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- I know how a prize watermelon looks when it is sunning
- its fat rotundity among pumpkin vines; I know how to tell
- when it ripe without "plugging" it; I know how inviting
- it looks when it is cooling itself in a tub of water under
- the bed, waiting; I know how it looks when it lies on the
- table in the sheltered great floor space between house and
- kitchen, and the children gathered for the sacrifice and
- their mouths watering; I know the crackling sound it makes
- when the carving knife enters its end, and I can see the
- split fly along in front of the blade as the knife cleaves
- its way to the other end; I can see its halves fall apart
- and display the rich red meat and the black seeds, and the
- heart standing up, a luxury fit the elect; I know how a
- boy looks behind a yard-long slice of that melon, and I
- know how he feels; for I have been there.
-