It was but the work of a moment for Jube to get the melon to the brow of the hill, and, poising it there, he gave it a rather smart push with his foot, and away it went down the steep. At the start, the wobbly, end-to-end movement by which it progressed indicated a rather tardy arrival at the Rosewood estate, but rounding the first knoll, and getting the sudden impetus of its dip, the enterprise of that fruit was so remarkable that Jube, with his legs going like a pair of drumsticks, could hardly keep up with it. Another bulge in the roadway jumped, and a livelier pace was imparted to the melon, and, panting like a winded hound, Jube threw out his half-shod feet with frantic energy, shouting all the time:
"Hol' on dar! Hol' on dar! Yo'll lan' in de stun fence sho', an' squash all yo' nat'al senses!"
Alas that the water-melon didn't take warning! As it reached the foot of the hill, and passed the Rosewood cabin, where Jube's brothers and sisters were wonderingly watching the chase, the boy's foot slipped on a cobble-stone, and as the melon rolled into a little gulley, head-first into its bulging surface landed the unfortunate Jube.
Was he hurt? Bless you, no. He was a little staggered, perhaps, but as between him and the water-melon, had you been there to have witnessed the result, you would surely have given your every ounce of sympathy to the melon. It was turned completely inside out, and spread over the grass-plot in every direction. Wasn't there a scene when Jube got himself to rights, shook the melon pits out of his hair, and shouted:
"Hey! Heyo! Clem! Cuffle! Mimy! Zekal! Pheby! Shuffle ober here libely an' he'p me sop up dese 'freshments. Dey's goin' to waste."
Almost in the wink of an eye about a dozen dusky youngsters were assembled at the scene of the wreck, and as they distributed themselves about the remains, and began a-feasting, the looks that gleamed from the eyes bulging over the green rims of an array of fruit fragments told how thoroughly they appreciated the inquest of Jube's water-melon.
JUBE'S WATER-MELON.