AND HIS PLANT SCHOOL 9 



muskmelons and squashes grew here also; but the great 

 golden pumpkins were not allowed in this garden. They 

 grew among the corn in the larger field. 



Luther was fond of tracing his initials, with the point 

 of a penknife, on the little pumpkins and of watching the 

 letters increase in size as the pumpkins did. A circus 

 parade passed by the field one day, and, as the pumpkins 

 grew to maturity, on them were seen in outline elephants, 

 lions, tigers, and other circus attractions. 



These pictured pumpkins caused much merriment and 

 comment when exhibited at the county fair that fall. 

 This, however, did not save them from serving as Jack-o'- 

 lanterns at Hallowe'en. Those which escaped that ex- 

 perience were ready to be made into pie for Thanksgiving 

 dinner. It was of such pumpkins as these that Whittier 

 sang: 



"O fruit loved of boyhood the old days recalling, 

 When woodgrapes were purpling and brown nuts were 



falling, 



When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, 

 Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! 

 When we laughed around the corn heap with hearts all 



atune, 



Our chair a broad pumpkin our lantern the moon, 

 Telling tales of the fairy that traveled like steam, 

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



