Caddie Woodlawn...Cont.

The second book about Caddie isn't only about her.  Some chapters are dedicated to members of her family while others are about her neighbours.  The first story is about 10-year-old Caddie who, along with her older brother Tom (aged 12) and younger brother Warren (aged 8) innocently get into another one of their scrapes.  While playing hide-and-seek in the haymow one day, Warren found something 'cold and slick' under the hay.  Hoping that it was 'that buried treasure Warren was wanting', the three dug furiously until they victoriously unearthed...WATERMELONS??!  Certainly NOT what was expected and, as a child, this would have been the focus of my interest. 

Now, I'm far more interested in why the watermelons were there, how long they had been there and how long were they expected to last.  Some quotes:

"But Father sold the last of the melons in town a month ago!" objected Tom reasonably.

'Yet there they were, more than a dozen beautiful green and yellow-striped watermelons, carefully hidden under the hay.  Tom tapped them with his thumb and forefinger, and they seemed to be sound and in excellent condition.'

"But listen!"  marveled Warren.  "The few melons that were left in the field frosted and turned rotten several weeks ago."

 'The magical melon was the best one they had ever tasted,...They would not have seemed magical if it had not been long past the season for them.'

'And it was over a week before they thought of the melons again....the melons were still there...'

'Almost every week now another melon followed its predecessors...and almost every week, the treasure under the hay grew smaller.'
'One Sunday afternoon in late November...'

'And each was carrying a beautiful, big green-and-yellow-striped melon...'

"Well, Sir," said Robert, "I don't know as you know it, but melons will keep a long time if they're packed in hay in a cool place.  So, as there were more melons than could be used or sold,...decided we'd bury a goodly number of them and bring them out as a surprise when the melon season was past."
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All of these quotes show the condition of the melons, how late in the season it was, the condition that the melons should have been in, the shock of every member of the family that this particular food item could be preserved in such a way.  The only thing they don't show is my shock.  I knew somewhat that food could be stored in the basement in pails packed with earth or sand but melons would be subject to mice, rats, racoons, skunks and anything else that happened to wander into the barn.

We did not grow melons this year in our garden but I can't let that stop me.  I just have to buy some melons this year and try this.  What a great idea if it works and it could possibly work also for pumpkins and squash.

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