San Ramon Valley High School - Kernel Yearbook (Danville, CA)

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57 ity grew larger. As they passed they yelled un- intelligible words and shook their fists at the palace in which the prince lived. After this had gone on for a few days the people of the house began to get nervous. One day we moved back into the city, and as we went I heard some of the servants say that if there was going to be a revolution they would be safer in the city. In the city there was even greater turmoil than on the highroads. As we passed through the market square I heard the clamor of an angry mob. When we reached our city home, all was quiet and still. But as I was being put away I was con- scious of a muffled roar coming from the the direction of the market place. As I lay on my shelf the roar grew louder and louder until it seemed as if it was right in front of the house. At that moment the door of the closet was flung open and I was taken out by a servant. He ran with me to the head of the stair case but there he stopped. In the lower hall a wild mob was milling about uncertainly. Then one of the men below spied the servant, who carried me. I saw the glint of steel and a knife whistled. through the air. It struck my servant squarely in the chest and he staggered and fell. I dropped from his arms and rolled down the stairway toward that wild and hunger crazed mob. As I reached the bottom, the gaunt, yellow arm of a woman shot out and snatched me up. The woman pressed me closely to her and forged her way through the crowd. When we reached the street she hastened by narrow alleys to a little hovel of mats near the walls of the city., Inside the hut were a man and his father, an old withered frame of bones and yellow skin, barely covered by his rags. There was a great number of children playing about and I afterwards learned that they all belonged to this family. The squalid conditions in this hut were appalling. The woman hid me under a pile of mats and there I stayed for several days. One day troops came marching down the street and the people who lived in the hut fled. I stayed under those mats

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R- 5' W doors, and leave. The candy shop and the filling station go back into hibernation and thc fisher- Thc school teacher men begin to repair their nets. comes in from Point Reyes on the stage and the vacation season is over. So it is, year after year. appointed if I were ever to go back and find it changed. I should bc dis- Betty Mauzy THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN OPIUM BOWL The recollection of my youth is very hazy in it, I was born in a dingy shop in Pieping. The old my mind. As I recall little metal worker's man who made me was e dear old soul, as yellow and withered as the last leaf, and he talked to me and fondlcd me as he fashioned me out of brass. - It seems to me that this was about the year seven- teen hundred and fifty seven. When I was complete, I was sent and put on a little table out in front shop and offered for sale. For many days I re- but one mained unsold because of my great price, day a rich prince who was passing by saw me and ordered me to be purchased. I was smothered in crisp paper, flcckcd with gold, the color of cherry blossoms. The kind of paper Ah Ling saved to wrap his most cherished pieces of workmanship. I was taken to the prince's palace, a few miles outside the walls of the city and immedi- ately put into use. The buds of the poppy, great green globes through which pooped the golden petals, were placed in me and a great fire lighted beneath mc. When the buds had become like powder they were taken from me, and I suppose they were smoked. I think that the prince had his own field of poppies, although I'm not sure. Life went on in this manner for I don't know how many years without being disturbed to any great extent. Presently, though, many coolies began to move along the road. Day after day they passed and each day the stream of surging human-

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V Xl for so many years without be cannot remember. The mats d came buried in the earth. ing disturbed that I isintegrated and I be- One day a poor boy picked me up as he was shuffling along on his bare feet. He muttered a curse and rubbed his injured thought he picked me up. He toe, but on second carried me to a ship in the harbor and went on board her. Down into the steerage he went, from family to family, of- fering me in exchange for the care and protection that they would give him. Finally one family agreed and I changed owners. On the long journey across the ocean I was used to boil soup in, and the whole family dipped in their tin cups and drank. When we reached our por t I was taken up to a shop where a kindly old man, much like Ah Ling, bought me. He placed me on an old satin skirt which had graced an Empress and I was allowed to gaze out the window. The traffic! Never in all my long life had ' I seen such traffic. The Italian, trundling his cart of vegetables and crying aloud his wares. The occasional limousine, sl iding past, housing stately ladies and gay debutantes. And all day, and incessant stream of Chinese dressed in strange clothes and jabbering a strange tongue. One day a strange man w ith a pale skin came to take me away. my owner was loth to sell me but he finally agreed and I again changed owners. The man took me to a furniture store where I received a much needed Polish, and the dents were taken out of me. Then I was taken across water and presented to a man man was in a black suit with and the woman had on a white They took me in an automobil country. There I was placed piece and a wreath of leaves I have been here about fifte what I have heard the people a small body of and a woman. The a white shirt dress with a veil. e to a house in the above the mantle placed beneath me. en years and from of the house say, I live in the home of the Kelly's. Douglas Kelly ffl!! ni lj, A