Karen's Pumpkin Patch by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2016-08-24T04:00:00+00:00

The Great Pumpkin

One morning I woke up at the big house. Autumn was in the air. My window was open, and my room felt chilly. I breathed in. I could smell damp leaves and chimney smoke. Someone had built a fire.

I climbed out of bed and crept to the window. I looked outside. I hoped I could see smoke coming from the chimney. Then I would know who was lucky enough to have a fire in their fireplace.

But I did not see smoke curling into the air. Instead I saw something orange and horrible in the street. It was … a smashed pumpkin.

“Yikes!” I cried. “Kong!”

I did not even bother to change out of my nightgown. I threw a sweat shirt on over it. I scrambled into a pair of boots. Then I ran all the way downstairs and outside. The air was freezing and the ground was stiff with frost, but I kept running. I did not stop until I was in the pumpkin patch, standing by Kong’s house. I saw his stem poking through the chimney hole. Then I knew he was safe.

“That was scary, Kong,” I told him. “I guess your house is a good disguise, though.” I lifted up the house and set it aside. Kong needed sunshine during the day. I would put the house back at nighttime.

After breakfast, David Michael and Andrew and Emily and I looked at the smashed pumpkin in the street. Seeds were everywhere.

“Poor, poor pumpkin,” I said.

“Pumpkin,” repeated Emily.

“Pumpkin-smashers are meanie-mos,” said Andrew.

“Meanie-mos,” repeated Emily.

“This is a tragedy,” said David Michael.

(Emily Michelle could not say tragedy.)

I spent a lot of the day in the pumpkin patch with Kong and Irv and Martha. The longer I stayed there, the warmer the day became. It felt like spring. But I knew it was Indian summer.

“Daddy?” I said sometime during the afternoon. “May I sleep in the pumpkin patch with Kong tonight? I have to protect him.”

“Oh, honey, I don’t know.”

“But the pumpkin-smashers have been making trouble. And anyway now it is warm because it is Indian summer. Please? Sleeping in the patch will be just like camping out…. Puh-lease?”

Finally Daddy said I could sleep in the patch. But he said he would make me come inside if it got cold. I felt like Linus, who waited for the Great Pumpkin in the Peanuts cartoon.

After dinner I went to Kong’s patch. I took a sleeping bag and a flashlight with me. I asked David Michael and Andrew and Kristy if they wanted to come with me, but they all said no. I hoped I would not be bored.

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