Leominster High School - Magnet Yearbook (Leominster, MA)

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THE MAGNET 13 A Fairy Revel i... down in a little glen, hidden from human sight, dwelt the King and Queen of nymphs and fairies. Their palace was in an opening of a lovely moss-carpeted ledge, and all the precious stones and beautiful flowers were gathered there to adorn its walls. Little creatures flitted in and out doing His Majesty’s bidding. “ Bring me my messenger,” the King said to one of his attendants. Almost immediately the messenger stood before him, saying as he bowed very low, ‘“ Your Majesty, I long to serve you.” “You shall serve me by bidding all my subjects to a ball in honor of their Queen.” “When the moon shall shed her silvery light, Then the fairies revel through the night.”’ The messenger sped away tapping on each leaf and bud, each tree and flower, telling the fairies within of their King’s command, till at last, every one had learned his bidding. At the appointed time the lovely Queen rode before them in an acorn chariot drawn by tiny grasshoppers. She was clad in the filmiest of rain- bow robes and bore in her hand a magic wand. The moon shone benevo- lently down upon them and the air was soft and sweet with delicate fra- grance, while all around gleamed the dewdrops, wavering and trembling in the silver light. The Queen of the fairies poised herself daintily on a large blue violet and told her subjects of her love and regard for them, and then at her signal they began todance. Laughing gleefully, and singing gayly, they all joined hands and danced around their Queen, tripping and flitting over the soft green carpet spread for them by Nature herself. A wicked old witch, who was jealous of the Queen’s beauty, looked upon the scene unobserved. ‘Hah!’ she said, with a malicious gleam in her eye, and a frightful grin that revealed her toothless gums, ‘‘see them in their merriment. I will spoil their glee.” : The old hooked-nosed hag muttered a weird incantation, and through the forest trooped her dwarfs, willing to aid in any deed of darkness. Slowly, silently, she stole upon the merrymakers until, with one more step, she stretched out her bony hand and snatched the Queen and disappeared again, while all the dwarfs drove the fairies from the place. In their great grief and helplessness the fairies mingled their tears with the dewdrops and wended their way homeward. The cruel witch forced the Queen to be her servant, to wear coarse clothes, and to perform countless disagreeable tasks. If the Queen be- came weary and stopped to rest a moment, the witch would cry, ‘‘ Get thee to thy task, or I shall give thee worse to do!” Many times the old hag asked her the secret of her beauty and became more angry when the fairy

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12 THE MAGNET The Queen looked relieved and said, ‘‘ The time will come, never fear, when you will be willing to bestow your hand upon some one whom you love as well as respect.” At that moment a page entered who bowed deeply and then an- nounced, ‘Your Majesty, the Audience Chamber awaits your presence.” “Tet this end our interview, Lady Chester.’ Then Queen Elizabeth proceeded to the Audience Chamber where she ably and wisely administered justice to her subjects. Now, it must be confessed, Dorothy had reason to blush, for she was very much in love with a soldier of common rank but of extraordinary courage in the Queen’s army. His name was Philip Wayne, and Queen Bess little suspected that this handsome youth had captured her fair charge’s heart. Therefore, after a splendid evening banquet had been served at the palace a few days later, Dorothy, who was now free to do as she wished, and Philip, who was not on duty, met in the garden. He made a splendid silhouette in the bright moonlight, and the maiden’s heart beat happily as she drewnear him. His tall, broad, figure was erect and soldierly in its uniform, and his dark hair and clean-cut features were good to look upon, or so Dorothy thought. They spent a happy hour together until he said: ‘ Dorothy dear, I was very presuming to hope that you would return the love of a poor, common, soldier, but even though this is true, I will never let you consent to be my wife. I must just hope that you will forget me, though you will never be absent from my thoughts.” In vain she pleaded with him. He was immovable, so they soon parted sorrowfully. About midnight, Dorothy was brushing Elizabeth’s hair in the Queen’s boudoir, when the Queen, glancing in the sheet of burnished steel, for there were no mirrors in those days, saw the sad face of her Maid-of-Honor reflected. “Tell me your trouble, Lady Chester,” commanded the Queen. Therefore, Lady Chester told “good Queen Bess” about her love and its unhappy conclusion. ‘‘ Father would never cons2nt to our marriage, and reither would Philip. Oh what shall I do!” sobbed poor Dorothy. ““My child, don’t despair yet. Don’t you remember that the Duke of York died not less than three months ago and left only a scape-grace nephew in Africa? Need I say more?” asked the Queen smiling. It is hardly necessary to add that in less than a month the title of ‘Duke of York” had been conferred upon Philip Wayne, who proved most worthy of it. Six months from that time Queen Elizabeth’s favorite Maid- of-Honor had become the happy bride of a no less radiant Duke. The place Queen Elizabeth, who brought prosperity and peace to her people, loved most of all to visit was the home of Philip and Dorothy, where dwelt two of the happiest hearts in the Empire. WINIFRED LOMBARD.

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14 THE MAGNET acknowledged that she did not know it. The once delightfully happy Queen pined for her home and grew sad and gloomy. One balmy day while working near the entrance of the witches cave, the Queen saw a beautiful little humming bird which seemed to be coming nearer and nearer. The humming bird said, “I have come to release you from your bondage.” . “But Iam bound. I cannot get away,” replied the Queen. The hum- ming bird quickly severed with his bill the bonds that held her, and when she had jumped lightly upon his back, flew swiftly away to her own palace. All her nymphs and fairies bestowed upon her their ardent love and devo- tion, and wept with joy at her longed for return. They appealed to the god of the forest for vengeance upon the cruel hag; so he transformed her to an ugly, twisted tree trunk. and thereafter the fairies had nothing to fear in their revelries. HELEN BRIGHAM, ’I5. A Boy’s SHort Essay on EvisHa.—There was a man named Elisha. He had some bears and he lived in a cave. Soine boys tormented him. He said, ‘‘ If you keep on throwing stones at me, I’ll turn the bears on you and they'll eat you up.” And they did, and he did, and the bears did. -“ Here, son,” said the father to Willie, ‘‘What does this mean? Your report only gives fifty for arithmetic, and your teacher says you can’t count up to twenty-five. What are you going to do, when you get in business, with a record like that?”’ ‘Now, don’t worry, Father,” replied the son. ‘To count up to twenty- five isn’t necessary for success in business nowadays.” ‘Not necessary,’ gasped the father. ‘No, sir; I can start a ten-cent store.”’ FIGURES OF SpEECH.—An old man at a prayer-meeting was very much disturbed by the giggling and whispering of some boys and girls. At last he could endure it no longer, but rose and said: “It grieves me to see young people so heedless that they will sell their souls for a mess of pot- tage that becomes trampled under foot of man and fadeth out with the © using of it. : A SociaL DISTINCTION Pat: An’ phwat the devil is a chafing-dish?” Mike: “ Whist! Ut’s a frying-pan that’s got into society.”