Mr. R.’s World of Math

Margie grabbed me by the stem and carried me back to the porch.
The mother looked up and asked, “Where did you find the pumpkin?”
“Over there by the basketball hoop,” replied Margie, and she plunked me down near my friend the basketball.

I told the basketball he didn’t know how lucky he had it. The basketball just reminded me it was no piece of cake being bounced on your head and thrown through a metal hoop all day. I guess I could see where he was coming from…
The mother told Margie they could start carving. I squeezed my eyes shut and got ready for the pain of the knife.

The mother slowly brought the shiny blade up to my side. I felt the cold metal against my orange flesh. I wanted to scream as I waited for pain. She pushed the point of the knife into me and I felt a little twinge. Then she pushed the whole blade through me. I was ready for a lot of hurt, but I was surprised to feel it didn’t hurt. As a matter of fact it sort of tickled. As a matter of fact it tickled so much I started to giggle. I was laughing so hard I didn’t even notice when they were done carving out my new eyes, my new nose and my new mouth. It hadn’t hurt at all and I kind of liked my new scary look. Now, maybe people wouldn’t push me around anymore.

I think I was worth even more now that I was so scary looking. I bet farmer Robinson could have sold me for 74¢ /pound. If I now weighed 25 pounds (I had put on some weight), how much could Farmer Robinson have sold me for?