Pumpkin

"Ye carved this also?" someone asked. "Nay," Bernice responded (not looking up), "'Twas given me." "'Tis simple, this, and rough; we cannot use it for the party," they said (and she shrugged). "'Tis dented as if thrown from the rafters like a hay bale," another laughed and, at this, Bernice looked up. "'TWAS GIVEN ME," she repeated, annoyed, and continued, "and I would guard thy tone and quell thy mockery, for YOUR head would be dented, too, if thrown from a horse." There was silence for a time. "Who gave thee this pumpkin - carved such?" the first whispered, but Bernice answered them not. In Sleepy Hollow, questions were a dangerous business.

Credit: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving (1820).