I looked her up and found this :-) Her grandfather was the inventor of the Miller Platform Coupler and Buffer (trains).
Following the tale is an article describing how the muskmelon seed bags were made. It places the peak of melon seed bag fancy work around 1850, by my calculations.
THE MUSKMELON BAG.
It was fall. In the magnificent sitting room of the wealthy Mrs. Symes, sat Grace, her only grandchild, eighteen years of age, and very pretty. She had been embroidering a silk handkerchief, but now as she looks at the clock her work falls from her hands and she jumps up exclaiming;
"Why! It is four o'clock and grandma is not home yet. Something must be the matter. I will go and see."
Just as she is putting on her hat, her grandmother, a stately old lady with pure white hair, enters, looking very much excited.
"Grace ! Grace! come here child, I have lost my melon bag and all that money I was to take to the bank."
"Grandma, you do not mean your tin money-box?"
"Yes, yes, child. What shall I do? It was a small fortune, all the money I received for rents to-day from Johnson, $1,500, and my melon bag that your dear mother made for me a short time before she died."
"But how did you come to lose it?"
"Well, you see I don't know exactly myself, for I did not miss it until I reached the bank."
"Do you suppose some one cut it from off your arm?"
"No! I did not meet any one. The road was very muddy and I had to keep going from one side to the other to avoid the puddles and I suppose I lost it then. I have hired men to search the road and have offered a large reward for it in the papers."
A month having passed and not hearing anything of the bag and box of money, Mrs. Symes gave up the search and started with Grace, whose health was not very good, for the south to spend the winter.
It is spring now and the flowers are beginning to open and the trees have put on their leaves.
Mrs. Symes and Grace have returned from the south with renewed health. Nothing has been heard of the money and the people have ceased to talk about it.
On the road to the village, a short distance in the woods, stands a dilapidated hut. There is only one room in this building, and that contains but little furniture. An old straw mattress serves for a bed, and a soap box for a chair, on which widow Ross, careworn and sick, with her three-months' old babe in her arms sits, while her bright little boy of ten, stands with his arm around her neck, saying in a brave sweet voice: "Never mind, mother dear, I will go and earn some money and take care of baby Hope and you, for since the cruel fire killed my father and destroyed all we had, and you nearly lost your life from exposure and want, you have no one to depend on but me." He then kissed her and went out.
As the little boy, Guy Ross, by name, entered the village, his heart failed him, for he sees no chance for a boy of his tender age in that bustling place. But on he goes, wiping the tears from his eyes with his ragged coat sleeve. He wanders over all the streets without meeting a kind face, or getting any thing to do, nor even so much as a crust of bread, for he was too proud to beg and he turns his face with a heavy heart towards home. Just before he reaches the path which bears off the road to his house, he noticed a vine growing by the wayside. Guy examined it and found it to be a muskmelon vine.
"Ah!" said he, "I will take it home and when it bears melons, I can sell them in the village. But till then? Oh! the good Lord will take care of us and feed us, as papa said when he was dying."
He then began digging around the plant with his hands. Soon he struck something hard which he thought to be a rock.
"Poor little plant,'' said Guy, as he put his hand under the roots and lifted it out of the ground, "I will plant you in a better place than this, and where there are no rocks."
On looking into the hole, he saw not a rock, but a rusty tin box.
"Why! this must be somebody's tobacco box. I'll take it home and plant my vine in it"
He lifted the box out of the earth,
when lo and behold! there in the bottom of the hole was a dirty piece of blue satin, covered on one side with muskmelon seeds and rusty steel beads.
Guy, satisfying himself that there was nothing more, started home to show them to his mother.
On arriving at the house he ran in calling "Mama! mama! see what I have found!"
"Let me see it," said she wearily, taking it from him.
"Is this all you have got? Could you get no work, dear?"
"No, mama, but I ." He got no
further, for his mother who had been rubbing the rust off the box with an old rag, suddenly exclaimed: "Why, Guy, just look, this seems to be a tin bank, and here," she continued, "is a plate, with a name on it, and the box is locked. Try if you can make out the name, Guy."
"Let's see," said Guy. "S-y-m-e-s, Symes." He stood and looked at his mother and she at him. They were both so surprised. At length Mrs. Ross managed to say: "Where did you find it dear?" Then Guy told her all about it.
"Well, I do declare, I really believe it is Mrs. Symes' money that she lost. You remember the money that your father spent so much time looking for?" exclaimed Mrs. R., as Guy finished. "Oh, yes, and papa said that a large reward was offered for it in the papers."
"Yes, dear, I think this must be it. Come, let me brush off your clothes with the broom and then you go and wash your face and hands in the brook, while I wrap the box in a piece of newspaper."
Guy obeyed and soon came in again.
"There," said his mother, "now go to Mrs. Symes' house and ask for her. Tell her all you know about the box and how you came to find it, and most probably she will give you a reward."
