and the children had, and when she got there she found an old man
sitting on the bank. He said, 'Howdy,' and she said, 'Good-morning,'
and then he asked her if she would be so good as to wash his coat and
his waistcoat. She said she would be glad to do so, and the old man
said he would be very much obliged. So my mother washed the coat and
waistcoat. Then he asked her if she would comb his hair for him, and
she did so.

"The old man thanked her kindly, and took from his pocket a string of
red beads and made her a present of them. Then he told her to go out
behind the house when she got home, and there she'd find a
pumpkin-tree growing. He said that she must bury the string of beads
at the foot of the tree.

"'That's a pity,' exclaimed my mother; 'they are so beautiful.'

"But the old man declared that she must do as he said, and after that
she was to go to the pumpkin-tree every day and ask for as many
pumpkins as she wanted.

"My mother went home and found the pumpkin-tree where never a tree had
been growing before, and at its roots she buried the string of beads.
Next morning, bright and early, she went to the pumpkin-tree and
called for one pumpkin. Down it dropped from the tree. For a long time
my mother and her children were happy and growing fat. Every day a big
pumpkin would be cooked, and as my mother had to leave us so as to
attend to her work, enough pumpkin would be left in the pot to last
us all day.

[Illustration: MY MOTHER WASHING THE OLD MAN'S COAT AND WAISTCOAT]

"I remember that time very well," Mr. Thimblefinger continued, with a
sigh, "for I was getting fat and growing to be almost as large as the
rest of the children. But one day, as my mother was going out to work
she found a hamper basket on the gate-post, and in that basket was a
baby. So she carried the baby in the house, gave it something to eat,
and then put it on the floor to play with the rest. But as soon as she
got out of the yard the baby crawled to the pot where the cooked
pumpkin was, and ate and ate until there was no pumpkin left. Of
course, the rest of the children had to go hungry. And when my mother
came home she had to go hungry, too.

"She was very much surprised. She found all the pumpkin gone and the
children crying for something to eat, and the stray baby was crying
louder than any. She said we were the greediest children she had ever
seen.

"The next day she cooked two pumpkins, but the same thing happened.
The bab