cook said
+she did n't dare let us have it. It's for dinner to-morrow."
+
+Lina's eyes suddenly became introspective; then after a moment she
+rose slowly and stood in her tracks with an expression of deep thought,
+absent-mindedly took one step, then another, and after a pause a third,
+finally pulling up before the mirror, into which she stared vacantly for
+a moment, and then muttered defiantly as she turned away:--
+
+"We 'll see, Master Charley."
+
+"Lina Maynard, what's the matter with you?" cried the blonde, who had
+watched the pantomime with open mouth and growing eyes.
+
+Lina turned and looked at her thoughtfully a moment, and then said with
+decisiveness:--
+
+"You just go to Nell's, my dear, and say I 'm coming pretty soon; and if
+you say anything else, I 'll--I 'll never marry you."
+
+The girls were in the habit of doing as Lina wanted them to, and the
+blonde went, pouting with unappeased curiosity.
+
+To gain exit from the Seminary was a simple matter in these lax days,
+and five minutes later Lina was walking rapidly along the highway, her
+lips firm set, but her eyes apprehensively reconnoitring the road ahead,
+with frequent glances to each side and behind. Once she got over the
+stone wall at the roadside in a considerable panic and crouched in the
+dewy grass while a belated villager passed, but it was without further
+adventure that she finally turned into the road leading behind Mr.
+Steele's lot, and after a brief search identified the garden where she
+remembered seeing some particularly fine melons, when out walking a day
+or two previous. There they lay, just the other side the fence, faintly
+visible in the dim light She could not help congratulating herself,
+by the way, on the excellent behavior of her nerves, whose tense,
+fine-strung condition was a positive luxury, and she then and there
+understood how men might delight in desperate risks for the mere sake
+of the exalted and supreme sense of perfect self-possession that danger
+brings to some natures. Not, indeed, that she stopped to indulge any
+psychological speculations. The coast was clear; not a footfall or
+hoof-stroke sounded from the road, and without delay she began to look
+about for a wide place between the rails where she might get through.
+Just as she found it, she was startled by an unmistakable human snore,
+which seemed to come from a patch of high corn close to the melons, and
+she was fairly puzzled until she observed, about ten rods distant in the
+same line, an open attic window. That explained its origin, and with a
+passing self-congratulation that she had made up her mind not to marry
+a man that snored, she began to crawl through the fence. When halfway
+through the thought struck her,--wasn't it like any other stealing,
+after all? This crawling between rails seemed dreadfully so. Her
+attitude, squeezed between two rails and half across the lower one, was
+neither graceful nor comfortable, and perhaps that fact shortened her
+scruples.
+
+"It can't be really stealing, for I don't feel like a thief," was the
+logic that settled it, and the next moment she had the novel sensation
+of having both feet surreptitiously and feloniously on another person's
+land. She decidedly did n't relish it, but she would go ahead now and
+think of it afterward. She was pretty sure she never would do it again,
+anyhow, experiencing that common sort of repentance beforehand for the
+thing she was about to do, the precise moral value of which it would be
+interesting to inquire. It ought to count for something, for, if it does
+n't hinder the act, at least it spoils the fun of it. Here was a melon
+at her feet; should she take it? That was a bigger one further on, and
+her imperious conscientiousness compelled her to go ten steps further
+into the enemy's country to get it, for now that she was committed to
+the undertaking, she was bound to do the best she could.
+
+To stoop, to break the vine, and to secure the melon were an instant's
+work; but as she bent, the high corn before her waved violently and a
+big farmer-looking man in a slouch hat and shocking old coat sprang out
+and seized her by the arm, with a grip not painful but sickeningly firm,
+exclaiming as he did so:--
+
+"Wal, I swan ter gosh, if 't ain't a gal!"
+
+Lina dropped the melon, and, barely recalling the peculiar circumstances
+in time to suppress a scream, made a silent, desperate effort to break
+away. But her captor's hold was not even shaken, and he laughed at the
+impotence of her attempt. In all her petted life she had never been held
+a moment against her will, and it needed not the added considerations
+that this man was a coarse, unknown boor, the place retired, the time
+midnight, and herself in the position of a criminal, to give her a
+feeling of abject terror so great as to amount to positive nausea, as
+she realized her utter powerlessness in his hands.
