A Pumpkin and a Prince 



pendous girth in the mellow, late- 

 September sun in all its golden glory. 

 "They can't beat it," I said to my- 

 self, and to the fair it went. And do 

 you know that the fool judges didn't 

 have any more sense than to pass it 

 by and stick the ribbon that carried 

 that dollar onto a fat, heavy, orange- 

 colored globe that wasn't half as big 

 around as my own, and left me broken- 

 hearted! Mine was flat on top and 

 bottom to be sure, but any tapeline 

 in the world would have convinced any 

 committee with the ability to read 

 plain figures and measure accurately 

 that I was clearly entitled to win! 

 And so came, like a bolt from the blue, 

 what still seems to me to have been the 

 first truly bitter disappointment of 

 my life. I have had some other dis- 

 appointments since, but none that 

 made a more profound impression. 

 And father got his too. A favorite 

 trotting nag of his "broke" badly 

 coming down the home-stretch of that 

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