Cartoon farm boy with basket of corn and tomatoes waving beside a tractor, barn, silo, and corn rows.

Smiling Farm Boy Waving by the Cornfield

A cheerful farm boy waves from a dirt path, carrying fresh corn and tomatoes between tall stalks and a waiting tractor.

🎨 How to color it

Color the boy’s straw hat golden tan, his overalls denim blue, the tractor cherry red, and the barn a weathered barn red with a silver silo. Use sharp colored pencils for the corn leaves, tire treads, plaid shirt, and basket weave so the small repeating lines stay crisp. Try making the rolling fields fade from bright green in front to soft yellow-green near the barn, as if the whole farm is glowing after harvest.

The story behind this coloring page

Harlan’s Basket of Sun — Between the tall corn rows, Harlan swung a splintery basket on his arm and tried to walk faster than the tractor’s chug-chug behind him. Read the full story →

Between the tall corn rows, Harlan swung a splintery basket on his arm and tried to walk faster than the tractor’s chug-chug behind him. He wanted to reach the hilltop before the noon whistle, because the first corn and tomatoes of the season belonged in the farmstand window while they still smelled like warm leaves and dusty sunshine. His straw hat bounced. His boots puffed little clouds from the path. Every few steps, the basket handle tapped his wrist: tick, tick, tick.

At the bend by the silo, Harlan noticed the tapping had a pattern. Tick-tick, pause. Tick-tick, pause. He laughed and answered by clicking his heels on the packed dirt. A crow clacked from the fence. The tractor coughed in time. Even the corn leaves seemed to shush-shush along, green and bright around him.

Then the basket handle flashed gold. Harlan remembered what Great-Aunt Liddy had said: “This basket carried the first share, not the last bite.” So he lifted one ear of corn high and waved. From the barn, the dairy twins waved back; from the orchard, two pickers whooped; from the road, the mail truck honked twice. Joy ran over the fields faster than any tractor. Next time you spot Harlan’s raised hand, can you hear the farm answering tick-tick, pause?