Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 20, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 November 1898 — Pumpkin [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pumpkin

K*™' W M H! on Thanksgiving day, 'lll when' from East and 'rtyl* in from West, J.Ttl I (IIM From North and from Hl™ ML South, come the pilgrim and guest; When the gray-haired New-Englander seea round his board The old broken links of affection restored. When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before— What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye? What calls back the past like the rich pumpkin pie? V O—fruit loved of boyhood—the old days recalling, When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, Glaring out through the dark with a candle within, When we laughed round the corn heap with hearts all in tune. Our chair a broad pumpkin—our lantern the moon, Telling tales of the fairy who traveled like steam. In a pumpkin shell coach, with two rats for her team! Then thanks for the present—one sweeter or better E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platterl Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine, Brighter eyes never watched o’er its baking, than thine; And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express, Swells my heart that thy shadow may never grow less. That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below, And fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow, And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky Golden-tinted and fair as thy own pumpkin pie! —Whittier.