Mrs. Ross kissed him tenderly and watched his manly little figure until it disappeared from her view.
As for Guy he ran as fast as his short legs could carry him and soon reached Mrs. Symes' house. He timidly rang the door bell, and when the butler, in livery, opened the door, he asked for Mrs. Symes. He was ushered into the hall and told to wait there a few minutes, as "my lady" is dressing. She came down soon, however, and as she saw Guy, said in a pleasant voice: "Well, my little man, did you want to see me?"
"Yes, ma'am," answered Guy, "I want to know if this is yours?"
"Why !" said the old lady, astonished, "this is my money box !" and taking a little key from her watch chain she tried it to the lock and the lid sprang open. "Well, of all the wonders," began Mrs. Symes, and then addressing Guy again, continued, "where did you get this, and how did you find it?"
So Guy told her all about finding the vine by the road-side and how, on digging it up to take home, found the box and part of the old bag."Well, you deserve a reward. Have you any relatives and what is your name?"
"My name is Guy Ross, I have a mother and baby sister. Papa was hurt in the big fire last winter and died soon after. We are very poor," he concluded, "and mama and I are nearly starved. We live in that hut on the S road.''
"Poor little thing! James! Bring some lunch right away for this honest boy, and then be sure and take a large basket of good things down to that house on the S road for Mrs. Ross. This boy will show you the way after he has had his lunch." "Now, my good boy," she said, as Guy was leaving the house, "tell your mother to come up to-morrow, I want to see her and have a talk about business." "Good night, dear kind lady," replied Guy, and then, accompanied by the butler, with a heavy basket on his arm, Guy walked rapidly home with a lighter heart than he had had since his father died.
The following Monday we find Mrs, Ross installed as housekeeper in the great mansion of Mrs. Symes, and preparations were being made to send Guy away to a boarding school at Mrs. Symes' expense.
Mrs. Symes did not take the money found in the old box, but put it in a savings bank for Guy, for as she told his mother "such a good and honest boy well deserves it."
Mrs. Symes, in thinking it over after the excitement of the finding of the bag and money, came to this conclusion: The bag must have fallen from her arm where the ground was very soft and sinking into the mud. disappeared from sight. Then, in the spring, a single melon seed that was not injured in the making of the bag, sprouted and grew there until found by Guy.
Adele R. Miller.
Mahwah, N. J., March, 1890.
[Our little authoress is only fourteen years old. We think the story remarkably good for one so young.—Ed.]
MELON SEED BAG
The old-fashioned melon seed and bead work of our great-grandmothers has been revived. This work is done with horse hair or silk and a needle. The only preparation necessary is to spread the seeds on a dish and allow them to dry.
"Poor little thing! James! Bring some lunch right away for this honest boy, and then be sure and take a large basket of good things down to that house on the S road for Mrs. Ross. This boy will show you the way after he has had his lunch." "Now, my good boy," she said, as Guy was leaving the house, "tell your mother to come up to-morrow, I want to see her and have a talk about business." "Good night, dear kind lady," replied Guy, and then, accompanied by the butler, with a heavy basket on his arm, Guy walked rapidly home with a lighter heart than he had had since his father died.
The following Monday we find Mrs, Ross installed as housekeeper in the great mansion of Mrs. Symes, and preparations were being made to send Guy away to a boarding school at Mrs. Symes' expense.
Mrs. Symes did not take the money found in the old box, but put it in a savings bank for Guy, for as she told his mother "such a good and honest boy well deserves it."
Mrs. Symes, in thinking it over after the excitement of the finding of the bag and money, came to this conclusion: The bag must have fallen from her arm where the ground was very soft and sinking into the mud. disappeared from sight. Then, in the spring, a single melon seed that was not injured in the making of the bag, sprouted and grew there until found by Guy.
Adele R. Miller.
Mahwah, N. J., March, 1890.
[Our little authoress is only fourteen years old. We think the story remarkably good for one so young.—Ed.]
The following is another melon seed article from 1893.
MELON SEED BAG
The old-fashioned melon seed and bead work of our great-grandmothers has been revived. This work is done with horse hair or silk and a needle. The only preparation necessary is to spread the seeds on a dish and allow them to dry.
Cucumber seeds are the ornament chosen for a small work bag made of a piece of satin, twelve inches long by fourteen broad. It is gathered firmly together at the bottom and has a heading nearly two inches deep at the top.
A string of twenty seeds, each separated with a steel bead, forms the foundation of the net, whose divisions extend in rays. In the second row two seeds with a steel bead in the middle are threaded between two in the first, and so on until the ninth row, two seeds are always threaded between the two of the lower row, the number of the beads being increased by one every row.
The bottom of the bag and the ends of the draw strings are finished off with tassels made of beads and seeds.
1893 - Health and Home - A Monthly Journal of Health and Domestic Economy
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