The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-20
WhicL Created an Uproar
 ata Hawkeye County Fair'
PRIZE PUMPKIN
TWENTY-FIVE
BY cY BURT.

BUR ls
 1 he didn't say about that ash tree which
 he had cut down and which he well
 knew didn't belong to him.
 Well, it took them pumpkin seeds of
 Aus another two weeks to get started and to send out shoots and then it was
 another fortnight before there was a sign
 of a pumpkin. When they did come on
 they were them little green witty things.
 Dan kept close watch and pretty near hurt himself laughin and ehuekin' to
 we neighbors over what Aus had said
 about winnin the prize at the fair. He had a pumpkin already that had swelled just three inches over anything he had ever raised before
 After a big rain one day Aus tells his wife to make him some more paste and
 after dusk he goes down to the bottom to look after his pumpkins They were about the size of a peck measure now and 1t was but two weeks until the fair
 would open. 1 guess it ain't too early says Aus to himself as he feels the pump l<ins. The vines from Heckathornes field had run through the fence and was all
 but chokin' the life out of Aus He sits down and fastens three thrifty vines from across the fence to each one of ; the little green pumpkins and he fas- tened them well that the sun wouldn't crack them loose He made sure to get
 hold of the vine that was feedin' Dams prize pumpkin.
 Growth like a weed said Dan loolin'
 across the fence the next day on a visit
 to the bottom. He was surprised to see
 how much flesh them little green things
 of Aus had taken on but what surprised him most was the fact that his prize one had diminished in size by four inches
 over the day before. Then he calculated
 instead of goin' into the big pumpkins
 on the one he had intended to take second prize and found that had also shrunlSen
 in size. The truth of the mater was that when Aus grafted the shoots the sap
 went straight for the little ones. 1t
 takes a mighty lot of force to swell out
 the shells of the big ones and then with all them shoots workin on the little ones
 1t was no wonder the juice went in
 that direction. It was just like fillin
 a boiler with high steam on and fillin one that was cold.
 "Old Dan Heckathorne couldn't sleep
 that night and early in the mornin
 he goes to the field again and finds that his prize pumpkin was smaller than the day before. It was the same one for he had cut his initials in 1t on the under
 side and there they were yet Looldn' across the fence he see Aus pumpkins had swelled up to almost the size of
 his prize one now. In another day they
 
 lookin' as healthy and as yellow as but ter Dan was too much excited and mad to go over a nd see how large they really were, he was fightin' mad. Aus was cuttin' corn over in the next field and he come over when he see Dan runnin around like chicken with his head cut off Nice growth weather said Aus l Did you ever see anything come on like them pumpkins of mine? That big one of yours looks kind of sick. Which one
 was you goin' to take to the fair? Might 1 get a second with that but this one of
 mine over here is goin' to take first. 1 Come over and take a look at It. "Old Dan was too proud to go over
 and see how a neighbor had beaten him
 at his own game and he goes home to | brood over the defeat Next mornin
 when he gets up his wife calls him to l the door and asks him what that big yellow thing the size of a hen coop was
 doin nigh the line fence on the Shanklin 1 side. Dan looks and looks and then to make sure he gets out his field glasses | that he used to SCOUT his watermelon patch for theivin boys and then he ! knows for certain it was Aus Shanklin's
 COW pumpkin which was twice big as any he, Old Dan, had ever taken to
 the fair.
 l The sight made him sick clean through
 and he goes around and sits on the 1 back side of the house SOS he couldn't l see the yellow back of Aus pumpkin and also the neighbors who came along the road and stopped to see the wonder. His wife kept tellin' him how the folks
 were drivin' along in regular procession
 to view the sight and that made Dan
 madder than ever. So sharpening up | his ax and driyin the handle in good | and hard he goes down to the bottom | in the evenin' and chops to pieces every one of his withered vegetables, which had l shrunken down like a heap of rag weeds l on szzlin hot day That big growth | thing on Shanklin's side of the fence 1 had sucked all the sap clean out of
 them. Aus had grafted on just enough | vines to make 1t grow good and fast and | not be subject to more pressure than I 1t could stand
 Thinlkin' by this time that 1t was about all four horses could draw he goes down l and cuts off all the stems but one which