L.Frank Baum. The marvelous land of Oz -
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even Tip laughed as he looked admiringly at his work.
The child had no playmates, so he did not know that boys often dig
out the inside of a "pumpkin-jack," and in the space thus made put a
lighted candle to render the face more startling; but he conceived an idea
of his own that promised to be quite as effective. He decided to
manufacture the form of a man, who would wear this pumpkin head, and to
stand it in a place where old Mombi would meet it face to face.
"And then," said Tip to himself, with a laugh, "she'll squeal louder
than the brown pig does when I pull her tail, and shiver with fright worse
than I did last year when I had the ague!"
He had plenty of time to accomplish this task, for Mombi had gone to
a village - to buy groceries, she said - and it was a journey of at least
two days.
So he took his axe to the forest, and selected some stout, straight
saplings, which he cut down and trimmed of all their twigs and leaves.
From these he would make the arms, and legs, and feet of his man. For the
body he stripped a sheet of thick bark from around a big tree, and with
much labor fashioned it into a cylinder of about the right size, pinning
the edges together with wooden pegs. Then, whistling happily as he worked,
he carefully jointed the limbs and fastened them to the body with pegs
whittled into shape with his knife.
By the time this feat had been accomplished it began to grow dark,
and Tip remembered he must milk the cow and feed the pigs. So he picked up
his wooden man and carried it back to the house with him.
During the evening, by the light of the fire in the kitchen, Tip
carefully rounded all the edges of the joints and smoothed the rough
places in a neat and workmanlike manner. Then he stood the figure up