THE UNOSTENTATIOUS CUCUMBER.
THE first basket of cucumbers appeared in our market last week. Cucumbers
are man's earliest friends. In appearance they are the most unpretentious
among vegetables; but in character they take the precedence. When a cucumber
first comes around, there is a general feeling of uneasiness, arising from
a doubt, whose subtle influence is felt throughout the community. But this
uneasiness wears off alter a while, and suspicion gives way to genuine regard.
In fact, there is not a vegetable which comes to the market that will command
the respect a cucumber receives. When we see a cucumber, we are led to look
back over its career. It has been a stormy one, even under the most favorable
circumstances possible to cucumber development. Only about one in ten starting
even in life ever reaches a position in society. There is some recompense,
of course, in the excitement which arises from the dangers; and we can well
believe that it must be eminently gratifying to a successful cucumber, when
it has gained the victory, to find, that, instead of sinking into helpless
old age,
it has been taken into the bosom of an enthusiastic family, and
in a very few hours will be exploring them. Nothing excites a cucumber. This
has been its record since time began; and its self-possession, even in the
presence of the most famous physicians and most successful coroners, has
given rise to a popular proverb. What a cucumber has got to do, it does with
all its might. It enters upon the work with intense enthusiasm; but it patiently
waits the time of action. The great depth of its nature is hidden from the
world until about three A.M.
