Grumpy Pumpkins Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 1988 by Judy Delton. Illustrations copyright © 1988 by Alan Tiegreen.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Originally published in the United States of America by Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., New York, in 1988. This edition published by arrangement with Bantam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers.

  RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks and A STEPPING STONE BOOK and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

  Delton, Judy.

  Grumpy pumpkins / by Judy Delton; illustrated by Alan Tiegreen

  p. cm. — (Pee Wee Scouts)

  “A Stepping Stone book.”

  SUMMARY: When she learns that the Pee Wee costume party is going to be held at her grumpy grandfather’s nursing home, Molly fears that Halloween will be no fun at all.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-77887-1

  [1. Scouts and scouting—Fiction. 2. Halloween—Fiction. 3. Parties—Fiction.]

  I. Tiegreen, Alan, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.D388Gs 2007 [Fic]—dc22 2007001629

  v3.1

  For Jina, who along life’s route

  was, long ago, my Brownie Scout

  — J.D.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Halloween Plans

  2 A Visit to Crestwood

  3 A Devil and a Diver

  4 The Perfect Pumpkin

  5 Frowns All Around

  6 Bingo and Badges

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Halloween Plans

  “Hurry, hurry,” called Mrs. Peters, the Pee Wee Scout leader. “Run between the raindrops.”

  The Pee Wee Scouts hurried off the bus and raced one another to Mrs. Peters’s open door.

  Roger White got there first. He was the biggest.

  “That’s not fair!” shouted Sonny Betz. “You’ve got the longest legs.”

  Molly Duff and Lisa Ronning ran past Sonny and got to the door next.

  “How can we run between the drops?” said Lisa, giggling. “There isn’t room.”

  “That’s a figure of speech.” Mrs. Peters laughed. “Like ‘Make hay while the sun shines.’ ”

  “We can’t make hay today,” said Sonny. “How do you make hay anyway?”

  All the Pee Wees laughed.

  Pretty soon all the Scouts were there. It felt good to be in Mrs. Peters’s house. Warm and dry.

  There was a fire in the fireplace. And cups of cocoa sat on the table.

  Lucky, their mascot, was there. And Tiny, Mrs. Peters’s dog.

  The dogs liked Scout meetings. Sometimes they got part of a cookie. Or a bite of cheese and cracker.

  And some Scout would always rub their ears and want to play fetch.

  The Pee Wees were in second grade.

  Most of them were seven.

  They did lots of good deeds.

  And they had fun.

  They even earned badges to wear on their shirts. They all had bright red Pee Wee scarves to wear around their necks.

  The Scouts gathered around the table and drank cocoa. It warmed them up. They forgot how rainy and dark it was outside.

  “I’ll bet everyone knows what month this is,” said Mrs. Peters.

  There was a paper tablecloth on the table with pictures of pumpkins on it. The napkins had little pumpkins in the corners too.

  “Halloween!” said Tracy Barnes. “It’s Halloween month.”

  “Halloween isn’t a month,” scoffed Rachel, combing her hair and snapping her barrette.

  “It’s the month of October,” said Patty Baker shyly.

  “Yeah, Patty Cake!” shouted Roger. “The baker’s man knows what month it is!”

  “Good, Patty,” said Mrs. Peters. “October is a damp, dark month. An autumn month. A month with Halloween in it.”

  “Oooooo!” wailed Kenny Baker like a moaning ghost. Kenny was Patty’s twin brother.

  The Pee Wee Scouts chased one another around the room, making sounds like ghosts and goblins.

  “Can we have a Halloween party?” asked Molly. “A Pee Wee costume party?”

  Mrs. Peters smiled. “That is one of the things I wanted to talk about,” she said. “I have a couple of Halloween ideas. The first one is that this year I thought we’d go to Mr. Riley’s pumpkin farm. We will each pick our own pumpkin.”

  The Scouts looked surprised.

  “That way,” said Mrs. Peters, “we will each have a nice fresh pumpkin. And you can choose it yourself, and pick it right off the vine.”

  When Mrs. Peters said “vine,” Sonny looked puzzled. “How do they get on vines?” he asked. “I thought pumpkins came in cans. From the store.”

  Now the Pee Wees really laughed.

  He probably doesn’t even know where babies come from, thought Molly. He probably thinks the stork is bringing Mrs. Peters’s baby! Molly smiled.

  “Farmers grow pumpkins in fields, Sonny,” said Mrs. Peters kindly. “From seeds. Pumpkin seeds.”

  Sonny looked as if he did not believe her.

  “And now for the other news,” said Mrs. Peters.

  A Visit to

  Crestwood

  The Pee Wees sat up straight. This must be the big news. The news about the party!

  “You were right,” said Mrs. Peters. “I think we should have a costume party for Halloween.”

  The Scouts cheered.

  “Arf! Arf!” barked Tiny. Lucky barked too. “Yip! Yip!”

  “I want to be a ballerina,” said Rachel. “My mom knows this great place where they make costumes to order.”

  “I’m coming as the President of the United States!” shouted Kevin. “Or maybe a TV rock star.”

  Kevin has big ideas, thought Molly.

