Jack O' Lantern and the Moon

Jack O' Lantern and the Moon

Have you ever seen a cornfield with the brown cornstalks and the yellow pumpkins lying on the ground between them? This is usually late in October. What day do we celebrate at the end of October? Have you ever seen a jack-o-lantern made by scooping out the inside of a pumpkin, cutting holes for eyes, nose and mouth, and putting a candle inside? Perhaps you have made one.

The man in the moon looked down on the field

Where the golden pumpkin lay, He winked at him and he blinked at him

In the funniest kind of a way.

The pumpkin was yellow and fat and round

And as funny as he could be, But strange was his case for he had no face

So he couldn't smile back, you see.

But on All Hallowe'en, when the moon looked down From the sky, through the shadows dim,

The pumpkin fat on a gate-post sat, And saucily laughed at him.

—Anna C. Ayer. Courtesy of "The Youth's Companion".

This Image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the United States, where Works published prior to 1923 are copyright protected for a maximum of 75 years. See Circular 1 "COPYRIGHT BASICS" PDF from the U.S. Copyright Office. Works published before 1923 (in this case 1920) are now in the public domain.

TEXT CREDIT: The silent readers The Silent Readers, William Dodge Lewis. Authors: William Dodge Lewis, Albert Lindsay Rowland. Publisher: J.C. Winston, 1920. Original from: Harvard University. Digitized: Apr 5, 2007. Subjects: Readers.