New London High School - Whaler Yearbook (New London, CT)

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BULKELEY NEWS 5 All this passed away in a flash when he heard his father call his name. He jumped up looked at the clock fifteen minutes of nine ! He had been there an hour and a half and it seemed less than five minutes. Bidding the folks a hasty good night he started for home and even forgot his pail in his excitement. Father was standing like a statue at the gate, waiting for his disobedient son. Not a word was said either by Richard or his father. They started toward home together and after walking a short distance father stepped behind, to let beauty go before age. All of a sudden without any, “ Strike one or ball one” or other familiar terms you hear at a base-ball game Richard started the greatest home run of his life, for his father was hitting him with a long horse whip right around the bare legs. Usually when a boy starts to make a home run he likes to have a large audience to cheer him on but Dick’s father and the whip was enough of an audience to keep him shortening the distance from home plate at a break-neck speed. He tried his best to get away from the object that was pushing him on, this was impossible for his father was keeping at a convenient distance and applying the whip at very short intervals. Faster and still faster they thundered on. Would they ever reach the house? The distance had never seemed so long to Dick before and he knew that he had never gone over it any faster. At last home plate, the kitchen door, is only a few feet away. He did not stop to think whether he would have to slide to make it but with one jump up the three steps he was in the door way. He received one good blow to help him through it then he turned at right angles and made for the dining room door. Still the unceasing force from behind was pushing him on to victory, which he knew to be bed. In far less time than it takes to tell it he was at the stairway which lead to his room, and father was there too. Three more blows from the great inspiration given to make sure Richard reached the top of the stairs and the game was won by his home run. B.’14. A Piggish Affair. It was early in the summer vacation when Phone began work on the farm. He was a tall, lanky, sickly looking individual with a desire for open air work. He was city bred, but in time he mastered all the tricks of the farming trade. That is, all but the proper method of catching a pig. Above all this is the first thing he should have learned. For the ignorance of it nearly cost him two dollars. One afternoon Mrs. Brown came rushing up to the barn and confronted us with a wild, angry look, “ Where’s my pig? she demanded. “ I don’t know, where did you leave him last ?’’ “You got it in there, she pointed to the stable. “ Come in and get it then.” “ I don’t see it. Haven’t you got it ? Honest ? Well he is around here some where. I’ll give two dollars to get him back.” Phone, who had been taking it all in quietly, spoke up after Mrs. Brown left. “That double buck listens good, doesn’t it ?” “ It sure does; we’ll get it.” As Phone was taking a short cut through the barnyard that noon, his eyes suddenly fell on a queer looking object lying in a gap in the wall. He approached it for investi-

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4 BULKELEY NEWS railroad bridge. The car goes down the gorge until finally you reach the Whirpool. In this place you may see the water passing round and round, and also sticks of wood floating there. It is said that a stick of wood may stay in the Whirpool for a year before the current carries it away. The car passes Brock’s Monument, and then you see Queenstown Heights, where a battle was fought on October 13, 1812. You pass down the slope and over the suspension bridge. After the car reaches the American side it turns to the left and then right in a long curve and goes up the stream close to the waters edge. About three miles above the bridge there is a large hole in the cliff, called the Devils Hole. In 1763 about 100 soldiers were murdered by the Indians and thrown into this hole The car passes on and soon reaches the Whirlpool. The current goes at a rate of 28 miles an hour here. After passing under the railroad bridges the car gradually rises until it is level with the surrounding country. The car runs through the city of Niagara Falls and lands one at the Soldier’s Monument. By this monument we got off the car. Then after a long walk we reached the “Home of the Shredded Wheat.’ Visitors may go with a guide all through the building and see the process by which Shredded Wheat is made. After seeing this factory we returned to the hotel. The next day we started home, sorry to leave a place which had given us so much real pleasure. C. B. ’16. A Home Run. |T was just at sunset one hot August afternoon that Richard’s father asked him to take a quart of milk over to Henry’s. Now Dick was only too glad to have such a chance and so he took the pail and started for his chum s house. He had gone only a short distance when his father called out, for he knew his son’s weakness, “ Richard, you come right back, for supper is almost ready.” Dick stopped whistling long enough to answer, “Alright” then journeyed on his way. He reached his friend’s house without spilling the milk and asked Henry’s mother to empty the pail, for he must go home immediately. Just then Henry came in, “Hello, Dick,” he said, “Come in the other room father is going to play the graph-ophone. This was something new in Henry’s house and it was the first thing he thought of when any one came to his home. “No,” said Dick, I haven’t time to-night. Father told me not to stay.” “ You just step in and hear one or two while I am washing the pail for you,” said Henry’s mother. Richard thought it would only take a few minutes to hear one or two pieces so he was easily persuaded to go into the parlor. After the first one had been played Dick rose to go but his friend begged him to stay and hear just one more. Richard readily agreed to this and sat down beside his friend knowing in his heart that he ought to go home, for supper was waiting for him The piece was played and it was even better than the first and before it was realized a third one was starting in. This was a march and as Dick sat there listening to it he imagined that he saw a great army marching right out the hom. He soon forgot all about home as the different pieces were played for he was marching with the soldiers; in the automobile with Uncle Josh ; with the singers on the stage.

