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Speaker 1: Hello friends, and welcome to sleep Tight Stories. This story

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Speaker 1: was originally published in sleep tighte Premium. To listen to

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Speaker 1: more stories like this, please visit sleep Tightpremium dot com

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Speaker 1: and subscribe. That's sleep Tightpremium dot com. Thank you. Today's

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Speaker 1: story is about a little pumpkin who wants to make

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Speaker 1: mother Vine proud of him, but he is worried about

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Speaker 1: growing up to become a jack o lantern. He talks

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Speaker 1: to the mary Breezes about why he is so unhappy,

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Speaker 1: and they laugh at him and tell him not to

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Speaker 1: worry about what will happen later, just enjoy being a

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Speaker 1: pumpkin now. He decides to listen to them and just

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Speaker 1: eats and grows. When the weather gets cooler, the children

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Speaker 1: come to the garden and see the little pumpkin who

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Speaker 1: is not so little anymore. Will they choose him to

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Speaker 1: be their jack O'Lantern? The little Pumpkin. Once there was

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Speaker 1: a little pumpkin that grew on a vine in a field.

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Speaker 1: All day long, the sun shone on him, and the

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Speaker 1: wind blew gently around him. Sometimes the welcome rain fell

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Speaker 1: softly upon him, And as the vine sent her roots

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Speaker 1: deep down into the earth and drew the good sustenance

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Speaker 1: from it, and it flowed through her veins. The little

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Speaker 1: pumpkin drank greedily of the good juice, and grew bigger

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Speaker 1: and bigger, and rounder and rounder, and firmer and firmer.

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Speaker 1: By and by. He grew so big he understood all

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Speaker 1: that the growing things around him were saying, and he

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Speaker 1: listened eagerly. I came from the seed of a jackalantern,

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Speaker 1: said this vine to a neighbor. Therefore I must grow

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Speaker 1: all jackalanterns, So did I said a neighbor. But no

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Speaker 1: jackalanterns for me. It is too hard a life. I

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Speaker 1: am going to grow just plain pumpkins. When the little

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Speaker 1: pumpkin heard he was supposed to be a jackal lantern,

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Speaker 1: he grew very worried, for he could not see that

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Speaker 1: he was in any way different from any ordinary pumpkin.

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Speaker 1: And if mother Vine expected him to be a jack lantern,

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Speaker 1: he did not want to disappoint her. At last, he

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Speaker 1: grew so unhappy over it that the dancing little sunbeams

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Speaker 1: noticed it. What is the matter, little pumpkin, they cried,

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Speaker 1: Why do you not hold up your head and look

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Speaker 1: around as you used to do? Because answered the little pumpkin, sadly,

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Speaker 1: I have to be a jack lantern, and I don't

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Speaker 1: know how. All I know about is how to be

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Speaker 1: a little yellow pumpkin. Then the merry little breezes laughed

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Speaker 1: and laughed until they shook the vines, so that all

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Speaker 1: the pumpkins had to tighten their hold so as not

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Speaker 1: to be shaken off. Oh, little pumpkin, they cried, why

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Speaker 1: worry about what you will have to do later. Just

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Speaker 1: try with all your might to be a little yellow pumpkin,

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Speaker 1: and believe that if you do the best you can,

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Speaker 1: everything will be all right. We know a secret, a

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Speaker 1: beautiful secret, and someday we will tell it to you.

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Speaker 1: Oh tell me now, cried the little pumpkin. But the

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Speaker 1: sunbeams and breezes laughed together and chuckled. Oh no, oh, no,

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Speaker 1: oh no. Just grow and grow and grow, and someday

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Speaker 1: you will know. The little pumpkin felt comforted after all.

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Speaker 1: He thought, perhaps if I cannot be a jackal lantern,

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Speaker 1: I can be a good pumpkin. And I am so

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Speaker 1: far down on the vine, perhaps mother vine won't notice me.

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Speaker 1: He looked around and saw that all his brothers and

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Speaker 1: sisters were only little pumpkins too. Oh dear, he cried,

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Speaker 1: are we going to disappoint Mother Vine? Aren't any of

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Speaker 1: us going to be jack lanterns? Then all his little

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Speaker 1: brothers and sisters laughed and said, what do we care

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Speaker 1: about being jack lanterns? All we care about is to

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Speaker 1: eat the good juice and grow and grow. At last

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Speaker 1: came the cold weather, and all the little pumpkins were

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Speaker 1: now big ones and a beautiful golden yellow. The biggest

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Speaker 1: and yellowest of all was the little pumpkin, who had

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Speaker 1: tried so hard all summer to grow into a jack o' lantern.

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Speaker 1: He could not believe Mother Vine did not see him now,

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Speaker 1: for he had grown so big that everyone who saw

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Speaker 1: him exclaimed about him, And Mother Vine did not seem

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Speaker 1: at all disappointed. She just kept at work, carrying the

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Speaker 1: good food that kept her pumpkin children well fed. At last,

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Speaker 1: one frosty morning, a crowd of children came to the field.

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Speaker 1: The pumpkins are ready, they cried. The pumpkins are ready,

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Speaker 1: and we are going to find the biggest and yellowest

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Speaker 1: and nicest to make a jack lantern for the party.

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Speaker 1: All the grandmothers and grandfathers and aunts and uncles will

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Speaker 1: see it, and we are going to eat the pies

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Speaker 1: made from it. They looked here and there, all over

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Speaker 1: the field, and pushed aside the vine to see better.

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Speaker 1: All at once they saw the little pumpkin. Oh, they cried,

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Speaker 1: what a perfect jackal lantern, so big and firm and

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Speaker 1: round and yellow. This shall be the jackal lantern for

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Speaker 1: our party. And it is so large there will be

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Speaker 1: enough pie for everyone. And they picked the pumpkin and

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Speaker 1: carried him to the barn. Father cut a hole in

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Speaker 1: the top around the stem, lifted it off carefully, and

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Speaker 1: scooped out the inside, and the children carried it to

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Speaker 1: mother in the kitchen. Then father made eyes and a

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Speaker 1: nose and mouth, and fitted inside a big candle. Oh,

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Speaker 1: see the beautiful jack lantern, they cried. The little pumpkin

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Speaker 1: waited in the barn. At last, I am a jack

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Speaker 1: o lantern, he said. After a time it grew dark,

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Speaker 1: and father came and carried him into the house and

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Speaker 1: lit the candle and put him right in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the table. And all the grandmothers and grandfathers and

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Speaker 1: aunts and uncles cried, Oh, what a beautiful, big, round,

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Speaker 1: yellow jackal lantern. Then the little Pumpkin was happy for

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Speaker 1: he knew Mother Vine would have been proud of him.

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Speaker 1: And he shone, shone, shone, until the candle was all

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Speaker 1: burned out, and that is the end of our story.

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Speaker 1: Good Night, sleep tight to day