Pumpkin

“ IN THE PUMPKIN
Leave go my hands. Let me catch breath and see,
What is this confine either side of me?
Green pumpkin vines about me coil and crawl,
Seen sidelong, like a ’possum in a tree,—
Ah me, ah me, that pumpkins are so small!
Oh, my fair love, I charge thee, let me out;
From this gold lush encircling me about;
I turn and only meet a pumpkin wall.
The crescent moon shines slim,—but I am stout,—
Ah me, ah me, that pumpkins are so small! [758]
Pumpkin seeds like cold sea blooms bring me dreams ”

“ The pumpkin is monœcious: flowers with stamens and flowers with pistils inhabit the same house, the same vine. Before they are full-blown they can easily be distinguished from each other. The flowers with pistils have under the corolla a large swelling which is the ovary, the future pumpkin. The blossoms with stamens have not this swelling. Well, from one pumpkin vine standing apart in the garden let us cut off all the buds with stamens before they open, and leave those with pistils. ”

“ Meanwhile the Quangle-Wangle threw back the pumpkin with immense force, so that it hit the rocks where the malicious little boy in rose-colored knickerbockers was sitting; when, being quite full of lucifer-matches, the pumpkin exploded surreptitiously into a thousand bits; whereon the rocks instantly took fire, and the odious little boy became unpleasantly hotter and hotter and hotter, till his knickerbockers were turned quite green, and his nose was burnt off. ”

“ At the birth of each a pumpkin is to be planted in the garden: it will bring forth one fruit, wherein the child’s strength will reside. Afterwards, when one of the pumpkins is cut and carried away, the corresponding youth falls ill, until it is recovered.7.2 Here the pumpkin is rather the life itself than the life-token; but the distinction, as we shall hereafter see, is not very important. A Tirolese variant of The Two Sisters who envied their Cadette describes the gardener who rescues the children as planting a gilliflower for each of the two boys, and a rose for the girl. ”

“ Very often the pumpkin has a wife whose fibre is as close as his is loose, and whose nature is as tough as his is soft; a hard-eyed, thin-lipped, tenacious woman, who speaks little and boasts not at all, but who does all she wishes to do, and whose iron will pins her pumpkin to the wall as the spear of the Bushman pins the elephant or the rhinoceros. It is very curious to see how a blatant blustering man who is so loud and confident abroad, knocks under at home ”

“ The pumpkin-vendor is coy, and his cry has a winning pathos; his is not an easy vegetable to launch on the market, and he has developed into a very bashful person. His cry is cooing and subtle: he almost caresses you into buying, which is necessary, as no one in his right senses really desires a pumpkin. The fruiterer is different. He is handsome, fat-cheeked, and has scarlet lips, strong black hair curling in ringlets, and gold rings in his ears. His adjuration is a round, full, resonant roar, like a triumphant hymn; and there is altogether a certain Oriental splendour about his demeanour. ”

“ Over on the ridge, some miles to the westward of the Macwahoc-Kingman road, stands a sole survivor of the old-time pumpkin pines. Forty and fifty feet from the earth toward its limbs the birches and beeches lift whispering leaves. Timber and cat-spruce and resinous fir spire higher yet and fling incense toward him. Sixty and seventy feet they reach, growing tenuous to the tip of nothingness, yet the stately column of his trunk soars half a hundred feet beyond their tops, lonely and unapproachable. ”

“ Some merry wag or other scoops out a ripe pumpkin, carves eyes and a mouth in it, sticks a burning light inside, and hangs it up by way of a lantern, and the girls shriek and pretend to be terribly frightened. ”

“ Cinderella went at once to gather the finest she could get, and brought it to her godmother, not being able to imagine how this pumpkin could help her to go to the ball. Her godmother scooped out all the inside of it, leaving nothing but the rind. Then she struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly turned into a fine gilded coach. ”

“ My mother went home and found the pumpkin-tree where never a tree had been growing before, and at its roots she buried the string of beads. Next morning, bright and early, she went to the pumpkin-tree and called for one pumpkin. Down it dropped from the tree. For a long time my mother and her children were happy and growing fat. Every day a big pumpkin would be cooked, and as my mother had to leave us so as to attend to her work, enough [Pg 57] pumpkin would be left in the pot to last us all day. ”

