Pumpkin Jack and the Fountain

The Parade

"Moley!" Jack shouted as he came into their yard, and stood by the large walnut tree where they'd built a swing together the year before.

"Moley!"

"What?" The front door to their cottage opened and Moley stepped out. The first thing you noticed about Moley was his freckles. He had freckles on his face, freckles on his arms, and freckles on his legs. Jack often said he had freckles on his freckles. He was even sometimes called Freckled Moley by the other kids.

"What are you doing, Jack?"

"I want to start a parade after school today and I'd like you to help".

"Sure", said Moley, who had been just as bored that morning as Jack had been.

"What kind of parade?"

"A dress-up one. I'm going to wear my dad's fireman stuff. We'll get the other kids to do it, too, after school today."

"Oh, great" said Moley. "I can wear my uncle's tool belt and leather gloves he uses at his carpenter job. I'll let my mom know and I'll be right back."

Moley went back into his house and while Jack waited, he thought about all his friends, about Lyle, whose father worked as a bank teller on the mainland, about Samantha, whose mother was the village doctor, about Mary whose father was a dairy goat farmer and all the rest and how much they'd enjoy a parade, too.

After Moley came back out, they went to their friends' houses, who went to the other friends' houses, till every child in the village knew of the parade. Since that day was Friday, they thought it would be good to have it in the late afternoon, after school and suppers were over with.

That whole day as the news of the parade spread, the whole school was talking about it and how they were going to dress up. The history teacher, Mr. Gonfrey, even allowed them in the last period to make paper cutout masks with their parents' and families' faces drawn on them. That way the other kids could try to guess who they were supposed to be.

Each child went home and got all their items ready and put them aside for after supper, when they'd all join each other at the Fountain at dusk.

Now, normally, some people might think it kind of late for the children to be out at that time, but since it was in the town square by the fountain and it was very well lit by the street lamps there, everyone was able to come. Agatha was a little afraid of the dark, but she wasn't going to let that stop her from being in the parade. She had decided to come to the parade dressed as a princess. Her friend Mary decided that she would do something different and she would come as a pirate.

As the kids began to gather and then walk around the Fountain to show off their costumes and masks, the shop owners around the Fountain turned on their outside lights. Then Mrs. Bobson, the grocery store owner, came out to watch the kids march around in their costumes. She went back into the store, and came out with a large bowl of candy, and as each child walked by her, she handed them a piece of candy.

Soon, each kid had gone by her so many times that their hands were full of candy, so she handed each one of them a bag to hold their suckers and licorice twists and gumdrops and pieces of taffy and gum balls.

Not too long after the parade started, Mr. Ericksen, the vegetable farmer, came into the square with his wagon full of bushels of apples and other things for the grocery store, slowly and carefully edging his way between the marching children and the fountain. It was getting darker and he didn't want the horse to step on someone's foot.

As he pulled up by the fountain, a boy came around it with a cowboy hat and cap guns. The boy shot off one of the cap guns, startling the horse pulling the wagon, and the whole thing, horse, wagon, Mr. Ericksen and all, spilled into the pool of the fountain.

Mr. Ericksen went kersplash into the fountain and then stood up, snorting, soaking wet, his wiry black hair sticking out behind his ears, and an apple in his mouth.

Everyone who saw it started laughing and even Mr. Ericksen was laughing as he ate the apple. Then Moley got an idea. He walked up to the fountain, stuck his head in for a second and pulled it out with an apple in his mouth and his red hair sticking out in all directions, dripping wet. This also made everyone else laugh and soon they all had wet hair and apples in their mouths.

Then Jack got an idea. It was one of the most famous ideas in the history of the Land of Fall, even more famous than the Sawdust Wagon, and it came from Mrs. Bobson's street lamps.

You see, the other street lamps were square or boxy, but she liked roundish things, so she had two lamps in front of her store on low benches that were just large round balls with bulbs inside them.

Jack's idea was simple. One of the pumpkins had fallen from the cart and the bottom was busted open but the rest was fine. Jack picked it up, poked two holes for eyes in the pumpkin and put it over one of the lamps in front of Mrs. Bobson's grocery store.

The bulb's light shone from the eyes and everyone thought it was a fine idea. Soon, they were taking the other broken pumpkins and poking holes in them, too, to see what kind of shapes they could make.

Everyone had a great time at the parade, and the school, in fact, the whole town, was talking about the parade for a long time afterward.

Because of Jack's poking holes in the pumpkin, he got the nickname "Pumpkin Jack". As he grew up, and gained in popularity and wisdom, when it came time for the town to pick a new mayor, they all decided Jack would be the best person for the job.

Eventually, his long nickname was shortened to "Mayor Jack" and each mayor after him would hold him up as an example of how to rule the town. Soon, people just started calling the mayor "Mayor Jack", regardless of who he or she was.

People liked Jack and the Parade near the Fountain so much, they decided to hold the parade every year, at about the same time, even with the apple bobbing. But they decided to do it in buckets instead of the Fountain because it was easier for more people to do it and that way only your head got wet.

They also continued the passing out of candy, though the townspeople bought it from Mrs. Bobson, and the dressing up. They decided to call it "the Parade of the Fountain", and eventually it was shortened to just "the Parade".