Analy High School - Azalea Yearbook (Sebastopol, CA)

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her feet, she jerked the line and hooked the fish. When she saw it she almost gave a whoop of joy for it was a beauty and quite big, but she controlled her joy and very sedately baited again, although her heart was thumping wildly under her faded gingham gown. Surely the gods were in her favor, for it seemed that as fast as she could bait her hook and cast her line, she got a bite; nearly always she got them, and when at length she could tell it was approaching dinner time she had an even dozen, one especially large. This time she crossed the field as if she had wings on her feet, and although they ached, she cooled them in the cold water and went on until she came to the big gate which opened on to the hot road. Here she sat waiting for the boys; she saw them both approaching in a few minutes. “Oh, Mary Ann,” cried Bud, “I got four beauties and he only got two, and small at that; did you have any luck ?” “Oh, well, I only got twelve; I was so disappointed,” said Mary Ann, fanning herself and gazing calmly over their heads. Both boys gasped and crowded around her, eagerly asking where she had fished and praising their size. With new respect in their eyes they started out on their long journey home, telling how they had never had such bad luck before. Certainly victory was for Mary Ann. When they reached Tom’s house the smell of cookies was wafted out to them, and as of one accord they approached the kitchen door. They sat on the porch munching their cookies while Chubby begged for crumbs. “Say,” said Tom, “I think you’re a peach of a girl; you never even yelled nor hollered when the worms wriggled and you’re sure some fisher!” Bud nooded his approval of what was said, but Mary Ann only smiled, the world-wide smile, and took another cookie. 26

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would have received such a proposition with a cry of joy, she ran around the house and got her fishing pole. They then pro¬ ceeded down the hot road, wriggling their toes in the thick dust, with Chubby running ahead. When they came to Tom’s house he came out and soon Mary Ann forgot her grievances and laughed and shouted as loud as they. The creek was a couple of miles away and when they reached there Mary Ann was very hot and dusty, but she kept silent for was she not being treated on an equal basis with them? and she would scorn to have them think she was like any other girl. “Gee, I’m hot, moaned Tom, when at length they were in the cool woods; “bet I can get more’n you, Bud.” “Bet you can’t, either,” retorted Bud, screwing up his face as he placed a wriggling and squirming worm on his hook. Mary Ann kept silent, but she resolved mentally that she would also do her best. Inwardly she shuddered as she baited her hook, but she said: “Wish we had some decent worms; these are ’bout half dead, they don’t even wiggle.” Bud and Tom glanced at each other. “Gee, I never saw a girl before who’d bait her hook, did you, Bud?” asked Tom. Tom made no reply and they separated, each hunting out his own particular spot. As a farewell, Tom cried to Mary Ann: “Be sure and sit still and mebbe you’ll get a bite.” Mary Ann only tossed her head and marched away; she knew where the trout bit fine, but it was across a hot dusty field full of prickles, for the creek made a great curve here; but she shouldered her pole and in the hot sun hurried across the field, the sharp stubs of grass pricking her feet at every step. When at length she reached the shade again she sat down and with tears in her eyes, for her feet hurt abominably, she removed various stickers from her feet and took off her sun- bonnet to cool her hot face. The stream here was narrow but very deep, and the water was still. Here and there a splash of sun¬ shine, penetrating the thickness of the leaves above, would dart back and forth on the water; in the silence could be heard the stream farther down where the current was rapid. Very quietly Mary Ann sat down and cast her line; it seemed to her that she sat there for hours without a bite. Her face grew downcast as she thought of the humiliation she would endure if she faced the boys without even one fish. But suddenly her fine pulled and she knew that she had a bite. Rising quickly to 25

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LONESOME By Eva Williamson Fifth Prize HE camp-fire flickered, blazed up, then the last log parted and dropped, trembling, to the edge of the coals. No one stirred. No one pieced together the dying embers. One thought was uppermost in the minds of all—that of the runaway boy. His disposition was puzzling, the mother admit¬ ted; his fiery temper burst into flame without any definite reason or previous warning. But these storms were soon over and then a period of calm seriousness would follow, a time when shame and pride were uppermost and he “just couldn’t” face anybody. At these times his mother reflected even her affection would only bring a shrug to his shoulders, especially if others besides the two were present at the time. And then this morning—the little woman shivered and drew her shawl more closely about her. Oh, the thought of that uncontrolable burst of temper, that dogged expression on his face as he said, yes he had really said, “Someday you’ll be sorry.” And that someday had come, this very day at noon. When they had blown the bugle for lunch all had eagerly responded to the summons, except Dick. He had not come; and when a search was made near the camp, no trace of him was found except his cap, where he had thrown it as he left them so hastily in the morning. Nobody, except the mother, was alarmed. It was a common occurrence for this unnatural child to wander over the hills with no companion but his dog. Dick was not a mixer, he was inclined to moroseness. At these times he wanted to be left alone to fight out his troubles with his dog as chief advisor. “He’ll come back tonight, remember he has never spent a night away from you in his life,” Dick’s father said, in an at¬ tempt to pacify the silent, troubled gaze of his wife. The family was at Iron Bluff camp for the annual hunt. Iron Bluff was a gigantic cliff, nearly two hundred feet high, whose huge face of slate-colored rock made it as stern and unre¬ lenting as iron. At the base of the cliff, in a small ravine, two 27