Come on in and help yourself to a breakfast beverage. Let’s talk. Miss Josie just finished her cinnamon rolls. She has just gotten some fresh homemade cow butter from her Aunt Jane. Now some good cow butter on top of hot cinnamon rolls sounds like heaven to me. So come on down and get some. Now Joe has a scarecrow story this morning.
People are starting to plant their gardens due to the warmer weather. That reminds me of a story about my Uncle Henry and a scarecrow that saved his watermelon patch. Now around here many people still put scarecrows in their gardens or vegetable patches to keep the birds or other critters away from them eating all the fruit or vegetables. I said that they worked pretty good on animals and birds. They aren’t so good if a person is stealing your produce. People are not usually scared of scarecrows.
It seems that my Uncle Henry grew the best watermelons around these parts. One day he went to his patch and saw where somebody had been stealing some of his best watermelons. Why they even took time to eat a whole melon the night before. Uncle Henry knew if he didn’t put a stop to this, he wouldn’t have any to sell and he needed the money. So, he sat down and gave this problem a lot of thought.
As he watched his lonely scarecrow swing back and forth on this windy day, he got an idea. He took some of his watermelons down to the Farmers’ Market. While he was selling his watermelons, he told everyone that would listen about how his watermelon patch was haunted by an angry scarecrow. He told people that he wouldn’t ever go to his patch at night because an angry scarecrow would try to attack him. The scarecrow was angry because many years ago some boys had pulled him apart when they were stealing watermelons. He wanted revenge on anyone that stole watermelons.
Pretty soon word about the haunted melon patch got all over the county. Uncle Henry didn’t have any more trouble for a while. One night he heard some voices up by his melon patch. He knew somebody was trying to steal his melons. He got dressed up like a scarecrow. He even put a straw hat and a bag over his head. As he got closer to the patch, he heard the boys and men talking about how they didn’t believe in any ghost stories or a haunted patch.
Uncle Henry moaned loudly. He yelled, “I have found you. Now I am going to get even.” The people looked up and saw a scarecrow running toward them. They didn’t wait around. All Uncle Henry could see was the dust from them running down the dirt road. Uncle Henry never had any problems with his patch after that.
A few years later, Uncle Henry was at the Farmer’s market. He asked a neighbor boy why he didn’t try to steal any watermelons from him. The boy looked scared and said, “I tried just last night but an old scarecrow chased me away.” Uncle Henry just looked at the boy and whistled because Uncle Henry hadn’t been up to his watermelon patch at night for years!
He was glad he hadn’t gone back to that watermelon patch at night. He knew he wouldn’t ever go out there at night again. He was very superstitious. Uncle Henry was afraid that that scarecrow might have been looking for him. Now, everyone around here knows that scarecrows don’t like anybody taking their job. So, don’t try being a scarecrow in your garden or watermelon patch or one may go looking for you one dark night.
Having said that, let’s share a breakfast beverage and a Native American Proverb. The Proverb of today goes like this, “As the moon moves across the night’s sky, many creatures welcome the night.” Thanks for coming! Enjoy your gift of today. Have a great day!
