Autumn Elf in the Pumpkin Patch

Autumn Elf is an adventurous little elf. He doesn’t like to sit around. He likes to get out and do things.

Autumn Elf heard that there was a huge pumpkin patch north of the city. He decided that he would take his sister, Stella, to the pumpkin patch.

“I would love to go to the pumpkin patch with you,” said Stella, grateful that her brother wanted to take her.

Autumn Elf and Stella took the bus that dropped them off right at the entrance to the pumpkin patch.

“Look at all the pumpkins,” said Stella, admiring the acre after acre of small, medium, large and even extra large pumpkins. Stella saw dot after dot of a bright orange colour for as far as her eyes could see.

“This is a very big pumpkin patch,” explained Autumn Elf as he paid the admittance fee for Stella and himself. “It wouldn’t be very hard to get lost in this place so don’t go wandering off without me.”

“Okay,” said Stella. “I won’t.”

Autumn Elf and Stella walked through the main gates and started walking through the pumpkin patch. The first section of pumpkins they walked through were the small pumpkins and then they walked through the medium pumpkins. It was very easy for Autumn Elf to keep his eye on his sister because he could see right over top of all the small and medium pumpkins.

The next section of pumpkins were the large ones. It was getting a little more difficult to see over top of the large ones. As soon as they came to the extra large section, there was no way Autumn Elf was going to keep his eye on his sister if they were to get separated.

“Stay right beside me,” said Autumn Elf as he turned around to talk to Stella.

Autumn Elf was very angry because when he turned around, Stella was not there.

“I told her to stay close,” said Autumn Elf to himself. “Now I will never find her.”

Autumn Elf called Stella as he walked through row and row of extra large pumpkins. He couldn’t find her at all.

As Autumn Elf continued walking through the pumpkin patch, he started to get a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“I think I am lost,” said Autumn Elf. “I see pumpkins of all shapes and sizes in this section. This section was not like the other sections. The other sections were separated by the size of the pumpkins.”

Autumn Elf was starting to panic. He had to find his way out of the pumpkin patch. He had to find Stella.

“You look like you are lost,” Autumn Elf heard a voice say to him.

Autumn Elf didn’t see who was talking to him until he looked down on the ground. He saw a brown and white rabbit looking at him.

“I am lost,” said Autumn Elf. “I need to get out of this pumpkin patch. I have to find my sister.”

“I am lost too,” said the rabbit.

“Great!” yelled Autumn Elf. “I thought you would be able to help me.”

“Maybe if we stick together we can find a way to get out of here,” suggested the rabbit.

“That may work,” said Autumn Elf.

The rabbit introduced himself as Jack and Autumn Elf told Jack his name.

“So Jack,” said Autumn Elf. “Do you have any ideas of how to get out of here?”

“I think we need to mark our way somehow,” said Jack. “That way we can tell if we are just going around in circles.”

“Good idea,” said Autumn Elf, pulling out several candy wrappers from his pocket.

Jack took one of the wrappers and slid it under one of the pumpkins, leaving some of it showing so that they would be able to see it if they did come this way again.

Jack and Autumn Elf started walking. They stopped at every twentieth pumpkin so they could put a candy wrapper underneath it. They did this for about an hour but then Autumn Elf noticed a candy wrapper underneath one of the pumpkins.

“Okay,” said Jack. “So now let’s find out which direction we went by looking for another candy wrapper.”

“I found one,” said Autumn Elf, about ten minutes later.

“Me too,” said Jack.

Jack and Autumn Elf could see that they had just walked in a huge circle.

“Let’s try walking to the right of us,” said Autumn Elf.

Autumn Elf and Jack walked to the right and this time they placed the candy wrapper on the left side of the pumpkins.

“Are you lost?” Autumn Elf and Jack heard a scarecrow ask them.

“Yes,” said Autumn Elf. “We are lost.”

“Me too,” said the scarecrow.

The scarecrow introduced himself as Stanley.

“You may as well come with us,” said Autumn Elf.

“Thank you,” said Stanley, following them.

Autumn Elf ran out of candy wrappers but Stanley had some extra straw in his pocket. They put a piece of straw under the pumpkins instead.

Soon, they came to a pumpkin that had a candy wrapper underneath it.

“We have already been here too!” yelled Autumn Elf. “We are never going to make it out of here.”

Just then, Stanley had a crow land on his shoulder and he was going to shoo him away but Autumn Elf stopped him.

“The crow can fly,” said Autumn Elf. “He can show us the way out of here.”

“I can do that,” said the crow. “Follow me.”

The crow flew to the left of where they were standing. It seemed he was zig-zagging through the pumpkin patch.

“Hey Mr. Crow,” said Autumn Elf. “Are you really going to help us get out of here? It seems like we are just zig-zagging through the pumpkins.”

“Call me Al,” said the crow. “And, we are actually almost at the front entrance.”

“Oh!” exclaimed Autumn Elf, happily. “Thank you, Al.”

Five minutes later, Autumn was hugging Stella.

“I was so worried about you,” cried Stella. “I am so sorry for not staying close to you. I had just bent over to tie my shoe and then you were gone.”

“How did you find your way out?” asked Autumn Elf.

“I just kept following a group of people,” said Stella.

“Very smart,” said Autumn Elf.

Autumn Elf introduced Stella to Al, Jack and Stanley.

“My new friends helped me immensely,” said Autumn Elf. “I am very grateful to the three of you. Thank you very much.”

“You are welcome,” said Al, Jack and Stanley.

“We’d better get home,” said Autumn Elf to Stella. “Goodbye friends.”

Al, Jack and Stanley waved goodbye to Autumn Elf and Stella.