The Entrepreneur

It began when he found the package of seeds left in his yard by the Easter Bunny. "I'll plant these pumpkin seeds in June and see how many pumpkins I'll get!" Through the summer, he watched as the seeds grew into plants, the plants produced bright yellow flowers and by mid-August, the flowers wilted away leaving little green pumpkins. He counted them over and over....twelve good pumpkins! How much money could he make with twelve good pumpkins? "I think they are worth ten dollars each," he said. "If you want one grandma, yours is twenty dollars!" By mid-September, the harvest was complete. He had four fully orange jack-o-lantern pumpkins, seven decorator pumpkins and one little disappointment showing signs of rot. "I think I need more things to sell. What could I sell with my pumpkins?" His grandfather suggested corn stalks. "But since you didn't grow corn, you will have to buy corn stalks. I will sell stalks to you for twenty five cents each." The entrepeneur considered this in his young little mind. He tore the cob off each stalk and put them in a bushel basket. He made a sign of coloured construction paper--CORN COBS 25 cents each, CORN STALKS $1.00 each. "Grandma, I think you should bake pies and cookies for my stand." I could sell pies for ten dollars each. If you made six pies, I would make sixty dollars. AND you should make pumpkin cookies for my customers. They would like to eat a cookie while they shop!" So on the first day of autumn, the young entrepeneur painted a sign in wobbly printing: HARVEST SALE. He found a dusty and rusty old tin cash box in the corner of the basement. He counted out $14.50 in quarters and divided his coins between the compartments to use as change for his customers. Beside the treasured cash box, he set a plate of pumpkin cookies decorated as jack-o-lanterns. Three hours later, his pumpkins and his pies were all gone. Nobody knows how much was in the cash box but it wasn't a bad day for a six year old!