"Two prizes!" cried Hal.
"Yes," went on his father. "Instead of dividing this one I"ll make another. I brought another ten dollar gold piece from the bank to-day, and here is the first one," and he held up the two, shining, yellow pieces of money.
"Here is one for you, Hal," went on Daddy Blake, "and one for you, Mab,"
and he handed the children their prizes. "And how did you like being taken to the garden, instead of after flowers or to the woods?"
"It was fine!" cried Hal, looking eagerly at his golden prize.
"And we learned so much," added Mab. "I never knew, before, how many things can grow in the ground."
"Oh, you are just beginning to learn them," said her father. "Wait until you go to the farm."
"What about my prize?" asked Aunt Lolly with a laugh. "I"m sure my pumpkins will more than fill two bushel baskets."
"Perhaps they will," said Daddy Blake. "Well, I"ll give you a prize for the first pumpkin pie you bake, Aunt Lolly. And Uncle Pennywait shall have a prize for his potatoes, while as for Mother--well we"ll each give her a prize for the many good meals she got for us while we were working in the garden, and she"ll get a special prize for her carrots, which will give you children red cheeks this Winter."
"Hurray!" cried Mab.
"Hurray!" echoed Hal. "It"s better than Fourth of July."
A few days after this, when all the vegetables had been gathered in from the garden, which was now sear and brown because of heavy frosts, Mab and Hal heard their aunt calling them.
"Maybe she has some lollypops," said Hal.
"Let"s go see," cried Mab.
"Here is something you may have for Hallowe"en which comes to-morrow night," said Aunt Lolly, and she pointed to a large pumpkin. "There"ll be enough without this," she went on, "and I promised you one for a Jack-O"Lantern."
"Oh, won"t it be fun to make one!" cried Hal.
Aunt Lolly showed them how to cut the top off the big pumpkin, leaving part of the vine for a handle, so that it could be lifted off and put on like a lid. Then the pumpkin was scooped out from the inside, so that eyes, a nose and mouth could be cut through the sh.e.l.l.
"To-morrow night you can put a lighted candle inside, and set it on the front porch for Hallowe"en," said Aunt Lolly, when the pumpkin lantern was finished.
The afternoon of Hallowe"en Hal and Mab, who were helping Daddy Blake rake up some of the dead vines in the garden, heard Sammie Porter crying on their front stoop.
"What"s the matter?" asked Hal, running around the corner of the house.
"Oh-o-o-o-o!" cried Sammie. "Look at the pumpkin face!" and he pointed to the Jack-O"lantern into which the candle had not yet been put. "It"s alive!" cried Sammie. "Look, it"s rollin"!"
And so the scooped-out pumpkin was moving! It was rolling to and fro on the porch and, for a moment, Hal and Mab did not know what to think. Then, all of a sudden, they heard a noise like:
"Bow-wow! Ki-yi!"
"Oh, it"s Roly-Poly!" exclaimed Mab.
"He"s in the pumpkin," shouted Hal.
And so the little poodle dog was. He had crawled inside the big, hollowed lantern, while the lid was off, and had gone to sleep inside. Then Aunt Lolly, as she said afterward, came out, and, seeing the top off the pumpkin-face, had put it on, for fear it might get lost. Thus, not knowing it, she had shut Roly-Poly up inside the Jack-O"lantern and he had slept there until he felt hungry and awakened. Then he wiggled about, making the pumpkin move and roll over the stoop as if it were alive.
"Oh, what a funny little dog!" cried Mab, as she cuddled him up in her arms, when she took him from the pumpkin.
"He"s a regular Hallowe"en dog!" laughed Hal.
That night Mr. Jack-of-the-lantern looked very funny as he grinned at Hal, Mab and the other Hallowe"en frolic-makers who pa.s.sed the Blake stoop. The candle inside him blazed brightly, shining through his eyes, nose and through his mouth with the pumpkin-teeth.
"A garden makes fun, and it makes good things to eat," said Hal.
"I wonder what we"ll see when Daddy takes us to the farm?" spoke Mab.
"It will be fun, anyhow," went on Hal. "We always have fun when we go anywhere with Daddy!"
And now, as the children"s garden is finished, and all the vegetables are safely put away for the Winter, this book comes to an end. But there will be another soon, which I hope you will like. And, for a time, I"ll say "good-bye!"
THE END