Pumpkin and the Wild Pansies
Pumpkin and the Wild Pansies
by Lynda Keen
The bluebird had had so much energy it made Pumpkin feel tired. So he went home to rest before carrying on with his walk.
Hilda gave him some dinner.
He told her about the mouse family and she was ever so surprised.
Oh, Kev and Sandra said you didn't do anything, she said, that you just sat down. They never saw the mouse again and they thought that it had just gone away. I'll tell them it was thanks to you finding him a proper home.
Pumpkin purred and told her about the strike and the rainbow skating and then about the bluebird.
She laughed about the bluebird.
I hope he is World Champion one day, she smiled. Pumpkin, said Hilda, you are so good and kind. And she stroked him and he purred and licked her hand and climbed onto her knee for a snooze.
Now, while he was asleep, Hilda was thinking what to give Hilary for her birthday. Hilda loved wild flowers. She often pressed them in her Dad's books. She was sure that everyone else loved flowers as much as she did and she was equally sure that Hilary would like nothing better than some wild flowers for her birthday. Hilda had set her heart on wild pansies.
They're very rare, aren't they? she said.
Yes, answered Pumpkin, even though he was asleep.
Mm, said Hilda.
Next morning, Hilda took Pumpkin to her Dad's allotment and they searched all over for wild pansies. They found snowdrops and crocuses and primroses and bluebells and just about every other flower you could think of but no wild pansies.
Oh well, sighed Pumpkin, there's only one other place we can try.
So they went to Mrs Keen's backyard, all the way to Barrow-in-Furness. And there next to the palm tree and behind the ferns were the wild pansies.
May I take some, begged Hilda.
Of course, said Mrs Keen. Take some ferns as well. The green will look good with the flowers. How's Stephen now? she went on, has he got over the measles alright now?
Yes, he's better now, said Hilda, thank you. And thank you for the pansies.
They went indoors for tea.
Back home, Hilda carefully replanted the flowers and fern in a pot and hid the pot away under the stairs, where Hilary wouldn't see it.