+
+"So you've been a-stealin' my melons, hey?" he demanded gruffly.
+
+The slight shake with which the question was enforced deprived her of
+the last vestige of dignity and self-assertion. She relapsed into the
+mental condition of a juvenile culprit undergoing correction. Now that
+she was caught, she no longer thought of her offense as venial. The
+grasp of her captor seemed to put an end to all possible hairsplitting
+on that point, and prove that it was nothing more nor less than
+stealing, and a sense of guilt left her without any moral support
+against her fright. She was only conscious of utter humiliation, and an
+abject desire to beg off on any terms.
+
+"What do you go round stealin' folks's melons for, young woman? Don't
+yer folks bring yer up better 'n that? It's a dodrotted shame to 'em, ef
+they don't. What did ye want with the melons? Don't they give yer enough
+to eat ter home, hey?"
+
+"We were going to have some supper, sir," she replied, in a scared,
+breathless tone, with a little hope of propitiating him by being
+extremely civil and explicit in her replies.
+
+"Who was havin' supper to this time er night?" he snorted incredulously.
+
+"We girls," was the faint reply.
+
+"What gals?"
+
+Had she got to tell where she came from and be identified? She couldn't,
+she wouldn't. But again came that dreadful shake, and the words faltered
+out:--
+
+"Over at the Seminary, sir."
+
+"Whew! so ye 're one er them, are ye? What's yer name?"
+
+Cold dew stood on the poor girl's forehead. She was silent. He might
+kill her, but she would n't disgrace her father's name.
+
+"What's yer name?" he repeated, with another shake.
+
+She was still silent, though limp as a rag in his grasp.
+
+"Wal," said he sharply, after waiting a half minute to see if she would
+answer, "I guess ye'll be more confidin' like to the jedge when he
+inquiries in the mornin'. A night in the lock-up makes folks wonderful
+civil. Now I'll jest trouble ye to come along to the police office," and
+he walked her along by the arm toward the house.
+
+As the horrible degradation to which she was exposed flashed upon Lina,
+the last remnant of her self-control gave way, and, hanging back with
+all her might against his hand, she burst into sobs.
+
+"Oh, don't, don't! It will kill me. I'll tell you my name. It's Lina
+Maynard. My father is a rich merchant in New York, Broadway, No. 743. He
+will give you anything, if you let me go. Anything you want. Oh, please
+don't! Oh, don't! I could n't! I could n't!"
+
+In this terror-stricken, wild-eyed girl, her face streaming with tears,
+and every lineament convulsed with abject dread, there was little enough
+to remind Arthur Steele of the queenly maiden who had favored him with
+a glance of negligent curiosity that afternoon. He stopped marching her
+along and said reflectively:--
+
+"Lina Maynard, hey! Then you must be the gal that's down on Amy Steele
+and would n't ask her to the party to-morrow. Say, ain't yer the one?"
+
+Lina was too much bewildered by the sudden change of tack to do more
+than stammer inarticulately. I am afraid that in her terror she would
+have been capable of denying it, if she had thought that would help
+her. Her captor reflected more deeply, scratched his head, and finally,
+assuming a diplomatic attitude by thrusting his hands in his pocket,
+remarked:--
+
+"I s'pose ye 'd like it dummed well ef I was to let yer go and say
+nothin' more about it. I reelly don't s'pose I 'd orter do it; but it
+riles me to see Amy comin' home cryin' every day, and I 'll tell ye what
+I 'll do. Ef you 'll ask her to yer fandango to-morrer, and be friends
+with her arterward so she 'll come home happy and cheerful like, I 'll
+let ye go, and if ye don't, I 'll put ye in jug overnight, sure's taxes.
+Say Yes or No now, quick!"
+
+"Yes, yes!" Lina cried, with frantic eagerness.
+
+There was scarcely any possible ransom he could have asked that she
+would not have instantly given. She dared not credit her ears, and stood
+gazing at him in intense, appealing suspense, as if he might be about to
+revoke his offer. But instead of that, he turned down the huge collar of
+the old overcoat, took it off, threw it on the ground, and, turning
+up the slouch of his hat, stood before her a very good-looking and
+well-dressed young gentleman, whom she at once recognized and at length
+identified in her mind as the one walking with Amy that afternoon, which
+now seemed weeks ago. He bowed very low, and said earnestly enough,
+though smiling:--
+
+"I humbly beg your pardon."
