d some more splinters, and this
time it fairly lifted itself off the ground. It said, 'Ah, I see!' as if
it had somehow expected to do something of the kind all along; but it
had to be pretty careful getting up the fence not to knock its blossom
off, for that would have been the end of it; and when it did get up
among the morning-glories it almost killed the poor thing, keeping it
open night and day, and showing it off in the hottest sun, and not
giving it a bit of shade, but just holding it out where it could be seen
the whole time. It wasn't very much of a blossom compared with the
blossoms on the good little pumpkin vine, but it was bigger than any of
the morning-glories, and that was some satisfaction, and the bad little
pumpkin vine was as proud as if it was the largest blossom in the world.

"When the blossom's leaves dropped off, and a little pumpkin began to
grow on in its place, the vine did everything it could for it; just gave
itself up to it, and put all its strength into it. After all, it was a
pretty queer-looking pumpkin, though. It had to grow hanging down, and
not resting on anything, and after it started with a round head, like
other pumpkins, its neck began to pull out, and pull out, till it looked
like a gourd or a big pear. That's the way it looked in the fall,
hanging from the vine on the fence, when the first light frost came and
killed the vine. It was the day when the farmer was gathering his
pumpkins in the cornfield, and he just happened to remember the seeds he
had planted in the home-patch, and he got out of his wagon to see what
had become of them. He was perfectly astonished to see the size of the
good little pumpkin; you could hardly get it into a bushel basket, and
he gathered it, and sent it to the county fair, and took the first
premium with it."

"How much was the premium?" asked the boy. He yawned; he had heard all
these facts so often before.

[Illustration: TOOK THE FIRST PREMIUM AT THE COUNTY FAIR.]

"It was fifty cents; but you see the farmer had to pay two dollars to
get a chance to try for the premium at the fair; and so it was _some_
satisfaction. Anyway, he took the premium, and he tried to sell the
pumpkin, and when he couldn't, he brought it home and told his wife they
must have it for Thanksgiving. The boy had gathered the bad little
pumpkin, and kept it from being fed to the cow, it was so funny-looking;
and the day before Thanksgiving the farmer found it in the barn,