Shortridge High School - Annual Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

Page 18 text:

PLATMATE5 To a child accustomed to hearing only English such a torrent of rolling German was at least terrifying, and the friendship came near terminating there. But Louisa's genial smile saved the day. They were good friends after that. To be sure, they could not carry on a conversation at all, but Louisa would bring out some decks of cards that found a place among her varied playthings, and hour after hour the two children would sit beside a table and match cards, contented with each other's company. Louisa would talk in her animated way, while the little boy listened cheerfully and courteously, understanding never a word. Then Louisa would listen attentively while he prattled innocently to her, and they were both very happy. But one day the little boy did not come. For a long time the little girl waited patiently, but in vain. The next day it was the same, and the next, and for many days after that the little girl wandered restlessly around, making many trips to that opening in the fence to gaze with wistful, hopeless yearning at the window in the little yellow cottage. Mother had told her, in a hushed, sad tone, that that carriage which came so often to the house next door belonged to the doctor, and Louisa, in whose infant mind that word was intimately connected with a certain agreeable confection known as sugar pills, was almost jealous of her little neighbor. But mother's face was very grave, and Louisa was oppressed with all the weight of an incomprehensible mystery. And, like most children who, for the first time in their careless existence, realize that they cannot make others understand, or that there is something which they themselves cannot understand, she stole away to find a corner where she might cry softly for awhile. And after that she did not ask her mother any more questions. But she still watched the little yellow cottage as before, and then one day she noticed, with a heart full of envy, that the little boy had the most beautiful flowers on his door that she had ever seen, more beautiful even than those which father had brought home when it was mother's birthday. And still there was no little boy, and the curtains in the little yellow cottage were closed. The very next day it was that mother wanted her to play all afternoon in the back yard, instead of wandering around in front to look at the little boy's place on the front porch, and mother would not even let her go to the windows when she came into the house. That night her mother told Louisa that the little boy had gone far away, so very far that he would never come back again to be her little neighbor next door. And Louisa listened, wide-eyed and silent. Q

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PLATNATEJ which even mother didn't always see, was always much the same in form. Dadda must go everywhere that Louisa went, and Dadda must do everything that Louisa did, mother soon learned that a refusal to grant Daddais requests was fatal. And, like a diplomatic mother, she threatened once to punish Dadda when her own little girl had been naughty. But Louisa's heart-broken wails had been too disconsolate, and she had spent the rest of the afternoon comforting a tear-stained, penitent little girl with a very vivid imagination. It was different with the little boy. He was all alone. Why he should not have had a Dadda, too, l do not know, for he was a fanciful child, with a pale face and a wistful look in his large blue eyes. But he played all alone on his own porch, and, although he was not naturally a restless child, there was an air of inexpressible sadness in his manner, and he seemed, in some vague, indefinable way, to feel that he was forced, by some inexorable power, to endure, and endure unceasingly. His mother's health was not good, so he must be quiet, his father was busy and had no time to entertain him. And he submitted, without a sigh, and played quietly, but rather sadly, on his own porch all alone. But that was before he knew Louisa. There was a little white fence between the two houses, and in one place two or three pickets were gone. One day, while the little boy was sitting on the porch in his little red rocker, rocking as heartily as if his life depended on it-just as children alwa s rock when tired and anxious for amusement-he looked toward this opening in tfie fence. A air of merry brown eyes-big, brown eyes with an alluring invitation in their dark diepths -were looking straight over at him. Below them he caught a glimpse of a very dirty white frock, and, while he was wondering and looking, one grimy, chubby little fist beckoned to him awkwardly. He hesitated but a moment, for, to a little boy who is always just as clean as soap and water can make his pale, white little face, and who always wears hateful black suits because they don't get so dirg'-to such a little boy what could possess more fascination than a dirty white frock an two very, dirty little hands. So he came up to the fence and stood there silent and timid, gazing into the other child's eyes with that open, straightforward gaze which only a child can give or receive. The look was very reassuring, for Louisa's ruddy little face certainl beamed with friendliness, and, after a moment of silence, the little boy ventured a timid: 'l-lullo, little boy!' Louisa could understand English quite well, but to speak it was a very different thing. But she was not a boy, she was sure of that, and so she explained to him kindly but very firmly in her own familiar tongue that he had made a mistake.

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PLATMATE5 The next day found her again, driven by a yearning which she could not suppress, standing once more by the opening in the fence. All moming she had wandered around, sadly and restlessly, and now she had come here, to end the struggle and readjust her view of life. She noticed, with a sickening heart, that the pretty flowers had gone from the little boy's door-perhaps the little boy had taken them with him: for she knew now that she would never see them again.- Slowly she was striving to reorganize her world-to go back to the days when she had not known the little boy. And, from those days which seemed so far away, she found herself trying to recall Dadda, the old playmate, Dadda, who had been such a faithful companion in the days before the advent of the little boy. But Dadda, who had never failed to answer before, seemed far away and unreal nowg she seemed to have vanished into that same unfathomable abyss into which the little boy had passed and from which mother said he could never come back. And Louisa, sadly gathering up the dirty rag doll, turned and walked sorrowfully, aimlessly away. 'FP - V V ' - 4, I: ' . 'A 4 .Q ' I 'jQ51,.j, rfvsttmhef l , ixglgfa-'savvy SW r W- Q ' A ..- 53'-sf,f!'f ., 1 J .1'f',,i-f. -+- J- 1 V. 91131 5 . V f L -1