Ashtabula High School - Dart Yearbook (Ashtabula, OH)

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PERIWINKLE JOE JANE DICKINSON, ’16 Periwinkle, periwinkle, Periwinkle, wink; Here’s a wave, and there’s a wave, Now, periwinkle, drink. Hear the little fishes, Listen while they say Oh peri, peri, winkle, winkle. Won’t you come and play?” HE high quavering voice rose above the roar of the great gray waves, as they beat upon the stone covered beach. A bent old man, whose face was nearly cover- ed by a long white beard, plodded thru the sand. Now and then he stooped to pick up a tiny white shell, so pure and fragile in form that it seemed to be made by the hand of an angel. As his voice rose above the noise of the wind and waves, it reached the ears of a jolly crowd of young people, whose gay chat- ter immediately ceased. “Oh,” exclaimed Bob Harris carelessly, “that’s old “Periwinkle Joe,” a funny old duffer, who goes up and down the beach picking up periwinkles. He makes bags and box- es and knickknacks of them, that he sells to the campers. He will be over to see you girls as soon as he knows you are here. The only way to get rid of him is to give him a good squelching.” “Trust me for that,” exclaimed Ruth Dearborn. “What a fun- ny song he sings! But isn’t the tune catchy? I’m going to try it on my guitar, when we go back to the cottage.” The Jolly Crowd had arrived that day to spend a week at Camp Happy” on Lake Erie shore. II Periwinkle, periwinkle, Periwinkle, wink; Here’s the bread, and there’s the ham, Now pretty camper, where’s the jam? Ruth’s song was greeted by a roar of laughter, as the Jolly Crowd gathered around the table for supper. “Has old Joe been around bothering you yet?” asked one of the boys. “Oh no, and I do hope he doesn’t come; I’d hate to turn him away, but I’m sure I don’t want any of his old periwinkles,” said soft hearted Mary Dennison. “Why, I think we could have some fun, making sport of the 11

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£ THE DART that deal. He hasn’t enough spunk to beat me. I can bellow as loud as he can. Strange as it may seem he doesn’t like to swallow his own dust, for a change. Says he’s always been considered first and no upstart of a boy is going to get ahead of him. I guess I don’t look as old as I am, perhaps. Anyway, I am old enough to fight, and if he’s going to drive me out, he’ll have his hands full right away. Old Tom said when he left there, “Keep up as you’ve begun, boy, and you’ll make your mark all right. Your stacking up against a big job, but you are man enough to fill it. I tell you he doesn’t say that to everybody.” When Ernest left, it was after eleven o’clock. Mr. Vale open- ed the door for him, and returning found his wife sitting on the floor in front of the bookcases with the dictionary open in her lap. She was hastily scanning the page and did not look up as he en- tered. “What on earth are you doing with that at this time of night?” he yawned. “Looking up peacocks,” briefly. “Peacock?” “Yes, to see if there isn’t a kind that is proud of its strut and not its feathers. Oh, I take it back about your big feet. They must be altogether invisible. The slightly amused, tho somewhat bored expression disap- peared from Mr. Vale’s face, leaving it perfectly blank. Slowly his mouth dropped open, and he stared at his wife dumbly. Fi- nally he recovered himself and walked to the window. “It is snowing,” he declared shortly. “Oh! is it? cried Mrs. Vale, jumping up and coming to his side to stare at a few small flakes of snow which were falling softly thru the darkness, I’m so glad for I can wear my new furs to church to-morrow.” c j “Why did you break your engagement with Miss R., the school mistress?” “Couldn’t stand it any longer old man. The other evening, when I arrived fifteen .minutes late, she told me I must bring an excuse in writing, signed by my mother.” c i “My mission,” said the kind parson to the vivacious girl, “ is to save young men.” “Good,” she answered, “ save one for me.” 10

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THE DART old fellow,” exclaimed Ruth. Hardly before she had stopped speaking-, Periwinkle Joe’s voice could be heard in the distance. As he came nearer they could distinguish the words, “Listen while they say, ‘Oh peri, peri, winkle, winkle’ In another moment he was knocking at the door. “Oh let me go,” cried Ruth. In a few minutes she was back at the table, but her face burned. “I’m sorry I said such a horrid thing just now, for when he came, he had such a sweet patient smile on his face; but when I said such a mean thing to him, he just turned away with- out a word, and his shoulders seemed a little more stooped.” “Oh, never mind,” said some one, easily, and the next moment Jce and his troubles were forgotten. Periwinkle Joe had lived a solitary life for many years. Year in and year out he had occupied a small lonely hut by the water. Twenty years ago a great sorrow had come into his life. His only child, a girl of eighteen, had died. His grief clouded his mind. All his love seemed now centered on the lake. It was his only confidant, his only friend. Every hour of daylight he spent in its company, so the next morning after his introduction to these gay young people, he was up early. As the sun arose a certain freshness, belonging to that hour alone pervaded the air. The lake looked like a big emerald as it lay without a ripple breaking the surface. Soon after dawn, Joe could be seen upon the beach, ceasing, now and then from his work to gaze at the wide expanse of water. Then with a sigh he turned back again to his work. He sighed as he thought of his daughter who left him so many‘years ago. When she went how different was she from the girl he had seen the night before, the girl who had spoken so sharply to him, who had made him feel so far below her. “And yet,” he thot, “she has eyes like my girl.” Then he would go at his work more diligently, looking under this stone, and behind that rock, for even one periwinkle must not escape his hand. % It was toward evening of the same day, Joe, weary and foot- sore, for his tramp had been an unusually long one, was plodding westward toward his little shack. He was thinking of his daugh- ter, she had been almost constantly in his thots that day. Suddenly, as if compelled by some unseen force, shading his 12