Around the walls of the room were exhibits of everything that the good ground yields so bounteously—potatoes, squashes, corn, and grains. One progressive farmer had brought an entire pumpkin vine, to show its enormous length and its great burden of golden fruit.
But the center of interest appeared to be half way down the hall, for there gathered the largest group of wondering people, who pushed and crowded their way to the front, each eager to secure a glimpse of that which caused so many admiring oh’s and ah’s. And Billy, of course, was not slow in reaching this spot.
What did he care for common, everyday apples when there was something that promised new and greater interest?
Up he marched, and knowing the best way to forge ahead was to use his horns, he stooped to that, and butted his way to the front.
“Oh, the pumpkin man, the pumpkin man!” cried a little youngster delightedly, jumping up and down in his excitement, and there, to be sure, he stood in full array.
A very wonderful man he was. His head was round as a ball, for it was fashioned from a fat little pumpkin, the roundest that the fields could furnish. Eyes were made from corn husks, cut as large and round as a silver dollar, while the eyebrows were heavily outlined with black ink. Nose and mouth were cut like boys and girls do for jack-o’-lanterns for Hallowe’en pranks, and teeth were furnished by large, perfect kernels of corn.
This queer fellow’s body resembled to a striking extent an elongated pumpkin, and his arms were perfectly matched, long-necked summer squashes. His hands were doubled up into fists, being the enlarged ends of the squashes. A pair of legs were giant ears of golden corn, and the dandy was togged out in a corn-husk cravat jauntily tied in a four-in-hand, and his feet boasted a pair of ox-blood ties, though most people would have called them red ears of field corn.
“Hello, Pumpkin Man,” was Billy’s cordial and friendly greeting, for Billy felt he could claim acquaintanceship with anything and everything hailing from a farm.
The Pumpkin Man maintained a dignified silence and stared straight ahead.
“How-d’-ye-do, old fellow?” Billy repeated, edging a trifle closer, for so popular a man must be one whom it would pay to know most intimately.