284 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



fidentially that, if I desired to know what a melon ought 

 to be, he would forthwith gratify the wish. Beaming with 

 complacent smiles, he led me to the place of melons ; but 

 when we reached it, his countenance fell. The weather was 

 intensely hot, and the thirsty judges had obeyed implicitly 

 the directions of the schedule, that the merits of the fruit 

 were to be decided by flavour. Half of my friend's melon 

 had gone the way of all flesh (fruit), and a card, resting upon 

 the remainder, thus announced the verdict of the censors — 



Fourth Prize, 



IS. 



In vain I essayed to mitigate his woe by cheerful, I may 

 say humorous, remarks as to the melon-cholic retribution 

 which would surely overtake those unrighteous men. It was 

 the sort of thing, he informed me, with which pleasantness 

 had no connection whatever, belonging, as it did, to that 

 sphere of incidents which he described as being "a long 

 way above a joke." Then, with a stern but sorrowful ex- 

 pression, which signified, I thought, that he was going to 

 punish the universe severely, in the discharge of a very 

 painful duty, he turned to me and said — ^' I shall not exhibit 

 melons again^ 



