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“Is it to look out for thieves？”
“No. If passers-by are thirsty and pick a watermelon， folk down our way don’t consider it as stealing. What we have to look out for are stoat，hedgehogs and zha. When you hear a crunching sound under the moonlight，made by the zha when it bites the melons， then you take your pitchfork and creep stealthily over… ”
I had no idea then what this thing called zha was—and I am not much clearer now， for that matter—but somehow I felt it was something like a small dog， and very fierce.
“Don’t they bite people？”
“You have a pitchfork. You go across， and when you see it you strike. It’s a very cunning creature and will rush towards you and get away between you legs. Its fur is as slippery as oil… ”
I had never known that all these strange things existed： at the seashore were shells all the colours of the rainbow； watermelons had such a dangerous history， yet all I had known of them before was that they were sold in the greengrocer’s.
“管贼么？”
“不是。走路的人口渴了摘一个瓜吃，我们这里是不算偷的。要管的是獾，剌猬，猹。月亮地下，你听，啦啦的响了，猹在咬瓜了。你便捏了胡叉，轻轻地走去……”
我那里并不知道这所谓猹的是怎么一件东西——便是现在也没有知道——只是无端的觉得状如小狗而很凶猛。
“他不咬人么？”
“有胡叉呢。走到了，看见猹了，你便剌。这畜生很伶俐，倒向你奔来，反从胯下窜了。他的皮毛是油一般的滑……”
我素不知道天下有这许多新鲜事：海边有如许五色的贝壳；西瓜有这样危险的经历，我先前单知道他在水果店里出卖罢了。