  “I might come as a Pee Wee Scout,” said Tim Noon.

  “Dumb,” said Sonny. “We’re Pee Wee Scouts already.”

  But Molly knew why Tim wanted to come as a Scout. His family was on welfare. He probably couldn’t afford a costume.

  Molly felt sorry for Tim. Maybe she could make him a costume. It would be awful to come as a Scout when he already was one.

  The Pee Wees shouted out more ideas about what they would wear. And who they would be.

  Mrs. Peters held up her hand. “At a costume party no one should know who you are,” she reminded them. “We want it to be a surprise. We must all wear a mask with our costume.”

  “I’m not really coming as a ballerina,” said Rachel quickly. “I just made that up.”

  “Me too,” said Kevin. “I have a new idea. A secret idea.”

  The Scouts were so excited, they couldn’t sit still. Molly shivered with excitement.

  “I haven’t finished my news!” called Mrs. Peters over the noise. “The rest of the news is that the party won’t be here at my house.”

  “Will it be at school?” asked Kevin. “Yuck, I don’t want to go to a party at school.”

  “It’s too cold for the park,” said Roger. “It has to be inside.”

  “It will be inside,” said Mrs. Peters. “But it will
be inside a nursing home. My idea was to have a good time ourselves, and also give the people there a good time. We will make their Halloween fun too. Won’t that be a good deed for Troop 23 to do?”

  The Pee Wees stopped smiling. Molly pictured the old people in beds. The grandpas with long beards. The grandmas with no teeth. The nurses with their pills and needles.

  “It doesn’t sound like a party to me,” whispered Rachel. “Sick people. Old and wrinkled.”

  “Most of the people are not sick,” said Mrs. Peters. “They are lonely and some have no visitors. We will cheer them up. We’ll play games with them. Eat with them. They will be in costume too.”

  Then Mrs. Peters added, “There will be a prize for the best costume. One for the best Pee Wee costume, and one for the best grown-up costume. Try to make the costume yourself if you can. Just buy the mask.”

  Molly pictured a goblin with a long gray beard.

  Roger wondered how a man in a wheelchair could bob for apples. Could a witch walk with a cane?

  By the end of the Scout meeting, most of the Pee Wees were smiling again. They said the Pee Wee Scout pledge. It made Molly remember what being a Pee Wee Scout was all about. Then they sang the Pee Wee Scout song.

  “We will meet them next Tuesday,” said Mrs. Peters. “At Crestwood Nursing Home.”

  Molly was shocked at Mrs. Peters’s words. Now she was not smiling. She felt like crying.

  “I’m not going to that party,” she said to Mary Beth on the way home.

  “Why not?” Mary Beth demanded. “It won’t be so bad.”

  “It will be awful!” cried Molly. “My grandpa is in Crestwood Nursing Home. And he is the grumpiest person I know.”

  Molly began to cry. Then she began to tell Mary Beth how her grandpa had yelled at her one day at dinner. “He said, ‘Take your elbows off the table. We have to remember manners in this family.’ I’m scared of him,” sobbed Molly.

  Mary Beth tried to make Molly feel better. But she didn’t know what to say. “You have to come to the party,” she said.

  When Molly got home, she went to her room.

  She slammed the door.

  Then she kicked her bed.

  “This will be the worst Halloween ever,” she said aloud.

  She thought of her grumpy grandpa.

  She thought of the grumpy Halloween ahead.

  Even the pumpkins would be grumpy in a nursing home.

  Grumpy was no fun. Especially grumpy grandpas. Why did the party have to be at Crestwood Nursing Home? There were plenty of other homes in town.

  The next Tuesday, the Pee Wees were excited about visiting the nursing home. They talked about it during school. They couldn’t wait until three o’clock.

  Molly could wait. She wished three o’clock would never come.

  After school, some of the Pee Wee Scouts sat together on the school bus. They sat in the back. The ride was bumpy.

  “My mom said Mrs. Peters had a good idea, having the party at Crestwood,” said Rachel. “She said those people need children around.”

  A hex on Rachel’s mother. It was easy for her to say Crestwood was a good place to go. She didn’t have a grumpy grandpa there.

  The ride to the home went fast. Soon Mrs. Peters held up her hand. “Before we go in,” she said, “let’s remember to be polite. Don’t run in the halls and don’t be noisy, in case some of the people are sleeping.”

  Sleeping! At three o’clock in the afternoon? Molly felt queasy.

  “They’ll probably fall asleep during the party,” said Tracy.

  Some of the Scouts started snoring.

  Mrs. Peters frowned. “Today we want to meet the people and cheer them up a little. Remember, it is a chance for all the Pee Wees to do a good deed. To make them less lonely.”

  A nurse in a white uniform met them at the door. She smiled a lot as she talked.

  Smile, smile, smile.

  It might be fun to be a nurse, thought Molly. She looked happy in her white uniform and big smile. The nurse told them her name was Mrs. Martin.

  “Some of the people can’t get out of bed,” she said. “We will go to their rooms. Then we’ll visit the others in the recreation room.”

  “I don’t like how it smells in here,” said Rachel, wrinkling up her nose.

  Mrs. Peters put her finger on her lips and said, “Shhh.”

