Shortridge High School - Annual Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

Page 31 text:

r ,...- we ,KH I gs.: 5 . . A ,,..', W I ' 4, '1 ,- L+-F .U J 1 V' v1 , 'V , i .1 ,- if?

Page 30 text:

' 4, 1-i'fTfz'-. A 1 5' J '-fig.. j , .QT 'g 34 -A x .-aff . ' .I 3. . , 4- ,H 5, H- ' f V.,-.f5j.J,.,i ' . it Tx J-.1 1 'SN My! if H lg' 'i ff fzfg I . . - C Qjl' . v'. vLf.' ' , 1 . . . , ,g .1-,1.,, 4 A. . i icggig-.'bqi-:iq ISD M Oh, Jimmy? he's dead, she replied with a catch in her voice. He's been dead 'most 'twenty years. 4 ,A I'm sorry I ast ye 'bout him. ,V She wiped her eyes with her apron and was silent for a While. I reckon I might as well tell yej' and seating herself in the doorway, she began her story. He was killed. Ye see, as I jest now said, he was a little wild an' he would drink sometimes. But he had the kindest heart and he was as good to me as he could be. Iie yvas good looknf an' mnarg too, and everybody hked jinuny and liked to hear him play the fiddle. Folks used to send fer him fer fifteen an' twenty miles to play fer them to dance by. Jimmy loved his fiddle and would set fer hours playin' with his eyes half shut. Seemed like he didn't care fer anything else till he got to courtin' a gal over 'cross the river. Her name was Mag King and every- body thought she was awful purty. He first met her at a dance, and he jest went crazy about her. lie vvent acrost the river to ah the parnes,'cause she wvas aHus there. One day a young feller come to this part of the country. He was jest 'bout Jimmy's age and size an' folks thought he looked jest like jimmy., After this feller come, Mag Wouldn't dance with Jimmy. This made him so mad he wouldn't play the fiddle, and once or twice him and this feller almost had a fight, but somebody parted thenn. f Mag always tried to aggervate jimmy and one night Jimmy couldn't stand no more and told her to choose between them. She laughed and took the other fel- ler. Jimmy didnit say another word, but picked up his fiddle and went out of the house. This was the last time anybody ever saw him aliveff She paused while sobs shook her thin frame. jimmy didn't come home, and the next evening a boy come to pay him for playin'. He told me 'bout the fuss and said they hadn't seen this other feller. Q William started out next day to hunt fer Jimmy but couldn'tifind a trace of him. Ever' time I heard a step I jumped up, thinkin' my boy had come back. It was three weeks before they found him up in the woods. He'd been killed with a shot-gun. They could tell it was him only by his clothes, an' by his fiddle. It was layin' by him. They never let me see him at all. They buried his fiddle with him. Everybody was sure that that feller killed him 'cause he had borried old man King's gun that 'nightf' You haven't .lived here since yore son died? asked the stranger. ' s I I I Q S 4 -iii - V fl i - 5-3..1.s'+w...y.fl 1 s I , . 2F'.f-Zeftlxilltiaf'-52. -1 Lw 5 .6 59 5 ','1'. , Q , .n u H ' 1 1-174' e ld fa ' ' 5 . .arg-mg. ,Ml . '-f' W

Page 32 text:

iz ' e7kv?-ilixafvi-Lx-'ir-fit-l3z1VioLinFQ No, I went to live with William and nobody wouldn't live here. The place is said to be haunted and lots of people have said they've heard Jimmy's fiddle in the night. Do you believe in haunts? I don't know that I do, said the stranger. The very night that Jimmy was killed, I was settin' by the fire waitin' fer him. It was 'bout one o'clock and somehow I felt uneasy, and I heard the gate open an' somebody walked up on the porch and I thought it was Jimmy. I-Ie pushed the door open and hung his fiddle up on the peg by the door. I said, jimmy, what's the matter ?' Then he said, 'I just brung my fiddle home? I turned around for something and when I looked around again he was gone. I went to the door and called, but no one answered. People said I dreamed that, but I didn't. I liked to went crazy that night, fer ye see Jimmy and me lived by ourselves. Next morning I went over to William's house and told them 'bout what I'd seen, but when we got back over here we couldn't see anything but that shadow of the fiddle up there like you see it now. What become of the woman? She married another feller and lives over on the other side of the river. Did the other man ever come back? Oh, no but I'm glad it wasn't my jimmy that killed him. The stranger sat silent for awhile, then rose to go. Good-bye, ma'am, he said. Much oblige fer the dinner. Ye'er welcome. I expect you've got a mother? Yes, answered the man, an' it makes me sorry to think how wild I used to be an' all the trouble I give her. But I can't help it now. But it is a comfort you can go back and tell her so, she said. I wish I could, he said as he turned and left the old lady standing in the door. He rode away 3 and looking back he could see the old cabin with the woman still standing in the door. I ortn't ever come back, he said to himself, but it is the last time. I am just a shadow an' so is my fiddle that used to hang on the wall. And they think it's me that was killed. I wanted to call her mother but I just couldn't. There's noth- ing left for me now. V' T' NT VJ 00156 D -llc . .' ,. L.. ' '..'.at4.1a.c-L 1- 1-