00:00Pumpkin Town by Katie Mackay.
00:29Illustrated by Pablo Bernasconi.
00:35Jose and his family grew pumpkins.
00:38That growing began with shiny seeds, which were followed by long vines.
00:44And those long vines grew every which way.
00:47The pumpkins grew every which way, too, from small to fat and tall.
00:52The jack belittles could be dropped into pockets.
00:56The happy jacks were bigger.
00:58A strong enough boy could carry just one.
01:02The big moons were bigger still.
01:04Too large for five boys to roll.
01:10Come fall, Jose and his family would gather the pumpkins and collect the vines.
01:15Then two trucks took the fruit to faraway cities.
01:19Some were hollowed and carved, and some were saved for pies.
01:26But before the trucks took the pumpkins, Jose and his family saved a few.
01:31They needed the seeds.
01:33When it came to saving pumpkins, Jose's father always said,
01:37Save only the best and sell the rest.
01:41So Jose and his brothers hollowed the best pumpkins
01:44and saved only the biggest, brightest seeds.
01:51They took the duller, smaller seeds to the edge of the field overlooking the town
01:55and tossed them.
01:57But one gusty, dusty October day, when Jose and his brothers took the lesser seeds to
02:02the edge of the field and flung them, the wind caught those seeds and carried them
02:07and didn't let them loose until they fell like rain down on the distant town.
02:13The seeds slipped into straw rooves and settled into flowerpots and sprinkled gardens.
02:19And that seemed to be the end of it.
02:24But the next spring, rain awoke those small seeds, and plants began.
02:30More rain fell, and vines grew every which way.
02:33They wrapped around chimneys and wound through corn.
02:37At first, the townspeople liked the vines, for they were lovely and delicate.
02:42But then the vines began to climb, up and down and around, growing leafy and thick.
02:48They snaked green and silent through one window and then out another.
02:56Then fruit grew, and grew, and grew, every which way.
03:02Soon, the townspeople were stepping over pumpkins, and around pumpkins, and under pumpkins.
03:08It was hard to walk even a block.
03:11Rooftops sagged under the weight of big moons.
03:14Fences fell, and when the wind blew, one had to dodge happy jacks and jack-belittles
03:20falling from trees.
03:22Nothing is worse than pumpkins, groaned the townspeople.
03:27Meanwhile, up on their mountainside, Jose and his family cut and stacked their pumpkins,
03:35saving only the best.
03:37And when they were done, they stepped back and said,
03:40Nothing is better than pumpkins.
03:43But when Jose and his family looked down at the town, it looked odd.
03:47It seemed so green and orange.
03:55Since their fieldwork was done, and because Jose and his brothers were curious, they walked
04:01to town the next day, where they saw more vines and pumpkins than they'd ever imagined.
04:08They remembered the gusty, dusty day that they scattered the seeds.
04:13It is our fault, whispered Jose.
04:16We must do something, whispered his brothers.
04:19We rest for now, whispered Jose.
04:25But that night, Jose and his brothers cut and stacked the pumpkins and vines.
04:31They worked as quietly as they could, but some townspeople still sneaked peeks.
04:37They marveled at how well the brothers worked.
04:40The brothers climbed up poles and twined through trees and snaked silent through one window
04:46and out another, gathering and stacking pumpkins and vines.
04:54When the townspeople awoke, they discovered a mountain of pumpkins and a hill of vines
05:00and a mound of tired brothers.
05:03While the brothers slept, the townspeople filled a wagon with hay and set five great
05:09watermelons between Jose and his brothers in thanks for their aid.
05:13The wagon took the brothers back to their home, where they were laid in the glossy grass,
05:18still sleeping.
05:20When their father found them there, he asked them what they had done to deserve the great
05:25watermelons.
05:26We just helped the townspeople with their harvest.
05:30We just helped the townspeople with their harvest, the brothers said,
05:34which was true, and nothing more was said.
05:39Down in the town, five trucks came for the mountain of pumpkins, and the townspeople
05:45were given a grand sum of money for all that fruit.
05:49Ah, nothing is better than pumpkins, they said.
05:54Much of the money went toward a feast held around a bonfire made by burning the hill
05:59of vines.
06:00It was decided then that the rest of the pumpkin money would be spent to carve a statue,
06:06a statue of the five mysterious brothers who had made a mountain of pumpkins.
06:14It took all of the next week for the townspeople to repair their roofs and their fences,
06:19and it took all of that week for Jose and his brothers and his father to eat their great
06:24gifts.
06:25The melons were so sweet that Jose and his family said,
06:30nothing is better than watermelons.
06:36Be careful with the seeds, Jose's father said.
06:40Our field grows pumpkins, not watermelons.
06:43So Jose's family filled a great bowl with seeds, and those seeds were forgotten, until
06:49a day later when the wind roused Jose's father at night.
06:53He feared that some of those watermelon seeds might be blown into their field.
07:01By moonlight, he carried the bowl to the edge of his field, and he tossed the seeds.
07:07The wind caught those seeds and carried them,
07:10and didn't let them loose until they fell like rain down on the town.
07:14The watermelon seeds slipped into the straw roofs, and settled into the flowerpots,
07:20and sprinkled gardens, and slid into the soil around the statue of Jose and his brothers.
07:27And that seemed to be the end of it.
07:35I hope you enjoyed that story.
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07:44and don't forget to check out all the other stories that are already uploaded.
07:48Thank you so much for watching.
