XIV.THE RUNAWAY PUMPKIN.
“I don’t see,” said Van as they were all seated on the rug before the library fire, listening to one of Polly’s stories, “how you ever do think of such splendid things, Polly Pepper.”
“That’s nothing,” said Jasper, “to the stories she has told time and again in The Little Brown House in Badgertown.”
“Oh, tell us one of those now!” begged Van eagerly, “do, Polly Pepper;” and “do, Polly Pepper,” cried Percy and little Dick together. And “do, Polly” said Jasper pleadingly, “if you are not all tired out.”
“Oh, I’m not tired!” said Polly, shaking back the little fluffs of hair from her brow. Then she sat looking into the fire a minute.“I guess I’ll tell you of ‘The Runaway Pumpkin.’”
“I guess I’ll tell you of the Runaway Pumpkin,” said Polly.
“I guess I’ll tell you of the Runaway Pumpkin,” said Polly.
“Do,” cried Jasper in great satisfaction. “Iremember that; that’s fine. Now, keep still, you three chaps, or else Polly can’t tell it. You’re worse than the menagerie any day,” as the boys began to express their enthusiasm in such a babel, Polly could scarcely get a word in by way of beginning.
“Well, once upon a time,” began Polly, trying to frown at them; but instead, the brown eyes were laughing as she hurried on, with quite a flourish. “You must know that my story is all about the time when animals talked, and pumpkins walked, and”—
“Oh, don’t have any poetry!” began Van in alarm; “that’s perfectly horrid. Don’t, Polly.”
“Why, it isn’t in poetry,” she said.
“Yes, ’tis,” contradicted Van.
“Look out,” cried Jasper. “The first chap who contradicts will get off from this rug, and have no story at all.”
“I didn’t mean,” began Van.
“No, he really didn’t mean to contradict, I believe, Jasper,” said Polly. “But what did make you think I was going to tell you a poetry story, Vanny? Why I couldn’t if I wanted to. Tell me”—
“Why, you said the animals talked, and the pumpkins walked.”
“Oh, dear me!” cried Polly, almost tumbling over on the rug, and laughing merrily, in which they all joined; “I didn’t know I made a rhyme. So I did say that, didn’t I? Well, you needn’t be frightened, I won’t do so any more. I don’t believe I could if I wanted to. Now, then,” and she sat straight, and wiped her eyes, “I’ll begin again.”
“And if you interrupt another time, old fellow,” said Jasper in his fiercest fashion, and he pretended to make a dive for Van’s coat-collar, “out you go, sir, neck and heels. Go on, Polly; I’ll keep this chap straight.”
“Well, pumpkins did walk and talk too,” said Polly, plunging on in her gayest mood, “in those days I’m telling you about. Now, Farmer Stebbins had a big field of them,—oh! it was as big as this house and the grounds, and way, way off,—I don’t know how far; and every single bit of it was full and running over with pumpkins.”
“How many?” cried Van thoughtlessly.
“Sh!” Jasper held up his hand, and made a great show of springing in Van’s direction,which made that individual duck suddenly behind Percy’s back.
“You see, he had to have a great many pumpkins to take to market, because there were such lots of children at his house, and that was all they had to live on.”
“Did theyeatpumpkins?” cried Percy in a tone of disgust.
“They didn’t exactly eat them,” said Polly, “at least not all the while; but they ate the things their father bought with the money he sold them for at the market.”
“Oh!—well, go on.”
“And every day all those children would climb up to all the windows in Farmer Stebbins’s house, and watch to see the pumpkins growing bigger. And the first thing they did in the morning was to run out and count them to see if anybody had run off with any in the night.”
“How many were there?” asked Van, bobbing up from his retirement.
“Sh!” cried Jasper.
“Oh! I don’t know; about a million, I suppose,” said Polly recklessly.
“O Polly Pepper!” exclaimed Percy in astonishment;“why, that can’t possibly be true.”
“Of course it isn’t,” said Polly coolly; “this is a make-believe story, you know.”
“And if you two chaps don’t keep still, you’ll get no story,” declared Jasper again. “Here’s Dick, now, is as quiet as a mouse. You might learn manners from him.”
“I want to hear Polly Pepper tell the story,” said little Dick, folding his hands tightly together.
“Of course you do,—so we all do; and that’s the only way we can hear it by keeping quiet. Well, go on, Polly, please.”
