II. 



THE FRUITS IN CONVENTION. 



February, 1850. 



WHAJ an extraordinary age is this for conventions ! Now-a- 

 days, if people only imagine something is the matter, they 

 directly hold a convention, and resolve that the world shall be 

 amended. We should not be surprised to hear next, of a conven- 

 tion of crows, resolving that the wicked practice of setting scare- 

 crows in cornfields be henceforth abolished. 



Sitting in our easy chair a few evenings since, we were quite sur- 

 prised to see the door of our library open, and a small boy dressed 

 in dark green, who had something of the air of a locust or a grass- 

 hopper walk in with a note. 



It was an invitation to attend a mass meeting of all the fruits of 

 America, ass enabled to discuss the propriety of changing their names. 

 Horrified at the revolutionary spirit, we seized our hat directly, and 

 bade the messenger lead the way. 



He lost no time in conducting us at once to a large building, 

 where we entered a lofty hall, whose dome, ribbed like a melon, was 

 lighted by a gigantic chandelier, in the form of a Christmas tree, 

 the lights of which gleamed through golden and emerald drops of 

 all manner of crystal fruits. 



In the hall itself were assembled all our familiar acquaintances, 

 and many that were scarcely known to us by sight. We mean our 

 acquaintances the fruits. On the right of the speaker sat the 

 Pears ; rather a tall, aristocratic set of gentlemen and ladies, many 

 of them foreigners, and most of them of French origin. One could 



