The Pumpkin Patch

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“Today,” Mother said, “we shall go to the pumpkin farm.” Ben and Meg were very excited.

After their main lesson, Ben and Meg helped Mother make lunch so they could go to the pumpkin farm. Mother told them they could help her make pumpkin pie when they got home. Pumpkin pie is Ben’s favorite pie. Meg likes apple pie, and asked when they could go to the apple farm. Mother said, “Next week we will go to pick apples.”

When they arrived at Mr. Smith’s pumpkin farm, Ben and Meg were surprised to see so many pumpkins. There were big ones and little ones. Meg wanted to pick a little one, but Ben said he wanted to find the biggest pumpkin in the patch. Mother said, “That will be pretty big. You will not be able to pick it up.”

Ben didn’t care. He began looking for a very big pumpkin. He saw the biggest pumpkin he had ever seen. It was so big he could not pick it up. “Mother, Mother,” he shouted. “Come look!”

Mother ran over to see Ben’s pumpkin. It was a very big one. It was so big Ben could not pick it up. “We will have to ask Mr. Smith to bring this to the car in his wagon,” Mother said.

“But how will we get this in the house?” Meg asked.

Mother thought for a minute and said, “Maybe it could be an outside pumpkin.”

Ben and Meg asked if they could carve a face on it and Mother said she thought that would be fun.

Mr. Smith and his helper got the big pumpkin into the car along with a smaller pumpkin. As they drove home, they talked about how they would get the big pumpkin out of the car. Ben thought maybe Mother could back the car up to the spot where they wanted it to be and he could get a board from the garage to put up to the car. Then they could roll it down the board. “What a fine idea,” said Mother.

Soon they were home and everybody got to work getting the big pumpkin out of the car. Meg said she thought Daddy would be very surprised. Ben and Meg wanted to carve a face in the pumpkin before Daddy got home. Mother asked Ben and Meg if they wanted to name the big pumpkin. Meg said she thought his name should be “Happy,” and Ben liked that. He said, “We will call him Mr. Happy Face.”

When they were finished carving his happy face, Mother found a candle. Mother put the candle inside so they could light up Mr. Happy’s face after dark. “What a great idea,” said Ben.

“Won’t Daddy be surprised,” said Meg.

Ben thought it might be fun to hide behind Mr. Happy Face and jump out and say “Surprise!” when Daddy came home. Ben and Meg waited until six o’clock and ran outside to hide behind Mr. Happy Face. They were so excited it was hard to keep still. Soon they heard Daddy’s car coming in the drive. They waited until he got out of the car, and then they jumped out and said, “Surprise!” Daddy was truly surprised. He had never seen such a big pumpkin.

They all went into the house to eat dinner and after dinner there was another surprise. Mother, Ben, and Meg had made pumpkin pie with the smaller pumpkin. Daddy was very happy to have pumpkin pie and said it was a great day of surprises for him.

“Going to the pumpkin farm was fun,” said Meg, “and next time we will pick apples to make apple pie.”

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