So Polly began again: “Well, the pumpkins grew and grew. First they were green, you know, and funny little things, and the vines quite covered them. And then they grew bigger, and swelled all up fat and round, and ran their heads through the green leaves; and the frost came one night, and bit the grass and all the tender things everywhere, and the next morning when all the Stebbinses ran out, it didn’t seem as if there was anything in the world but big yellow pumpkins. All the vines were just puckered and shrivelled up. But the pumpkinswere just as proud as could be; and they said, ‘Now we’ve got the whole world to ourselves.’
“And Farmer Stebbins went up and down among them all, rubbing his hands just like this;” and Polly looked so like him that everybody burst out laughing; “and he said, ‘Now, says I, my fine pumpkins, we’ll put you in a pile very soon, and when your coats get yellow, away you go to market.’”
“What did he mean?” demanded Percy.
“Be still, and she’ll tell you,” said Jasper.
“And sure enough, what do you think. Every single one of those million pumpkins soon found himself in a great big pile against the barn, and there they were to stay until the farmer said they were yellow enough. Then away they would drive to the market!
“Well, one cold night everybody had gone to bed in the farmhouse, and even Snap the great brindled dog was asleep, and all was as still as it could be, when one yellow pumpkin up top of the very tip of the pile whispered, ‘Hist!’ and every other pumpkin listened with all his might to hear what he was going to say.
“‘We are all very foolish,’ said the Tip Top Pumpkin, ‘if we stay here to be carted off to that old market, where somebody comes along to buy us to carry us home to eat up.’
“‘What can we do?’ cried all the others straight through the big pile.
“‘Hush—don’t make such a dreadful noise,’ warned the Tip—Top—Pumpkin, ‘or we shall have the whole house after us. I’m not going to be made up into a Thanksgiving pie, I can tell you.’
“At the word ‘pie,’ all the other pumpkins shivered so that down came the pile rolling and clattering to the ground; and some of them were going so fast they couldn’t stop, but kept right on and were never seen more.
“‘Let’s all run,’ said the Tip Top Pumpkin suddenly. ‘Come on.’ With that he tumbled himself down with a will, and set off down the road towards the village. But the other pumpkins didn’t dare to follow, but they huddled together just where they fell. And so Tip Top, I’m going to call him, went on alone. But he didn’t care, and he sang to himself as he rolled along just as jolly and gay; and thefirst thing he knew, an awful thing came thwacking on his back, and a big hand said, ‘Here, stop there! you’re coming with me.’ And he looked up and saw a giant.”
“Oh! oh!” screamed the three boys.
“‘Oh! no, I’m not going with you,’ gasped poor Mr. Tip Top; ‘I’m going by myself, thank you.’ And he wished a thousand times he was back again on the snug pile with the other pumpkins.
“The great big giant only laughed; and he slipped the pumpkin into his pocket, where he rattled round no bigger than a hickory nut.”
“Oh, dear me!” exclaimed Percy, while Van struck his hands together in delight. “And then the giant stamped on the ground, and poor Mr. Tip Top thought it thundered, and he began to beg with all his might to be let out. And in a minute some boys, three or four times as big as Farmer Simpson in size, came running up. ‘What do you want, master?’ they cried.
“‘Catch me a young elephant,’ roared the giant at them. ‘A juicy, tender one, and half a dozen young lions for sauce. And then run home and heat the pot boiling hot; for I’vegot a juicy pumpkin in my pocket for a nice little morsel to go with them.’
“Oh, how poor Mr. Tip Top trembled down deep in that giant’s dreadful pocket! It was as black as a well; and however much he struggled, he knew he never could get up.
“‘Please, Mr. Giant,’ he said in a very weak voice, he was so afraid, ‘do let me out. You are so big I could only make you a mouthful, and I want to go home.’
“‘Be quiet!’ roared the giant at him, ‘or I’ll chew your head right off in one bite now.’
“So poor, miserable Mr. Tip Top had nothing to do but to roll into the farthest corner of the pocket, and shiver and shake, and hope for some means of escape. And away sped the giant across the fields; and then the poor pumpkin knew he was being carried to the castle under ground where the giant lived, and that he would never come out alive—oh, dear, how he shivered and shook!
“And pretty soon, down went the giant over a long pair of steps, two at a time, then down some more, till the poor pumpkin’s head became quite dizzy. And at last he stopped,and stamped on the ground; and Mr. Tip Top was very sure this time that it thundered.
“‘What ho!’ screamed the giant, ‘is everybody asleep that you do not come when I call?’ And there was a great scampering; and all the little giants and Mrs. Giant, and all the servants came running as fast as could be. And the ground shook like everything, till poor Mr. Tip Top thought he should die of fright.
