The San Francisco call., 1908-07-05

men ana there were several also on the
barges.
Meanwhile we had been growing az a
prediSious pace. and the tendency
which We first had to turn our heads
upward toward the sun had remained
with US. This constant EFFORT to look
upward had indeed made US do so and
we had gradually curved ourselves
until every banana of the 264 on the
stem had made himself point almost
directly upward. This change Of posi-
tion. together with our rapid increase
in size. had brought US all in close con-
tact with each other and with the stem
on which we grew until we formed an
almost solid mass. Along came the
cutters again. One of them took a
look at US and yelled to his companion
in the next row: John, here is a fine
one. This is y handler. / am sure"
Immediately he said this his great
knife swung swiftly through the air
and we felt a sudden jar such as we
never before had experienced. We
must have been heavy. for instantly
the great stalk on which we had relied
for support began to give way and we
found ourselves moving through the
air at rapid rate. AS we came down.
ward the cutter caught US, as we had
seen him do the others, gave US a sud
den sidewise swing and cut US loose
from our parent. The next stroke
the purple bulb and we were lying on
the ground simply bunch OF bananas
The cutter rolled US over and began to
count US He said to his companion:
Yes. this bunch has u hands and
there are % bananas in each hand /"
He then put US on his shoulder. carried
US to the river bank and laid US along
side of several other punches. each OF
which looked as we'll filed as we In
a few hours the steamboat came and
we were bundled in with the rest
After a long, dreary journey full OF
noise and strange scenes we saw a new
world Everything was white. The
wind was extremely cold. We shivered
Some one In the crowd called this
white stun snow" The man at the
end of the line said "hrstS." and we
were taken from our vessels with the
others of our class. Before daybreak
every bunch OF our shipload OF $4,000
had been taken out and placed on cars
busy switch engine jerked the cars
about and whipped them into line, and
big Mogul engine backed down and
attached itself to the front end OF the
train Of so cars.
Then we sped to the north. jostlinr
along over a railroad and trying to ac-
custom ourselves to a new sensation OF
motion differing entirely from that
produced by the rolling of the ship.
We kept up the pace that day and
night and the next day and half the
night. stopping here and there on a
siding to let another train go by, and
finally brought up in an immense city
where there seemed to be millions OF
people. Our train was there broken IN
and many OF the cars were switched
to different lines running in various
directions. Our car was run on a sid
ing and early in the morning men with
We, with other punches, were loaded
on one OF these wagons and taken 70 a
commission house, where we were sus-
pended wrong end up, that Is instead
of being placed in the same relative
position in which we grew. with our
heads toward the sun, we were hung
up exactly the other way, so that we
pointed toward the earth.
We hung thus for few hours vvha,
groceryman paid the commission
man s2.7S for our bunch. put US In his
wagon, and, after a trip OF several
blocks in which we thought we would
freeze, We were carried into the gro
eery and. again suspended wrong
end up. as we had been in the commits
sion house. Soon customers began to
purchase us, and u at q time. paving
10 cents for or 25 cents for a dozen
of our number
We noticed the grocer began to re-
move us from the lower end OF the
bunch and when he was about half
way along the stem I was cut loose
with IL others of the % which had
composed our hand or "whorF' and
went into a basket along with soma
groceries. Shortly after this we were
delivered to the purchaser, carried into
Kitchen and piled on a fruit dish
with some oranges. apples. etc. Be-
rore we got to the table however, a
hungry boy grabbed me and one of nv
companions, whom he quickly de-
voured
My turn comes now. He is ready 70
strip me Of my protecting cover and 7
see my finish.