Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-09-04
Old Times.


had handed Father Adam good ripe
Georgia melon, l should not have been
astonished TO have read that he sat
down under a good shade and ate the
melon; but. to have stopped to eat an
apple, has always made me think that
Father Adam was d man with no very
set principles. i can recall some things
that took place in my earliest days
that go To make ME think there must
be something in the sight of good
melon that gees to the very heart. |
was asked, only few days ago, if
ever stole IA watermelon. | said, mo,
L never did; but l did get caught in a
mans melon patch, one day, by the
owner, and it was just this way:
1t was the first year we were in the
Valley. l had been out hunting, way
up Stout's Creek, and it was very hot
and / was very tired, and thirsty,
and hungry. l came to field.
looked over the fence, and, right be-
fore me, was about an acre of NICE, ripe
melons! ] climbed over the fence and
picked good good, nice melon, seat
ed myself under neig boring tree, and
cut good slice from the melon. All,
but wasn't it good, delicious, splendid?
All at once, felt hand on my shout
der, and, on looking up, saw the owner
standing behind me. He said, 1--WE
got you this timew
/ said, Eyes, and this is a very nice
melon; won't you sit down and take a
When thou CONTEST nto thy nelgh bor s
vineyard, then thou m8yest eat grapes
to thy fill at thine own pleasure; but
thou shalt not put any in thy vessel.
When thou contest into the standing
corn of thy neigh Dor, then thou mayest
pluck the ears with thy hand; but
thou shalt not move sickle into thy
neigh boris standing corn"
DO you say that is in the Bible?
don't believe it says any such thing"
at don'I? You just turn to the
twenty-third chapter of Deuteronomy,
the oath and % verses. and read for
yourselves; and in Proverbs it says,
Men do not despise thief, if he steal
t, satisfy his soul when he is hungry"
No, sir, it is not stealing if l enter a
mans melon patch and eat melons to
satisfy my hunger; but to go in the
night TIM, while the good man is
asleep, and carry away and destroy
what he does not carry away is right
down thieving meanness. l have all
my life had, each year, in its season, a
good melon patch, and in all these
years had no melons stolen, but one.
looked at the foot marks in the soft soil;
in few days / saw in the dust of the
road just such track, and / followed
it up. soon came to the owner of that
track. / walked up to him and said:
Lift up those feet Of yours"
He said. mo, | never stole those
melons of yours"
Ibid / say you did? o you need not
lie about it; you know you did," And
he just broke down and acknowledged
the corn. So much tor tracking.
The year we built my house, we bad
a splendid melon patch, and the way
we ate melons was a sight. 1t almost
takes my breath away now to think
what quantities of peaches and melons
we would eat each day. In the morn
ing, when we would go to work, each
fellow would fill his pockets or apron
with peaches. and when we passed
the melon patch each one would take
one or two melons along; and on each
trip to and from the house, at each
meal time, it was the same thing.
That same year we had man hired.
He was a short, thick-set fellow, and
always went barefoot in warm weather,
and wore pair of big. thick, buck skin
breeches. He looked so funny, for they
were large enough for a man twice as
big as he was. The bottoms of the
legs would get wet every morning COM
ing through the wet grass and bushes,
and would stretch way down under his
feet; but when the sun would get up hot
his breeches would get dry and shrink
up around his legs. One day on our
way back to work, we we're all in the
melon patch loading up; this old man
picked two melons and put them ms lde
of his pants before him. One of my
brothers picked two more and slipped
them in the backside of his pants, and
they went down in the joint OF his leg
behind the knee. How we did laugh
and hollow to see HIM try to walk. AS
he was moving along one side at time,
be studded his toe and fell flat on the
ground, and smashed the melons in
the fore side. There he lay, for he
could not turn over nor get up, to save
his life. We bad to strip his pants off
of him and get the smashed melons
out: and such looking object as be
was! all soaked in melon juice.
One fall, after the time for eating
melons was past, we had large guam
tity of nice large melons left. MY
mother said one morning, at looks
like pity to see so many nice melons
go to waste. The people in old times
made molasses of corn stalks, and I
think the juice ola good melon is much
sweeter; if you will bring good load
over to the house, L will see what can
be done with them" After removing
the pulp from the rind, it was pressed