JUNIOR NATURALIST MONTHLY. 



0, — fruit loved of boyhood! The old days recalling, 



When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! 



When wild, ugly faces we carved on its skin, 



Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! 



When we laughed round the corn-heap with hearts all in tune, 



Our chair a broad pumpkin, — our lantern the moon, 



Telling tales of the fairy who traveled like steam. 



In a pumpkin-shell coach with two rats for her team, 



— John Greenleaf Whiitier. 



LESSON I.— THE PUMPKIN. 



L. H. BAILEY. 



In October the cornfields were golden with pumpkins. The com 

 was in shocks. The tassels were ripe and dry, and hung downward 

 as if mourning for the dying year. The maple leaves, yellow and red^ 

 were falling to the ground like flocks of brilliant birds. Lonely 

 hickory trees held on to their dun-3'ello^^' leaves as if loth to let them 

 go. But the pumpkins seemed to be in their prime. Fat and sleek 

 they lay between the corn shocks, and shone out among the drying 

 weeds. We did not remember to have seen them before. 



It is now November. Heavy frosts have come. One night the 

 brook was frozen nearly to its middle. Much of the corn is still in the 

 shock, but the pumpkins have been taken under cover. They lie in 

 heaps on the barn floor. The hay and straw falls over them. Still 

 the old cow can smell them. I like to sit on them, and run my 

 fingers dovni their smooth, broad grooves. 



In some parts of the State, I miss the pumpkins in the cornfields. 

 These are the regions in which there are many silos; corn is grown 

 in large fields ; corn harvesters are used. The absence of the pumpkin 

 tells me of a change in the kind of farming since I was a child. Now 

 you want to ask me some questions; but I shall ask them first of you. 

 Some one in school or in your neighborhood can answer them for you^ 

 if you do not know. 



My first questions are these: 



L What is a silo and what is it used for? 



2. What do the farmers who have silos raise to sell? 



3. Why are pumpkins so often planted amongst corn? 



4. Do 3^ou know of any other kinds of plants that grow underneath 

 taller plants (look under the trees, even in the dooryard; and in the 

 orchard; and under the currant bushes)? 



