A direct object is the part of the sentence that is somehow manipulated by the subject, and the type of the manipulation is described by the verb.
here the subject is "The delighted children" and the verb is "picked"
the direct object is "pumkins" - the correct answer is d.
R, because it is last in the word and furthest in the alphabet.
As the narrator deducts money from yulias pay in the ninny the main way that he justifies to her that he is correct and she is not is be saying that she has done poor work.