“ What God does is done well. Without going round the world to seek a proof of that, I can find one in the pumpkin.
A villager was once struck with the largeness of a pumpkin and the thinness of the stem upon which it grew. "What could the Almighty have been thinking about?" he cried." He has certainly chosen a bad place for a pumpkin to grow. ”

“ When God had made all the creatures, he called every one of them and told them what their food should be. Among the birds was the titmouse. To her God turned and said, “Thy food shall be the seed of the pumpkin.”
The titmouse, knowing that the seed of the pumpkin was very sweet, did not wait to hear whether God said anything more, but, greedy and impatient, ran as fast as she could, relishing beforehand the delightful food which God had given her. So coming down to the earth, she alighted on a field in which maize was growing, and among it a large number of pumpkins. ”

“ Jill. "Let's bring our pumpkins to school and make our lanterns at noon."
"Yes, yes, that is just the thing!" they shouted.
"Then when they are finished we can ask Miss Phillips which is the prettiest."
As if a Jack-o'-lantern could ever be pretty!
The next morning there was a funny sight in the dressing-room.
Under each hook was a pumpkin.
There were big ones, little ones, fat ones, long ones, short ones, yellow ones, and green ones.
In fact, no two pumpkins were alike, except of course, Jack's and Jill's.
"It will never do for us to have ours different," said Jill. ”

“ Here and there great pumpkins, hollowed out to admit of the flower-pot with its growing green, make unique jardinières. A bunch of corn, where the ear is red, tied by means of a bow of yellow ribbon to the chandelier, admits of the same suggestion as the mistletoe of Christmas time, and makes a pretty spot of color, besides being the cause of much quiet fun.
A pretty feature is to have a pumpkin table brought in during the refreshments and hold a guessing contest, which gives an opportunity for much merriment and for the giving of prizes to the lucky guessers. ”

“ We started for the cornfield, Charlie carrying the poles and the can of bait and I the lunch and the paper sack of pumpkin seed. The pumpkins we were to plant were to be used to feed the stock—cow pumpkins they were called, and they were big and coarse-grained and not good for pies. ”

“ Having each some shingles of thought well dried, we sat and whittled them, trying our knives, and admiring the clear yellowish grain of the pumpkin pine. ”

“ Erect at each end of the screen a comic pumpkin lantern head, with white paper fastened on the inside over the features to light them up, instead of a real light placed inside. Slide each pumpkin head on the end of a pole, and rest the pumpkin firmly on four long, strong nails driven in around near the top of the pole. The lower end of each pole may be steadied and supported by being inserted in a hole bored through the centre of a heavy piece of plank, where it must form a very tight fit; or you can sink the pole into a deep pail of stones and earth. ”

“ For, remember, we have only eleven days left before the Black Leaf disappears—and if it is not found before then the Pumpkin will remain with us for a year until the Leaf appears again and another search can be made.
“Those who volunteer outside the City are advised to search in couples, as the Pumpkin will be a constant source of danger to a person alone, whereas, if there are two of you, one can always keep watch while the other searches difficult places, or rests for a while.” ”

“ Have great fruit in this country; apples big as pumpkins; not very large pumpkins, small-sized pumpkins, diminutive pumpkins, infantile pumpkins, just emerged from blossomhood, and ere they have assumed that golden overcoat which maketh their maturer friends so glorious to the view. And pumpkin pies, manufactured by the sable god of the kitchen; pies enormous to behold; wherein after they are ready to be devoured you might wade up to your knees in that noble compound which filleth the interior thereof, and maketh the pie savory and nectarean ”

“ The brothers, who had succeeded in lifting the gigantic vegetable, were frightened at seeing Iaïa approach, and let fall the Pumpkin, which was, in consequence, cracked in several places. From the fissures thus made poured forth such a volume of water, that the whole earth was inundated: and from this circumstance the oceans were formed.——The Chinese honour the Pumpkin or Gourd as the emperor of vegetables. The vegetable was considered by the ancients to be an emblem of abundance, fecundity, prosperity, and good health. To dream of Pumpkins, however, is considered a very bad omen. ”

