Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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20 SPECTATOR The Higher Cunning Foster Burnett, '18 oc' OW far did you say it was to Houston's place? M queried a young man of the person at his side. Wal, it's close on to two miles an' a half an' it's all up-hill, answered the farmer, as his dress and the hay- fork over his shoulder showed him to be. But there was one thing which distinguished this farmer from those of his class in the warmer country south of Ontario, and that was-a repeating rifle, which he carried in his left hand. Although he was armed, the young man at his side carried no firearms. You ain't goin' to walk that fur without no' shootin' irons', be you? queried the farmer. You'd better stay at my place over night, 'cause th' wolves git perty wild 'round here at night. No, I'll go on and get to Houston's before dark, answered the young man, and, thanking his friend for his invitation to stay, he strode on down the road in the twilight that was fast passing into night. John Williams, was the son of an Ontario farmer who had died recently, leaving his son a farm a few miles from the place where the preceding conversation occurred. John, using his last dollar on railway fare, had gotten off at a point some eighteen miles from the farm, where his brother was working. He had walked about ten miles when he saw the farmer he had thus addressed, leaving a hay-field fo'- home, and, finding himself about two and a half miles from the next cabin, resolved to reach there before night came on. The road was rough and rather hilly. It soon became dark, but the full moon came up and illumined the road so that John could see well. After walking about a mile he was startled to hear, not far away, the cry of a wolf. A

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SPECTATOR 19 ,.,.,,,...---.,. YVY- f Y V 4 ar- -fn V -. --1--l--- 'Ulanie, thou shalt tell thy sister Mina, that a great evil is to befall her unless she immediately throws the ring set with the pink pearl into the Black Pond in the Palace garden. Tell her also, if she heeds not this warning, she shall be changed into a serpent. Poor Mina was trembling with fright when Ulanie ceased speaking. Let us go at once to the Pond, that I may throw the ring into it, said she. It would be terrible to be changed into a serpent. Ulanie smiled wickedly to herself. At least, thought she, I shall have the pink pearl. By that time they had reached the pond and Mina hurriedly cast the ring into the black waters. Then they returned to the palace. As soon as Mina had left her, Ulanie sent for the kitchen boy and told him to go and bring her a fish from the Black Pond. The boy remonstrated and said that there were no fish in the pond, but Ulanie told him she had seen one that very morning, as indeed she had fthe one she herself had put inj. At last the boy returned with the fish. Ulanie took it to her room, opened it and found the,pink pearl just as she had planned. For several minutes, she stood looking at its beauty and then slowly very slowly, slipped it on her finger. As the ring passed over the knuckle, Mina opened the door of the room and gazed with horror-stricken face at a great black serpent creeping slowly- across the floor. She gazed with fasci- nated eyes as the serpent wiggled out through the low window and disappeared from her sight. Thus the en- vious Ulanie named her own punishment. -,,..,-11

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- 1-,W SPECTATOR 21 few seconds later another cry came from the left, but nearer. A minute later he heard behind him, and much closer the sharp hungry yelps of many beasts. Turning quick- ly, he beheld gaunt, dark forms running swiftly up the hill, crying savagely all the while. In school John had been known as a good runner and he now used his best efforts to get away from the beasts, but the faster he ran, the faster the wolves ran and they gained on him, foot by foot. He knew he could not keep up his present pace until he reached Houston's. cabin and he shuddered at the terrible fate that lay before him. He stumbled, but quickly regained his balance. As he looked up he saw, about a hundred yards away, a cabin. The wolves were close, so close that John fancied he could feel their hot breath on his legs. But with hope, strength likewise increased, and ina burst of speed, he sprang through the open doorway into the cabin, which proved to be abandoned. Save for a tiny ray of moon- light which came in by means of a small window in one end of the shack, the place was entirely dark. Groping around quickly, John's hand touched a ladder. Up this he stumbled-to a loft and safety! No sooner had he drawn himself up on a narrow ledge, behind a projecting board, than the fierce beasts bolted through the doorway. They growled and sniffed around in every corner, search- ing for their prey. The roof of the cabin was low and John sat crouch- ed under it, scarcely breathing. He dared not move, lest by so doing, he might disclose his hiding place. Also, so narrow was the board upon which he was sitting, that he had to stay right in one place to keep from falling through the rafters to the beasts below, who smelled their prey and were silently waiting. Ah, these wolves lived up to their well-known cun- ning, for, although they could not get him at once, he was