Analy High School - Azalea Yearbook (Sebastopol, CA)

Page 17 text:

Perhaps a deadly sidewinder bit him, perhaps his jacks stampeded with his water; who knows? Only the desert, and she does not care to tell, but there is no doubt in the minds of idlers, as they discuss the matter, that Useless was drawn to his death, as the nail is to the magnet. Bodie has been in ashes for the last thirty years, and the mines are forgotten, but still in the seeking there is oftentimes more joy than in the reward. —Lee Walker. little jitar Jlratmcr Daddy says you’re a star on high, And you wander way up in the sky To guide the angels with your light So’s they won’t have a bit of fright To play in Heaven when it’s night. But I’m awful lonesome, little star, And when I gaze at you so far, So far away up in the blue, I can’t help thinking you’re lonesome, too. So don’t you think if you might try The Lord ’ud let you leave the sky To come on Earth and play with me?— ’Cause I’m jes’ sure we could agree. Hand in hand we’d walk the shore And be jes’ playmates evermore. And in my sand along the sea We could build a kingdom for you and me. And we’d let the other stars come, too, If they ’ud tell us really true Where all the little fairies grew, So’s we could get one for me and you— Or else perhaps we’d get us two. And when we got our kingdom thro’ There’d be the fairies, me and you, In a little home jes’ all our own Where the bestest breezes have always blown, Down beside the great deep sea, Jes’ the fairies, you and me. —Don Walker.

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out the gas, and when they had gotten gloriously drunk seen all the sights that this cosmopolitan city could offer, Useless became lonesome and expressed a desire to see his relatives in Springfield, Connecticut, and he accordingly went with his old carpetbag, his high boots and his big sombrero, becoming an object of curiosity to the passengers on the trains in the East. , . . , In Springfield he found some nephews and nieces who looked upon him as a profitable investment, each trying to outdo the other in entertaining him. But he soon became tired of the fol-de-rols, for the stilt collars choked and chafted his neck, the tight-fitting shoes hurt his feet, and he was eternally letting slip some cuss word that made it rather confusing for the party. He could never eat without using his knife instead of his fork, and when it came to the soup he always made enough noise to drown the con¬ versation. The family at length despairingly left him to his own resources, and he soon found a beanery at the lower end of the city, to which he would go and gorge himself upon his favor¬ ite dish. As winter drew on the stuffy houses with their red-hot s+oves stifled and gagged him, the numerous people bothered him, the food choked him and the extravagance with water, for a quart of the precious fluid may mean your life on the desert, worried him. He wanted his old clothes, he wanted his jacks, and, Oh! he wanted the desert. A few days later he did not come down to breakfast, and one of his nieces, half comforted in the thought that he had passed away in the night, went up to find the cause. On enter¬ ing she found the bed unoccupied and her estimable uncle vanished. One morning there arrived in Bodie an old familiar figure who was joyfully hailed by the inhabitants. How good it was to be affectionately cussed and to be marched up to the bar, and have the bartender address him in the old familiar way. Useless again startled the natives of Bodie by giving to a San Francisco Orphan Asylum his entire fortune, retaining only enough to grubstake himself. Then one morning, as the heat waves were beginning to dance over the waste, there came down the lone trail a man and two burros, and disappeared in the sage. That was the last seen of Useless. 14

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purple (Easstus f HE color purple has always been a sign of royalty. The ancient kings of Tyre, Crete, Babalon and Egypt wore purple robes in triumphal processions after the return of a victorious raid. The kings of the middle ages wore pur¬ ple robes on state occasions and royal gatherings. There are probably very few mortals who have ever cared to hear an explanation of this, but every fairy knows the tale and keeps the secret well guarded, as it is not known outside of Fairy¬ land. Fairies are tiny transparent mystical figures that have been so formed by the magic wand of the Great Fairy Queen who rules and guards both mortals and spirits. The fairies are her helpers and followers. They do her bidding always obediently and are given upon the day they enter Fairyland twenty tiny golden tablets on which are written the rules and rites they are always to follow. Besides these tablets they are also given one of lead on which is written the reason why communication between mortals and fairies has been prohibit¬ ed. The tablet is named “Purple Cassius” and the engraving is done in purple. The story is as follows and was told to me by a small elf who had been banished by the great queen: There grew in the garden of the mother spirit many, many years ago, a beautiful purple flower called Purple Cassius. The juice of this, when squeezed upon any object, would in¬ stantly change it to that which it most desired to be. This flower was a favorite of the queen, as she loved it even more than the little white fairy kittens that played with the golden tassels on her throne. No other eyes but her own and those of Zad, the gardener, were allowed to gaze upon this precious herb. One day a terrible calamity fell upon this land of mystic sunshine and tinted flowers. The queen was visiting a distant province, trying to settle a dispute between a haughty dragon fly and a grumbling angleworm, which was caused because the latter did not attend to his own business and tried to make love to the other’s heart ' s desire. It also happened at full moon. Zad just slipped around the corner of a bushy hedge 16