Mama wanted to bake ten pumpkin pies for the town fair. She loved baking the pies. What she didn’t like to do was clean the pumpkins out. Pumpkin seeds and slime made her feel rather ill.

“Mama, when are you going to make pumpkin pies for the fair?” Andrew pulled at his mama’s apron.

“There are three pumpkins,” Angela said. “That will make ten pies. Can we help?”

Mama smiled at her children. “Yes, you can. Jeffrey, you and Angela and Andrew can help me by cleaning all the seeds and slime out of the pumpkins. Would you do that for me? If you do, I’ll make a dozen pumpkin pies and we can keep two of them here to have for supper.”

“I’ll help, Mama,” said Andrew.

“Me too,” said Angela.

Jeffrey ran to the drawer and picked out three spoons. “I want to help too, Mama.”

Mama put the three children at the table. “I’ll cut the tops off and you can scoop out the insides.” She tied a towel around each of their necks so they wouldn’t get their clothes dirty.

For the next hour Angela, Andrew and Jeffrey dug into the pumpkins. They scooped out the seeds and plopped them on the table.

“Don’t make such a mess. I will put a bucket here. Put everything in it.” Mama brought a big blue bucket and put in right in the middle of the table.

Angela giggled when a seed flew off the spoon and landed on Jeffrey’s nose.

Jeffrey laughed when some slime dripped from Andrew’s hair.

Andrew chuckled when he squished the slime between his fingers.

When they finished Mama told them to wash their hands. She tossed out the bucket of seeds and pumpkin slime in the back yard. She chopped the pumpkin into pieces and baked her pumpkin pies. Mama took ten of them to the fair and kept the two biggest pies at home. That night they feasted on pumpkin pie and whipped cream. Angela, Andrew and Jeffrey each had a big piece. “Thank you for helping with the pies,” Mama said.

“You’re welcome,” Jeffrey said, with his mouthful of pie.