Analy High School - Azalea Yearbook (Sebastopol, CA)

Page 18 text:

purple (Easstus f HE color purple has always been a sign of royalty. The ancient kings of Tyre, Crete, Babalon and Egypt wore purple robes in triumphal processions after the return of a victorious raid. The kings of the middle ages wore pur¬ ple robes on state occasions and royal gatherings. There are probably very few mortals who have ever cared to hear an explanation of this, but every fairy knows the tale and keeps the secret well guarded, as it is not known outside of Fairy¬ land. Fairies are tiny transparent mystical figures that have been so formed by the magic wand of the Great Fairy Queen who rules and guards both mortals and spirits. The fairies are her helpers and followers. They do her bidding always obediently and are given upon the day they enter Fairyland twenty tiny golden tablets on which are written the rules and rites they are always to follow. Besides these tablets they are also given one of lead on which is written the reason why communication between mortals and fairies has been prohibit¬ ed. The tablet is named “Purple Cassius” and the engraving is done in purple. The story is as follows and was told to me by a small elf who had been banished by the great queen: There grew in the garden of the mother spirit many, many years ago, a beautiful purple flower called Purple Cassius. The juice of this, when squeezed upon any object, would in¬ stantly change it to that which it most desired to be. This flower was a favorite of the queen, as she loved it even more than the little white fairy kittens that played with the golden tassels on her throne. No other eyes but her own and those of Zad, the gardener, were allowed to gaze upon this precious herb. One day a terrible calamity fell upon this land of mystic sunshine and tinted flowers. The queen was visiting a distant province, trying to settle a dispute between a haughty dragon fly and a grumbling angleworm, which was caused because the latter did not attend to his own business and tried to make love to the other’s heart ' s desire. It also happened at full moon. Zad just slipped around the corner of a bushy hedge 16

Page 17 text:

Perhaps a deadly sidewinder bit him, perhaps his jacks stampeded with his water; who knows? Only the desert, and she does not care to tell, but there is no doubt in the minds of idlers, as they discuss the matter, that Useless was drawn to his death, as the nail is to the magnet. Bodie has been in ashes for the last thirty years, and the mines are forgotten, but still in the seeking there is oftentimes more joy than in the reward. —Lee Walker. little jitar Jlratmcr Daddy says you’re a star on high, And you wander way up in the sky To guide the angels with your light So’s they won’t have a bit of fright To play in Heaven when it’s night. But I’m awful lonesome, little star, And when I gaze at you so far, So far away up in the blue, I can’t help thinking you’re lonesome, too. So don’t you think if you might try The Lord ’ud let you leave the sky To come on Earth and play with me?— ’Cause I’m jes’ sure we could agree. Hand in hand we’d walk the shore And be jes’ playmates evermore. And in my sand along the sea We could build a kingdom for you and me. And we’d let the other stars come, too, If they ’ud tell us really true Where all the little fairies grew, So’s we could get one for me and you— Or else perhaps we’d get us two. And when we got our kingdom thro’ There’d be the fairies, me and you, In a little home jes’ all our own Where the bestest breezes have always blown, Down beside the great deep sea, Jes’ the fairies, you and me. —Don Walker.

Page 19 text:

to gossip with a moth who was carrying the latest news of everything that had happened. The result was that when he came back the purple flower was gone. Zad, being very foolish, as many of us are, thought the blame was his, so he ran away and hanged himself on the trailer of a sweet pea vine. As soon as the queen came home she called for Zad. All the servants knew the story and trembled in their little leaf shoes. “Where is Zad?” the queen asked; “tell him to bring to me my wishing flower, Purple Cassius.” “Ah! Greatest of queens, we have a sad story to tell you,” quoted one wee fellow, quivering from the little curl that stood straight up on his forehead to his tiny green-topped shoes, and he told what had happened. “Well said, little one,” she murmured, “you are a true fairy to come with the truth to your queen. I feel deeply moved that Zad was so foolish for he was a good servant and I trusted him. Now we must search for my flower, and if ever it is found, the thieves will pay dearly for it.” Then the search began. Every cobweb, bluebell and but¬ tercup threw open his doors to show that he had not committed the crime. Every elf and fairy dropped his work and sought everywhere for the missing flower. After many days of searching the queen called an assembly on the mossy campus where the white violets always bloom. Silence like that of midnight held all spellbound, for it had been whispered that the queen had at last found the cul¬ prits. Then she spoke. “You, one and all, have been faithful and have added honor to the fairy name. Perhaps every one of you know that another world exists besides our own. We often go there to help the mortals that inhabit it when they are in trouble. From now on all communication shall be shut off and I will set a pest upon their land, as they are the thieves of the Purple Cassius. “This pest shall be the flower itself. It will never be visible to the human eye and it shall cause the inhabitants of this other land to fight and kill. Hitherto everything the flower touched became purple, which is the favorite color of Fairyland. Henceforth everything will become that which is