  The other Pee Wees were making faces too. It smelled like medicine and food and bathroom cleaner all at once.

  Mrs. Peters gave them a warning glance.

  The Scouts went from room to room, meeting the people who stayed in their beds.

  The lady in the first room had no teeth.

  “How does she eat?” whispered Tracy.

  Mrs. Peters said, “Shhh” again.

  The lady showed the Scouts pictures of her grandchildren. “My grandson is in second grade too,” she said proudly.

  The man in the next room had his TV on. “I’ll turn it off,” he said. “I’d rather have company.”

  He asked the Scouts their names and then he told them a story of when he used to work on the railroad. Roger told him about their mascot, Lucky. And Patty told about winning the Pee Wee Scout soccer game.

  The lady in the next room said she used to be a dancer.

  “Wow!” said Rachel. “I’d like to be a ballerina.”

  The lady told her what steps to practice. And what shows to go to see.

  “She doesn’t seem old,” said Rachel to Molly. “When you hear her talk.”

  Mrs. Peters smiled.

  Then they all went to the recreation room. There were people in wheelchairs. With walkers. And some on crutches.

  “I had crutches once,” said Molly. She told a man named Chuck about her sprained ankle.

  The nurse brought cookies and milk. Soon Molly didn’t feel scared anymore. Or mad. But where was her grandpa?

  She ran up to the nurse. “Do you know Amos Duff?” she asked. “He is my grandpa. He lives here.”

  “Yes,” said Mrs. Martin, smiling. “Amos is in the therapy room. He is having treatments on his leg. He goes every afternoon at this time.”

  It looked as if Molly would not see her grandpa today. After all her worrying. But she would have to see him at the party.

  A Devil and

  a Diver

  “It’s time to leave,” said Mrs. Peters. “Soon it will be dinnertime for everyone here.”

  Molly was surprised that she wanted to stay longer. She didn’t want to leave. Some of the people were fun. Some of them told good stories.

  “Can’t we stay a little longer?” pleaded Sonny.

  “I want to hear the rest of this war story,” said Roger, who was sitting next to a soldier.

  “We’ll be back for the party,” said Mrs. Peters.

  As they left, Rachel said, “They’re just like real people.”

  “They are real people, dummy,” said Roger.

  “I mean like regular people,” said Rachel. “Even if they do sleep a lot.”

  “Where was your grandpa?” asked Mary Beth.

  “He was getting treatments on his leg,” said Molly. “I won’t see him till the party.”

  The ride home went fast.

  The whole week went fast.

  At the next meeting of the Pee Wee Scouts, they planned the party.

  A party meant decorations.

  Balloons. Pumpkins. Skeletons.

  Goblins. Candles.

  Moans and groans.

  And food. The moms would send food.

  Most of all, a party meant costumes. The nurses would help the seniors make their costumes, Mrs. Peters told them. But the Pee Wees had to make their own.

  “I want to be sure no one knows who I am,” said Tracy.

  “Remember,” Mrs. Peters said, “you do not have to spend a lot of money on costumes. You can make them from some old clothes or other things you have around the house. Just buy your masks at the store.”

  “Let’s make our c
ostumes together,” said Lisa to Molly.

  “Okay, and maybe we could make a costume for Tim,” added Molly. “Otherwise he has to come as a Scout.”

  Lisa frowned. “Making three is a lot of work.”

  “Pooh,” said Molly. “It will be easy.”

  That evening after dinner, Molly called Tim on the telephone. “I’m making my costume for the party,” she said. “I can make you one too.”

  “Then you’ll know who I am,” said Tim.

  “I won’t tell,” she said. “Anyway, I’d know who you were if you came as a Scout. Everyone would.”

  “Okay,” said Tim. “But I want to be a deep-sea diver like this guy I saw on TV.” Tim paused. “They wear these big rubber feet and a big suit and this thing coming out of their head for air.”

  “It would be easier to make a ghost costume or something,” Molly said.

  “I don’t want to be a ghost!” cried Tim. “I don’t want to go if I’m a ghost.”

  “All right,” said Molly.

  If it wasn’t for me, Tim wouldn’t have a costume at all, thought Molly. Rat’s knees, he should be glad to be a ghost!

  The next day, Lisa came over to Molly’s after school. She brought some old clothes from her grandma’s trunk.

  “I won’t even have to make one,” she said. “I’ll just dress like someone from the olden days.”

  Molly got out the old clothes her mother said she could use. She got out some leftover material too. Molly’s mother liked to sew.

  The girls tried on dress after dress.

  Some were too long.

  Some were too big.

  They all looked funny.

  Finally Lisa picked a dress. It was a Little House on the Prairie dress.

  “You need a mask to cover your face,” said Molly.

  “I’ll buy one,” Lisa said.

  “Should I be a witch?” asked Molly.

  Lisa shook her head. “Witches are boring.”

  The girls looked through the rest of the clothes and scraps.

  “How about an angel?” said Lisa, pointing to a white dress.

  “Naw,” said Molly. “I don’t like angels.”

  “A devil!” shouted Lisa. “This witch dress could be a devil suit if we made some legs and arms.”