here, boys? Jack-o'-lantern? Well, well. That's a
good one!'

"He came up and looked at the pumpkin-glory, and he bent back and he
bent forward, and he doubled down and he straightened up, and laughed
till the boys thought he was going to kill himself.

"They had all intended to burst into an Indian yell, and dance round the
pumpkin-glory; but the funniest papa said, 'Now all you fellows keep
still half a minute,' and the next thing they knew he ran into the
house, and came out, walking his wife before him with both his hands
over her eyes. Then the boys saw he was going to have some fun with her,
and they kept as still as mice, and waited till he walked her up to the
pumpkin-glory; and she was saying all the time, 'Now, John, if this is
some of your fooling, I'll _give_ it to you.' When he got her close up
he took away his hands, and she gave a kind of a whoop, and then she
began to laugh, the pumpkin-glory _was_ so funny, and to chase the
funniest papa all round the yard to box his ears, and as soon as she had
boxed them she said, 'Now let's go in and send the rest out,' and in
about a quarter of a second all the other papas came out, holding their
hands over the other mothers' eyes till they got them up to the
pumpkin-glory; and then there was such a yelling and laughing and
chasing and ear-boxing that you never heard anything like it; and all at
once the funniest papa hallooed out: 'Where's gramma? Gramma's got to
see it! Grandma'll enjoy it. It's just gramma's kind of joke,' and then
the mothers all got round him and said he shouldn't fool the
grandmother, anyway; and he said he wasn't going to: he was just going
to bring her out and let her see it; and his wife went along with him to
watch that he didn't begin acting up.

"The grandmother had been sitting all alone in her room ever since
dinner; because she was always afraid somehow that if you enjoyed
yourself it was a sign you were going to suffer for it, and she had
enjoyed herself a good deal that day, and she was feeling awfully about
it. When the funniest papa and his wife came in she said, 'What is it?
What is it? Is the world a-burnin' up? Well, you got to wrap up warm,
then, or you'll ketch your death o' cold runnin' and then stoppin' to
rest with your pores all open!'

"The funniest papa's wife she went up and kissed her, and said, 'No,
grandmother, the world's all right,' and then she told her just how it
was, and how they wanted her to come out and