Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-04-26
A ROW OF PUMPKIN PIES.
The True Story Of How We Peeled on
Their Skins.

Their skins.
They sat in q row on the buttery
shelf-seven crinkly lodged. spicy.
steaming pumpkin pies. They were
on blue earthen plates and they had
little sugary bubbles all over their hot
faces. They smelled good. they tast-
ed good. they were good.
Mother had shut the butterY door,
for she said: What if old Peter
should get in here and eat my piesr'
Old Peter was our biggest cat, and he
always would steal whenever he was
hungry.
When mother had put the last pie
on the shelf and shut the buttery door.
she did not see Lizzie and hiding be-
hind the flour barrel.
All this happened a long, long time
ago when sister Lizzie and were lit
tie girls. We coud not hide behind a
flour barrel now if we should try.
When we heard mother hang up the
pie fork in the cook room, we crawled
out ard stood before the seven pics.
How good they did smell! Lizzie
reached up and picked tiny bit Of
sweet. crisp, golden-brown skin from
the top of one pie and ate it. Then
she picked off bigger piece and ate
tha'. Lizzie was older and taller than
L 1 couldn't reach the pies, though
l stood on tiptoe and tried to.
Pumpkin pies peel very easily. Very
little bits of fingers can pick hole in
them and peel them.
"ko, ;u1in hod hin Of
one pie. she peeled the skin off the
next one, Ito make mates" she said.
She gave me the bubbles in the peel
ing to eat Then she made mates"
of the next two pies on the SHELF and
of the next two, and the next one.
We wished mother had baked a mate
to that last one.
Once mother had punished our fin
gers for picking off the crust crinkles
10 custard-pie. She told us never to
pick off pie -crinkles again. Lizzie
remembered what she said and did
| not pick one crust crinkle off those
seven pumpkin pies. All we ate was
| just their skins.
Then we came out and shut The
buttery door very softly and went be-
hind the stable to play in the water
| ing-troughs. There were two troughs
| there, and the water ran through a
little spout from the high trough to
the low trough. If we put chip in
| this spout the water would flow over
| and make little falls.
By and by, we heard mother cali
"Lizzie!'
We didn't answer.
Mother called again: Lizzie! Adj
die!'
We peeped around the corner and
she was standing in the shed door.
She saw our pink sunbonnets and
called again: Girls. did you peel my
pumpkin piesP'
IL skinned half pie. mamma"
Lizzie answered so low that nobody
but mother could have heard her.
Did you peel more than half a
ple?''
IL skinned one whole pie" Liz
zie's answer went round the stable 8
corner
did you peel more than one whole
pieP"
IL did skin three pies. mamma"
Lizzie was a brave little girl. She
didn' say ''we," she said IL" though
had helped eat the pie-skins.
Ibid you peel more than three pies.
L;zzieP" Mothers voice was Just as
patient as ever
Il peeled mates. mamma, all tho
mates there were and one mate over :"
Then my little girls will come into
the house" And we went in with
mother; but before she shut the shed
door she broke off a tiny switch from
the lilac bush growing near it, bit OF
lilac twig that couldn't hurt a fy's
wing, but small as it was, in mother g
hand 1T helped us to remember never
| again to peel the skins from the
pumpkin pies Ctdrissa Potter, in
| Vide AsDake