The Democratic pioneer. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1845-1853, 1848-10-20
How to steal vatermelons.

The Sunday Dispatch. Of Philadelphia,
tells capital story on this head, the g's'
Of which will be found below. II appears
,ha, one Jacob Slringer, quiet, elderly
sort Of wotkingman, with a good charac
ter for honesty. got possessed with de~
sire to taste watermelon from the pa ch
Of a neighber named Bennett. His eye
was on the patch for long time, his
mouth water.d, and he halted between
conscience and desire:
"At last, however, the watermelons be-
came rire. Jacob knew it though he had
never seen them; and now the temptation
vas irresistible, Onr hero, though with
many compnnctions, determined to have
one only one; and that very night he
vowed il should be dune.
Evening came. and after feeling in
his pocket il his jack.knife was safe, he
star ed on his expedition. The road
seemed 10 him unusually long and dreary
and several times he felt little frIgh,en
ed. The truth is, he had never underta
ken such an expedition before, and not
W i,hout reason has the great poet written
that conscience doth make towards Of u:
an.'
I'VE are now at sol1 Bennett's' fence
and Jacob is over, and cautiously advan
cling to where he knew the 'pa'ch' mn,
be-uot unnoticed, however. 'Old Beh
net knew the value OF his melon crop
and that, if he would keep il. he mus
watch il; and watch it he did, as the dra
gon Of old watched the fruit Hesperaden
No sooner had Jacob crossed the tenc
than the owner Of the melons advanced
from his hiding place, and was about I
, hail the intruder, when, to his surprise
he discovered who ii was.
\ Now Jacob " as about the last man th a
Bennett would have expected to come a
night to rob bis melon patch, and eve
now, as he cautiously moved on befor
. him. lie almost doubted. Nevertheless,
t he earthly TO Lowed him. The d-preda,o
AIMED at once tor the patch. There wa
no moon, bn atew stars shed light enoug
to enable him to fnd his way into til
m DIST. Hastily selecting promising one
lie s.ruck once more for the fence, sti
followed d., 'old Bennett Crossing it, b
threw himself aud his prey down into ~
mds, Of the bushes, muttering as he di
so--'Wal. old fellow, you have done
this limel'
The jack knife vas soon produced AN
4 q slice hew ed ontj but no sooner was II,
, first mou,hfu taken than he spu'tered
out. exclaiming-sH is cussed gree
I pankin!' A moment after he went on
= You are nice old fool you are. Jacob,
4 should guess! an honest, clever old fellow
n SO The neighbors all say. You are a 81,
o pid hog, Jacob. you are! You are RAJ
a caly old fool you are, jacob You woul
steal watermelons, would you! and yo
have stole a cussed green punk,n! Wei
oil fellow, you pould seal steal lI--nov
g cuss YOU, you shall eat i'll Suiiiug It
ctton to the word he began to devn,
I his p ze with many expressions OF DISCUS
ano with a determination to keep the 81
iool' 20 il. A. last the task was acc"n
pl shed and he rose to depart, nut, erin
as he did so, TO the infinite anu. .ement
old Bennett, who said nothing, Y ou infe
nal ass, it serves you r,gh! You are NJ
:, Fl for a rascal. Any man who has no mol
gumption than TO sreaI pnnkIn ms ea
f watermelon, had better keep hones
He'll never make any thing out of h
r,scaiIty.''