+
+Lina stared at him with dumb amazement, and he went on:--
+
+"I am Arthur Steele. I came home on a vacation to-day, and was sitting
+up to watch father's melon-patch for the pure fun of it, expecting to
+catch some small boys, and when I caught you, I couldn't resist the
+temptation of a little farce. As for Amy, that only occurred to me at
+the last; and if you think it unfair, you may have your promise back."
+
+Lina had now measurably recovered her equannimity, and, ignoring his
+explanation, demanded, as she looked around:--
+
+"How am I to get out of this dreadful place?" mentally contemplating
+meanwhile the impossibility of clambering through that fence with a
+young gentleman looking on.
+
+"I will let down the bars," he said, and they turned toward the fence.
+
+"Let's see, this is your melon, is it not?" he observed, stooping to
+pick up the booty Lina had dropped in her first panic. "You must keep
+that anyhow. You 've earned it."
+
+Since the tables turned so unexpectedly in her favor, Lina had recovered
+her dignity in some degree, and had become very freezing toward this
+young man, by whom she began to feel she had been very badly treated.
+In this reaction of indignation she had really almost forgotten how she
+came in the garden at all. But this reference to the melon quite upset
+her new equanimity, and as Arthur grinned broadly she blushed and stood
+there in awful confusion. Finally she blurted out:--
+
+"I didn't want your stupid melon. I only wanted some fun. I can't
+explain, and I don't care whether you understand it or not."
+
+Tears of vexation glittered in her eyes. He sobered instantly, and said,
+with an air of the utmost deference:--
+
+"Pardon me for laughing, and do me the justice to believe that I 'm
+in no sort of danger of misunderstanding you. I hooked too many melons
+myself as a boy not to sympathize perfectly. But you must really let me
+carry the melon home for you. What would the girls say, if you returned
+empty-handed?"
+
+"Well, I will take the melon," she said, half defiantly; "but I should
+prefer not to have your company."
+
+He did not reply till he had let down the bars, and then said:--
+
+"The streets are not safe at this hour, and you 've had frights enough
+for one night."
+
+She made no further objections, and with the watermelon poised on his
+shoulder he walked by her side, neither speaking a word, till they
+reached the gate of the Seminary grounds. There she stopped, and,
+turning, extended her hands for the melon. As he gave it to her their
+eyes met a moment, and their mutual appreciation of the humor of
+the situation expressed itself in an irrepressible smile that seemed
+instantly to make them acquainted, and she responded almost kindly to
+his low "Good-evening."
+
+Amy came home jubilant next day. Lina May-nard had invited her to her
+party, and had been ever so good to her, and there was nobody in the
+world like Lina. Arthur listened and said nothing. All the next week
+it was the same story of Lina's beauty, good-nature, cleverness, and
+perfections generally, and, above all, her goodness to herself,
+Amy Steele. Lina was indeed fulfilling her promise with generous
+over-measure. And after once taking up with Amy, the sweet simplicity
+and enthusiastic loyalty of the child to herself won her heart
+completely. The other girls wondered, but Lina Maynard's freaks always
+set the fashion, and Amy, to her astonishment and boundless delight,
+found herself the pet of the Seminary. The little blonde, Lina's
+sweetheart, alone rebelled against the new order of things and was
+furiously jealous, for which she was promptly snubbed by Lina, and Amy
+taken into her place. And meanwhile Lina caught herself several times
+wondering whether Arthur Steele was satisfied with the way she was
+keeping her pledge.
+
+It was Wednesday night, and Arthur was to return to New York Thursday
+morning. Although he had walked the street every afternoon and had met
+nearly all the other girls at the Seminary, he had not seen Lina again.
+His mother, whom he took about a good deal on pleasure drives, seriously
+wondered if the eagerness of city life was really spoiling his faculty
+for leisurely pleasures. He always seemed to be looking out ahead for
+something, instead of quietly enjoying the passing sights and scenery.
+He had consented to accompany Amy to a little church sociable on the
+evening before his departure. It was a species of entertainment which he
+detested, but he thought he might possibly meet Lina there, as Amy had
+said some of the Seminary girls would be present.
