Arlington High School - Indian Yearbook (Arlington, MA)

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THE ARLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL CLARION 8 straightened out again we were even and we won by a length. In winning we made sixty points, won the contest and the twenty-five thousand dollars, the first prize. C. Coi.lixs. THE PRIVILEGE OF A LADY It was a crisp, cool morning, in the latter part of August, a kind of morn- ing which can only be found among the New Hampshire hills. A crowd of young people, (including myself) had decided to go horseback riding before breakfast, so at 5.30 A. M., it was a rather sleepy looking, yet lively group that finally assembled at the stable doors. They stood eagerly awaiting the appearance of the groom. He had been out until the unheard of hour of 11.00 the night before and found rather difficulty in rising. At last, he arrived on the scene, still chewing at a great rate, the remains of his breakfast, (a shredded wheat bis- cuit) as could easily be seen. With his right hand lie was 1 savagely trying to comb back his curly locks, which persisted in forming “cute” ringlets on his brow was causing him much disgust. With his left hand lie was clumsily fumbling with the buttons of his jacket. “Hi there, Maurice,” called one of the boys in the party, “Need any help?” “Guess not,” responded Maurice, blushing deeply. “Are the horses ready?” “Well I should hope to tell 1” piped up quick tongued, Jean II. Hall. If they weren ' t, why you wouldn’t find us loafing around here at this late hour ! No sir ! Why your royal high- ness, do you realize we have been wait- ing for you just a solid thirty min- utes? ' ' With that she dashed towards the stable and quickly mounted her horse. The others of the party all did the same but me. I still stood gazing in awe at the groom, who during Jean H. Hall’s little speech had stuffed into his mouth, two piping hot rolls. At last I came to my senses when I heard the gleeful voice of Harold Hall (Jean ' s younger brother and general nuisance) call out teasingly, “Oh Tim you’ve got to ride Lady, you’ve got to ride Lady ’cause I ' ve got Dixie, tee hee!” Ye Gods and Little Fishes! My heart dropped like a lump of lead to the soles of my feet ! Ride Lady ! Why she was the slowest horse in the stable, and here all the morning I had been just aching to ride! Not just go, but ride! I couldn’t have Dixie, for well I knew that young vagabond, Hall, would never give her up while he was in tantalizing mood ! Plead, beg, or bribe, I knew nothing could stir him so I decided not to try, but calmly mounted that old, worn out, half don- key-like nag, termed “Lady.” “All set?” called the groom. “All set!” came the general chorus, which drowned out my emphatic, “No!” And before I could settle myself in the saddle the others were half way down the road, while her Ladyship was calmly partaking of the grain set aside for the work horses. Trying hard not to lose my temper, I spoke soothing words into her long, lopped ears. But she heard not! Sud- denly I remembered the sugar which I had bought for Dixie. Leaning over I stuffed two large lumps into her mouth. These she devoured greedily, and I guess they must have brought her back to earth for she seemed to discover that the other horses had gone on ahead, so we started off at a slow trot. When we reached the main street