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6 BULKELEY NEWS gation. Lo and behold! There was the Pig ? And asleep ! With silent tread he drew near. Then with a magnificent spring he hurled himself at the pigskin. There was a scuffle, sending a thick cloud of dust. From this cloud a pig shot with the speed of lightning and disappeared in the cornfield. Phone was so tangled up in himself that it took some time for him to get up-As soon as he had regained his feet he began to spit out great lumps of dirt -- all he had caught. When Phone returned from dinner the pig was in the same place as before. This time Phone secured a large bull rope. This he managed to fashion into a lasso. Armed with this, he once more drew near the larder. The rope became entangled in a rock. The pig needed no further hint to vamoose. With the quickness of thought he was on his feet and making for the com field at incredible speed. This was too much for Phone. Urged on by the fading vision of a two spot, he made record time for thirty-five yards. He reached at the gate through which his prey had disappeared but there was no sign of a pig. Thus he was forced to give up and the inspiring vision vanished. Nothing more was seen of the pig until about three o’clock. Then we saw it again in the same place as before. He must have fallen in love with that spot which was right near an old deserted pen. The idea struck me that if we could only get him in there we might hope to capture him. From the grain box in the bam we procured some meal. With this and some water I prepared a tempting supper which I poured into a trough in the pen. Hearing the familiar sound the pig crawled through a hole in the fence and plunged his nose deep in the feed. I at once proceeded to block up the hole, while Phone went for a bag. When he returned with a large two-bushel grain bag, the prize was all appetite. Cautiously my friend climbed over the fence, laid the bag aside, and cornered the pig which made a sudden dive for his legs. He stooped just low enough for the pig to catch him amidships. The force of the collision was so great that Phone was thrown backwards and fell sprawling into the trough, breathless. When he emerged from his bath he was covered with meal and water from head to foot. With a discomfited look he crawled out of the pen and muttered, “Never again.” It was a great show while it lasted but it was much too short. We had to catch that porker or we wouldn't get the money. Owing to Phone’s firm resolution, it was up to me. So I put my hat in the ring. Three times I cornered the greaser, but each time it managed to escape between my legs. Now, by being done four times in succession a thing is liable to become a habit. But bad habits are fatal. I was beginning to get sore both in mind and in body. I picked up the discarded bag and brandishing it above my head, cornered the pig a fourth time. Quickly draw, ing the bag between my legs, I held it wide open. Scarcely was this done when the enemy attempted his fifth escapade, in the habitual manner. This time through the bag. The fact that he didn’t succeed was announced by deafening squeals. A lively struggle ensued inside the bag, but the prisoner found no opening and finally quieted down, which meant surrender. With the bag on Phone’s shoulder (I gave him that privilege) we made for Mrs. Brown’s and the bucks. On entering the yard, we beheld that lady coming hastily down the path, waving two bills above her head. We made a hurried exchange. She caressed her “poor piggie,” and 1 sized up the two bucks a long time before I happened to think of Phone standing by. He too was eyeing the money and at the same time nursing a few bruises. So, pitying his case, I coughed over a “ One.” X. Y. Z. -14.