It really was a `` bouncer , '' as every one said ; and I assure you that two small persons could sit on it side by side . It seemed to have absorbed all the goodness of the little garden , and all the sunshine that shone down on it , and lay there a great round , golden ball , full of rich suggestions of pumpkin-pies for weeks to come . Robby was so proud of his mammoth vegetable that he took every one to see it , and , when frosts began to nip , covered it up each night with an old bedquilt , tucking it round as if the pumpkin was a well-beloved baby . The day it was gathered he would let no one touch it but himself , and nearly broke his back tugging it to the barn in his little wheelbarrow , with Dick and Dolly harnessed in front to give a heave up the path . His mother promised him that the Thanksgiving-pies should be made from it , and hinted vaguely that she had a plan in her head which would cover the prize pumpkin and its owner with glory . Poor Billy had planted cucumbers , but unfortunately hoed them up and left the pig-weed . This mistake grieved him very much for tem minutes , then he forgot all about it , and sowed a handful of bright buttons which he had collected , evidently thinking in his feeble mind that they were money , and would come up and multiply , so that he might make many quarters , as Tommy did . No one disturbed him , and he did what he liked with his plot , which soon looked as if a series of small earthquakes had stirred it up . When the general harvest-day came , he would have had nothing but stones and weeds to show , if kind old Asia had not hung half-a-dozen oranges on the dead tree he stuck up in the middle . Billy was delighted with his crop ; and no one spoiled his pleasure in the little miracle which pity wrought for him , by making withered branches bear strange fruit . Stuffy had various trials with his melons ; for , being impatient to taste them , he had a solitary revel before they were ripe , and made himself so ill , that for a day or two it seemed doubtful if he would ever eat any more . But he pulled through it , and served up his first cantaloupe without tasting a mouthful himself . They were excellent melons , for he had a warm slope for them , and they ripened fast . The last and best were lingering on the vines , and Stuffy had announced that he should sell them to a neighbor . This disappointed the boys , who had hoped to eat the melons themselves , and they expressed their displeasure in a new and striking manner . Going one morning to gaze upon the three fine watermelons which he had kept for the market , Stuffy was horrified to find the word `` PIG '' cut in white letters on the green rind , staring at him from every one . He was in a great rage , and flew to Mrs. Jo for redress . She listened , condoled with him , and then said , `` If you want to turn the laugh , I 'll tell you how , but you must give up the melons . '' `` Well , I will ; for I ca n't thrash all the boys , but I 'd like to give them something to remember , the mean sneaks , '' growled Stuff , still in a fume . Now Mrs. Jo was pretty sure who had done the trick , for she had seen three heads suspiciously near to one another in the sofa-corner the evening before ; and when these heads had nodded with chuckles and whispers , this experienced woman knew mischief was afoot .
A moonlight night , a rustling in the old cherry-tree near Emil 's window , a cut on Tommy 's finger , all helped to confirm her suspicions ; and having cooled XXXXX 's wrath a little , she bade him bring his maltreated melons to her room , and say not a word to any one of what had happened .
Robby Stuffy bedquilt before bouncer cucumbers first melons night pig-weed