“‘See what I’ve brought,’ cried the giant in a dreadful voice; and he tipped up his pocket, and out rolled the yellow pumpkin. All the giants and giantesses and Mrs. Giant raced after him with dreadful big steps; but he rolled under a big stone chair, cut out of the side of the rock that the cave was made of. ‘Oh, save me—save me!’ he cried; and he began to cry as hard as he could.
“‘I’ll catch him,’ cried every one of those dreadful creatures hunting for him. And at last one great big giant boy seized him, and carried him off in triumph; but the others ran after him, trying to get the pumpkin away; and there was such a dreadful time as they tossed poor Mr. Tip Top back and forth like a big yellow ball, that his head spun round and roundon his shoulders, until old Father Giant roared out, ‘Stop playing with him; for the pot is boiling hot now, and I’m going to have him for my supper. I won’t wait for the elephant and the little lions, for I’m very, very hungry.’ And the pumpkin was so scared at that, that he gave a great jump, and rolled away into a crack in the floor; and although every one of those giants and giantesses got down on their knees and flattened their faces to see him, they couldn’t get him out. And old Father Giant, in great anger, said he would have to stay there till the next day, when he would send for the carpenter to take up the floor. Then he should be boiled in the pot for a sweet morsel with his dinner. Oh, how poor Mr. Tip Top shivered and shook!
“And about the middle of the night, when not a single person was awake, and every thingwas as still as a mouse, there came a little call just beside the crack,‘Pumpkin! say, Pumpkin, don’t you hear me?’
“Pumpkin! say, Pumpkin, don’t you hear me?”
“Pumpkin! say, Pumpkin, don’t you hear me?”
“‘Oh, I guess I do!’ said poor yellow Mr. Tip Top; ‘it’s Johnny Stebbins.’
“‘Yes ’tis,’ said the voice, ‘it’s Johnny Stebbins, and I’ve come to save you.’
“‘If you will only get me out of here,’ said the yellow pumpkin, ‘I’ll go home and be just as good. I never’ll run away in all this world again, never. You can take me to market, and I’ll go along as nice as can be.’
“‘Yes,’ said Johnny; ‘you must go along good; for you see all the pumpkins have to be carried to market, for we shouldn’t have anything to live on if they didn’t.’
“‘I know it,’ said Mr. Tip Top quite humbly; ‘oh, do get me out!’
“‘Well, I will,’ said Johnny; ‘but you must do just as I say.’ So the yellow pumpkin promised he would; and Johnny ran around the outside of the cave, and pretty soon Mr. Tip Top heard him say ‘Roll over here.’ So the yellow pumpkin rolled in the direction of the voice; and there was a hole big enough for him to get out of, and oh! in a minute there he was out inthe fresh air. And then Johnny said, ‘Roll home now as fast as you can; I’m going to stay and scare the big giant and Mrs. Giant and all the little giants, and cut their heads off.’
“‘Oh, dear, Johnny!’ cried Mr. Tip Top, and he burst out crying, ‘do come home. He’ll kill you, and chew your head off.’
“‘Pshaw! no, he won’t!’ said Johnny; ‘and I’ve got to kill that old giant and Mrs. Giant and all those dreadful giantesses, else they’ll steal all our pumpkins. See what I’ve got;’ and he ran behind a big tree, and came out again with a perfectly horrible head of a wild beast with flaming eyes and a big mouth and—”
“Oh, a jack-o-lantern!” screamed Percy and Van and Dick together.
Polly nodded gayly and dashed on. “Mr. Tip Top took one look at it, and he said very bravely, ‘I’m going to stay too, and help you. Make me look like that.’ So in two minutes Mr. Tip Top had flaming eyes in him, and a horrible big mouth, out of which he kept saying, ‘Now we’ll scare them twice as soon. Come on, Johnny!’ And in they crept into the cave.
“Oh, dear! you never heard such screamsand roars! The giant called for his sword, and his servants; and then he huddled under the bed-clothes, and pulled them up over his ears. So Johnny cut off his head easy enough; and Mrs. Giant ran screaming out of the cave, and she was going so fast she couldn’t stop herself running down the hill, and so she rolled into the pond at the bottom; and all the little Giant boys and girls ran this way and that and climbed into the trees, so they were all caught, and the servants too. And then Johnny took a great piece of sealing-wax he had brought along in his pocket, and stuck the stone door fast so it couldn’t be opened. And then away he and Mr. Tip Top went home.
“And Farmer Stebbins was so pleased with Mr. Tip Top that he said he should sit up on top of the big old clock in the kitchen. And there he is now, I suppose!” finished Polly with a flourish.