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THE ARLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL CLARION “Whistling ' Mary” and the Standard close behind. They crossed the finish half a length behind the biplane, which had made a thrilling finish just nosing out the Standard and Whistling Mary. The second day was a beautiful cloudless summer day with a blazing sun looking down at the throng that had packed the grounds. The entries in the loop the loop contest reached as high an altitude as possible before starting their loops. The biplane did five or six and was then seen to glide to earth. After what seemed a thou- sand loops, Fred said the Italian was the only other plane still in the air. They were very low when they saw the Italian glide to earth and were only able to make a few more loops and they too had to glide to earth the win- ners, having completed seventy-six loops to seventy-three for the Italian. It was the following day, rather early in the morning and the planes went up after the officials had tested the deli- cate altitude recorders to see that 1 bey were working properly. Jack and Free had been in the air about two Hours 1 amt a stiff breeze was blowing. They were at an altitude of thirty-seven thousand feet with one plane above and two be- low them when their motor missed and dropped dead. They began to descend very rapidly carried by the breeze tak- ing tail spins, and nose dives. Jack, a clever pilot, descended at an angle against the wind which slackened bis j speed. He landed in an open field near the grounds after narrowly missing some tall trees. When they had pushed the plane into its shed they found that the Italian had won. lie climbed to a height of forty-three thousand feet and though not a record breaker it was ! a good showing on a windy day. “Let’s fix up the plane for tomorrow and furthermore we got to win to- morrow,” said Jack. They began to tune the motor when Fred found that the carburetor had been monkeyed with. It was fixed so that it would refuse to function at a high altitude. They left a close guard that night- at about twelve o’clock Jack heard some- body outside the tent so woke Fred and going in opposite directions around the plane they attempted to catch the man. The intruder saw them so he threw a bottle and run. Fred remained to watch the plane while Jack chased him. Jack was, only out of high school seven years, where lie was a half miler, but the intruder had too much of a start and Jack lost him in the dark. He ran back and to bis relief was told by Fred that the bottle didn’t do any harm. They didn ' t sleep any more, but studied the plans for the race. It was five minutes of two ana three planes were on the starting line anx- iously waiting for two o’clock. “Come on, cheer old top,” said Fred when he saw Jack was nervous, “(lee, I wish it was two o’clock, Fred.” The starter’s gun went off and so did the planes at a terrific speed. Jack lost all nervousness as he ascended. They bad to race to a tower about fifty miles from the grounds go around it and the finish was directly over the grounds. At the tower Jack lost con- trol for a second and lost more than half a mile. He gave f he engine full power so quickly that she seemed to leap from the tower as if shot from a catapult. At the three quarter mark he was second steadily gaining on the Standard. When they could see the grounds the Standard led by but half a length the Italian seeing the way Jack was gaining made a turn in to- ward our ship. There would have been a wreck if lie hadn’t stopped when he saw Jack would not give. When he

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THE ARLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL CLARION ) not a horse or rider was in sight, but in the distance 1 saw something ap- proaching. As it came nearer I could make it out to be a hug” or in other words a small sport runabout, bright red in color with an extremely loud cut-out. Whether it was the color or the cut-out that spurred Lady on, I never really knew. But as the car came within ten feet of us, Iter Honor” reared on her hind legs, pranced about for a minute, then with a mighty leap started galloping down the road. Oh yes it was great to ride, and all that! — but when one lands on the back of a balky horse, whose ribs penetrate one’s legs like a saw, why it isn’t quite so much like sport, as 1 soon found out ! Standing up in my stirrups, I pulled muscularly on the reins, but without any effects. Lady only seemed to lake this as a bidding to move faster, which she readily did. On and on we gal- loped until we caught up with the others. But catching up with them was not enough, for precious “Lady- bird” stopped not at them, but kept on going at her excuse my dust” speed. Presently 1 fell something give away and myself being thrown for- ward on the horse ' s neck. All 1 could think of for the moment was that she was on the verge of a fatal collapse but found out presently that she had only stumbled over a stone in the road. I had hardly been settled in the saddle again when Lady, still going as strong as ever, suddenly turned down a side road. “Gee,” I gasped, what is she going to do now?” She was headed straight for the lake, which was about fifteen feet ahead. Suddenly I heard a roar and a splash of water and before I knew it my old faithful nag was carrying me far into tin depths of Lake Sunapee. Long be- fore I had seen visions of angels but now I saw more than visions! How- ever I did not completely lose my senses, so loosening my feet from the stirrups I plunged into the unknown depths of the water. 1 soon found out that the water was not over the noise’s head and as luck would have it, the stump of an old tree was protruding out of the water. I threw the reins over this and then started to swim back to shore. Just as I reached the mainland who should come dashing up, but Maurice to the rescue ! One by one the other riders approached the shore and all began to talk and joke at once. The only thing I could do was to point to my dear enemy,” and the groom took in the situation at a glance, laughed heartily and said : Let her stay there awhile, maybe it will cool her oft.” “Yes, let her stay there,” 1 agreed, but say, Maurice, that horse certainly did change her mind.” “Well,” drawled Maurice, grinning broadly, it’s the privilege of a lady.” Pem” Brown, ' 25 . CONCERNING A DREAMER ANI) BOOKKEEPER AND NOT VERY MUCH ELSE Jason Jefferson was a man and he dreamed dreams. Also, lie worked in a millinery establishment as second as- sistant bookkeeper. Not because he was particularly interested in book- keeping as a profession but because eating was one of his habits. He sat all day on a high stool in the corner of the office of Brockton-Smith, Milli- ners, hunched over a ledger with his legs wrapped around the legs of the stool and made figures. There are ex- actly ten different kinds of figures and