“ For the centerpiece of the table there may be a hollowed pumpkin,
filled with apples and nuts and other fruits of harvest, or
a pumpkin-chariot drawn by field-mice. So it is clear that this
is a harvest-party, like Pomona's feast. In the coach rides a
witch, representing the other element, of magic and prophecy.
Jack-o'-lanterns, with which the room is lighted, are hollowed
pumpkins with candles inside. The candle-light shines through holes
cut like features. So the lantern becomes a bogy, and is held up at
a window to frighten those inside. ”

“ The pumpkin is made with a strong wire frame (can be made at any hardware store) , and covered with a deep yellow cambric with an occasional green smutch painted upon it. It is in two hemispheres and is tied together strongly at the bottom and loosely at the top, so that the fairy inside can easily loosen the top string and step out when Mrs. Santa cuts open the pumpkin with a large carving-knife.
In case it is not practicable to have a pumpkin-frame made, substitute for it a gigantic snowball made of cotton-wool, covered with diamond-dust to sparkle like snow-crystals. ”

“ She told me that we must keep it a secret until All Hallow E’en, and then take the pumpkin with a tallow drip shining inside him, lighting his funny face, down through the street to show the other children. ”

“ The black children absolutely dance and scream when they see one, pumpkin and sugar being their delight. To the half of a shrivelled pumpkin hanging at the door of my tent on my first essay in settling, one of our sooty satyrs could do nothing for some minutes but fidget and skip ”

“ The pumpkin has sturdily kept its own place on the New England farm, varying in popularity and use, but always of value as easy of growth, easy of cooking, and easy to keep in a dried form. Yet the colonists did not welcome the pumpkin with [143] eagerness, even in times of great want. They were justly rebuked for their indifference and dislike by Johnson in his Wonder-working Providence, who called the pumpkin "a fruit which the Lord fed his people with till corn and cattle increased" ”

“ Deep coloured pumpkins are generally the best. In a dry warm place they can be kept perfectly good all winter. When you prepare to stew a pumpkin, cut it in half and take out all the seeds. Then cut it in thick slices, and pare them. Put it into a pot with a very little water, and stew it gently for an hour, or till soft enough to mash. Then take it out, drain, and squeeze it till it is as dry as you can get it. [192] Afterwards mash it, adding a little pepper and salt, and a very little butter.
Pumpkin is frequently stewed with fresh beef or fresh pork. ”

“ A pumpkin is an exceedingly awkward thing to carry, and the Irishman had not gone far before he made a misstep, and stumbled. The pumpkin fell to the ground, rolled down the hill into a "brush—heap," and, striking against a stump, was broken. The story continues in the dialect: "W'en de punkin roll in de bresh—heap, out jump a rabbit; en soon's de I'shmuns see dat, he take atter de rabbit en holler: 'Kworp, colty! ”

“ Daddy told me, and he’s going to help. You hollow out the insides of the pumpkin and cut round holes for the eyes and make a nose and a mouth with teeth and put a candle inside, and I’ll say he’ll look scary.”
“Won’t he though!” exclaimed Grandma. “To meet a jack-o’-lantern like that on a dark night would make a body shiver. I just know it would. Brother Charlie and [188] I used to save the biggest pumpkins for Hallowe’en. In the summer we would pick out certain pumpkin vines in the cornfield and take special care of them so that the pumpkins would grow extra large for jack-o’-lanterns. ”

“ Now I love you for this—and 'tis this delicious mixture within you which makes you dear creatures what you are—and he who hates you for it—all I can say of the matter is—That he has either a pumpkin for his head—or a pippin for his heart,—and whenever he is dissected 'twill be found so. ”

“ The pumpkin is out of place in the small garden because of its rampant growth, but a few plants of the New England Pie variety should be grown wherever there is room for it, to supply material for the delicious pumpkin pies most of us enjoy so much in winter. ”

“ They hung in every nook and corner. Even the jardinières filled with flowers were made of them. Wood was crackling and blazing in the large fireplace, as if anxious to do its part to make every one happy, and hanging from the chandelier was a branch of evergreen, with nuts suspended in such a fashion that they readily fell to the floor when given a slight shake. Before this was done, however, each child was given a paper bag to hold the nuts, which tumbled in all directions. Then a huge pasteboard pumpkin covered with yellow crinkled paper was brought in. ”