Out by the barn they found the boys with a jack-knife, working away at the other pumpkin. The boys were making a Jack-o’-lantern.
They had cut a round hole in the top of the pumpkin, so as to leave the stem for a handle. In this way they could lift out the round piece like a cover. They dug out all the seeds with their hands, to make it hollow.
Then they cut a small hole, shaped like a triangle, in the side of the pumpkin. They bored two round holes, one each side of the triangle. Below it they cut a funny hole shaped like a new moon.
It looked like a huge grinning face. When the boys had finished it, they put the pumpkin away in the barn.
Then they all remembered about the pumpkin that was cooking in the kitchen, so they ran back to the house as fast as they could.
By this time the pumpkin in the pot was done, and mother took it from the stove. She poured off the water, and then put the cooked pumpkin into a colander.
While mother was rubbing the soft pumpkin through the colander, the boys ran off to hunt for eggs. When they came back, mother took eight of the eggs, and about three pints of the soft pumpkin. She stirred it very fast, while the children stood around and watched, with open eyes and mouths. Then she put in milk, and spice, and brown sugar.
Oh, didn’t it look good! The children smacked their lips as each separate thing went in. Mother gave it all such a beating with her big spoon that the children said it would be good ever after.