+
+At once, on entering the vestry, he caught sight of her at the other end
+of the room among a group of girls. At the sound of the closing door
+she glanced up with an involuntary gesture of expectancy, and their
+eyes met. She looked confused, and instantly averted her face. There was
+plenty of recognition in her expression, but she did not bow, the real
+reason being that she was too much embarrassed to think of it. But
+during the week he had so many times canvassed the chances of her
+recognizing him when they should meet that he had become quite morbid
+about it, and manifested the usual alacrity of persons in that state of
+mind in jumping at conclusions they wish to avoid. He had been a fool to
+think that she would recognize him as an acquaintance. What had he done
+but to insult her, and what associations save distressing ones could she
+have with him? He would exchange a few greetings with old friends, and
+then quietly slink off home and go to packing up. He was rather sorry
+for his mother; she would feel so badly to have him moody and cross on
+the last evening at home. Just then some one touched his sleeve, and
+looking around he saw Amy. She put her flushed little face close to his
+ear and whispered:--
+
+"Lina said I might introduce you. Is n't she beautiful, though,
+to-night? Of course you 'll fall in love with her, but you must n't try
+to cut me out."
+
+Arthur was Amy's ideal of gentlemanly ease and polish, and she had been
+very proud of having so fine a city brother to introduce to the girls.
+Imagine her astonishment and chagrin when she saw him standing before
+Lina with an exaggeration of the agitated, sheepish air the girls made
+such fun of in their rural admirers! But if that surprised her, what
+was her amazement to see Lina looking equally confused, and blushing to
+where her neck curved beneath the lace, although the brave eyes met
+his fairly! A wise instinct told Amy that here was something she didn't
+understand, and she had better go away, and she did.
+
+"The melon was very good, Mr. Steele," said Lina demurely, with a
+glimmer of fun in her black eyes.
+
+"Miss Maynard, I don't know how I shall beg pardon, or humble myself
+enough for my outrageous treatment of you," burst forth Arthur. "I
+don't know what I should have done if I had n't had an opportunity for
+apologizing pretty soon, and now I scarcely dare look you in the face."
+
+His chagrin and self-reproach were genuine enough, but he might have
+left off that last, for he had n't been looking anywhere else since he
+came into the room.
+
+"You did shake me rather hard," she said, with a smiling contraction of
+the black eyebrows.
+
+Good heavens! had he actually shaken this divine creature,--this
+Cleopatra of a girl, whose queenly brow gave her hair the look of
+a coronet! He groaned in spirit, and looked so self-reproachful and
+chagrined that she laughed.
+
+"I don't know about forgiving you for that, but I 'm so grateful you
+did n't take me to the lock-up that I suppose I ought not to mind the
+shaking."
+
+"But, Miss Maynard, you surely don't think I was in earnest about that?"
+he exclaimed, in strenuous deprecation.
+
+"I don't know, I 'm sure," she said doubtfully. "You looked as if you
+were capable of it."
+
+He was going on to protest still farther when she interrupted him, and
+said laughingly:--
+
+"You take to apologizing so naturally that I 'd nearly forgotten that
+it was not you but I who was the real culprit. I must really make a few
+excuses myself before I hear any more from you."
+
+And then she told him all about her brother Charley's letter, and the
+spirit of emulation that had got her into trouble. It was easy enough to
+joke about certain aspects of the matter; but when she came to talk in
+plain language about her performances that night, she became so much
+embarrassed and stumbled so badly that Arthur felt very ill at ease.
+
+"And when I think what _would_ have happened if I 'd fallen into
+anybody's hands but yours, you seem almost like a deliverer." At which
+Arthur had another access of humiliation to think how un-chivalrously
+he had treated this princess in disguise. How he would like to catch
+somebody else abusing her that way! And then he told her all that he had
+thought and felt about her during the stealing scene, and she gave her
+side of the drama, to their intense mutual interest.
+
+"Is n't it about time we were going home, Arthur?" said Amy's voice.
+
+He glanced up. The room was nearly empty, and the party from the
+Seminary were waiting for Lina.
+
+"Miss Maynard, may I call upon you in New York during vacation?"
+
+"I should be happy to see you."
+
+"_Au revoir_, then!"
+
+"_Au revoir!_"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Hooking Watermelons, by Edward Bellamy
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