00:00Pumpkin Hill, by Elizabeth Spurr.
00:29Illustrated by Whitney Martin.
00:35There once was a pumpkin, a lonely, only pumpkin, that grew on the brink of a great green hill.
00:46The sun shone, the rain fell, the pumpkin grew and grew, larger and orangier, and plump,
00:54plump, plumper.
00:55Till one fine day, it broke from its vine and roly-polyed down the hill.
01:01The pumpkin hit a stone, and ker-splat!
01:04That was that.
01:05Or was it?
01:10The pumpkin seeds lay on the soft, fertile earth, which soon wore a blanket of snow.
01:16In spring, the farmer came with his horse-drawn plow, scattering the seeds across the great
01:22green hill.
01:23But he and his wife could not agree, barley or corn, alfalfa or hay.
01:30So the hill was left unplanted, except for the pumpkin seeds.
01:38The rains came, the sun shone, the seeds grew into sprouts, the sprouts into vines, vines
01:46with leaves, leaves and flowers, flowers into roly-poly pumpkins.
01:54But since no one came to pick them, they withered away, except for the pumpkin seeds.
02:04In the spring, the farmer plowed once more.
02:07Tomatoes, potatoes, turnips.
02:12His hill remained unplanted, except for the pumpkin seeds.
02:16Sun and rain, once around again, sprouts, vines, roly-poly pumpkins, which withered
02:23away, except for, once again, in spring, the farmer plowed, but didn't sow.
02:31Little did he know he had no need.
02:34Beneath the soil, a crop was widely planted, those hardy little pumpkin seeds.
02:40They grew in sun and rain, from small green lumpkins into round, fat plumpkins.
02:50Because the farmer lived on the far side of the hill, he didn't see that the land had
02:55turned a bright orange with a mass of roly-poly pumpkins.
03:00There came a mighty wind, the whirly-swirly kind.
03:04It blew the vines into a tangle and sent the pumpkins rumble-tumble, hurtling down the
03:09great green hill.
03:14The valley town was wakened by a roar as loud as thunder, as thousands of pumpkins thumped
03:20and bumped down the slope.
03:22Behold a golden avalanche!
03:29Traffic jammed, shops shut.
03:31What a delightful disaster!
03:34The pumpkins bonked pedestrians and ricocheted off walls.
03:38They rolled into the marketplace and tumbled all the vegetables into a giant tossed salad.
03:48One couldn't help but chuckle to see uppity folks struggle with those most unruly roly-polies.
03:55Who could stay a grouchy grumpkin among those jolly bumping bumpkins?
04:03The mayor called a meeting.
04:05What shall we do with this preposterous predominance of pumpkins?
04:11Make jack-o'-lanterns, cried the children.
04:14Remember, it's almost Halloween!
04:17So the mayor decreed that each citizen must take home a pumpkin to carve.
04:22But when all had claimed their share, a plethora of pumpkins still lined the sides of the road.
04:28The children cried, Make pumpkin pies!
04:34All Hallow's Eve at moonrise, the whole valley glowed with the grins of six thousand jack-o'-lanterns.
04:42The night air wafted the scent, spicy and sweet, of three thousand and five pumpkin
04:48pies.
04:50Children dressed in costumes paraded on the green.
04:53Each held a candled pumpkin.
04:55What a blazing Halloween!
05:02Then the mayor imposed a harsh punishment on anyone who scattered pumpkin seeds.
05:07The guilty one must gobble fifteen pumpkin pies within a quarter of an hour.
05:13That is the reason why, on Halloween, after carving grim faces with fire-lit eyes, children
05:20salt, roast, and eat, for supper or snack, those perniciously prolific pumpkin seeds.
