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

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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

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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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F'7 17 PHANTASIES 2 The steady movements of wheels over the steel rails. The little towns alo ng the way slipped by like red and green dots on a smooth ticker tape. It was a through train--We made no stops. In the other end of the Pullman a baby whimpered, sobbed, and then subsided. The car was again quiet. Three o'clock -------- a tall figure arose and stalked neisily down the aisle to the observation platform. There was an odor of camphor mingled with stale tobacco. -O-O-O-O-O The night was warm and whispered among themselves, the vibrant life that their The silvery moonlight touche shadowed brooklet ripples. framed oy the forest beauty O-O- Q still. The pines telling each other of eranches harbored. d here and there the Hark! -------- Soft Gray, came the doe and her fawn. Daintily they lowered their shapely heads to drink. -o-o-e-o-o-o It was a queer old shop -o-o- - --filled with price- less antiques and curios. Along the walls deep shelves filled with lovely, transparent china, ran parallel, in the deepest, darkest corner sat an old spinning wheel, its spindle threaded as if someone had just got up from the mahogany stool beside it. In the opposite corner was an elaborately carved tea chest from which issued forth the spicy odor of foreign herbs scattered carelessly among Venetian laces, Chinese jade, and treasures such as only A distant lands may offer--its lid just a bit ajar as if inviting idle fingers. grandfather clock seemed to Say. old--Time does not cease,--Time lt was amid these priceless how perfectly adorable, my dear. U do sweet.N USO gorgeous.N Nl this?H HExquisitely grand.N I am old--I am old. Ti Time does not cease. The tall mahogany Nl am old--I am does not cease. suresithat--WOh, W HSimply too ear, have you noticed trca me does not cease, Dorothy White