Tansy’s Laughing Lantern — Every evening in October, Tansy raced the corn maze with a tin bell tucked in her sleeve, trying to reach the far barn before the moon climbed free of the clouds. Read the full story →
Every evening in October, Tansy raced the corn maze with a tin bell tucked in her sleeve, trying to reach the far barn before the moon climbed free of the clouds. The stalks hissed like paper brooms, and the path always seemed to wiggle one new way after dark. One night, the scarecrow’s arrow pointed right, but the little lantern beneath it blinked with a question mark instead of a flame.
Because of that, Tansy stopped running and heard a tiny rattle inside the lantern: clink-clink, whee! Because of THAT, she opened the latch and out bounced a handful of silver jingle seeds, each one ringing brighter than her tin bell. “Share the sound!” chirped the scarecrow, straw sleeves flapping in the cold pumpkin-sweet wind.
So Tansy planted the seeds along the path, and every corn row began to chime as other runners burst from the maze laughing. By moonrise, nobody cared who reached the barn first; the whole field rang together, clink-clink, whee. Next time you trace that twisty path, can you find where the first laughing lantern waited?
