Avon High School - Boomerang Yearbook (Avon, IL)

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MU» Chr Huumrrmui tM» Q» quake had changed the course of the water, leaving beside what was now the trail, a large rock, formerly in the center of the stream, with a curiously carved hole in its apex. Georgia, quick to spy an advantage and understanding Kelly’s nature, cried out, “Ah dare you-all to put my locket on that rock.” With a careless fling, Kelly threw the locket—right down in the apex of the rock. “Mistah Yarnell,” cried Georgia loudly, “Mistah Yarnell! Kelly threw mah locket away!” “Didn’t neither! You dared me.” “Mistah Yarnell! You-all make Kelly get mah locket.” “Wal,” said Bill, “if you don’t want another thrashing Kelly, you’d better fetch that locket.” Kelly, with certain unpleasant recollections of Bill Yarnell’s muscle in action, obediently climbed the rock to find no locket. “Guess she’s side-tracked down the hole. Aint no locket hereabouts.” “It went down that hole. Ah saw it, Kelly Mulligan,” asserted Georgia, with a stamp of her foot. “You’d better go to town and fetch some powder and get that locket Kelly ” said Bill. “Aw, not fer no locket.” “You heard what I said.” At this, Kelly started for town, and the rest of the group went on down the trail toward the mines. Soon, however, Georgia dropped quietly behind, and started back to the rock. “Wouldn’t it be funny,” she mused, “if Kelly’d find gold in that rock? Then, ah reckon he’d go back to New York, and his dad d build more houses. Ah wish Kelly and me could be married and live in one -and have a pet cat— and Georgia dropped quietly down beside the trail some distance from the rock, for she could hear Kelly grumbling to himself as he plied drill and hammer. “Fool girl! Bedad! All fer a locket! Might o’ knowed she’d have her way. She’d oughta lose it, and me not with the gang faith, I guess the hole’s deep enough for de big noise—” Kelly carefully tamped the powder in and arranged the fuse. He looked about carefully to see that no one was near, and touched off the fuse. After “de big noise,” he hurried to the rock, and gave a shout of surprise. “Holy Moses, have I struck a pocket?” Sure enough, Kelly had struck a pocket. This small horde of gold had been de- posited in the rock by the stream. “Ah guess now Mistah Kelly, you can go back to New York!” said Georgia wist- fully, as she came running up and spied the “find.” And Pa Mulligan with the ten young Mulligans, Kelly included, did leave for New York on the next boat. Does woman always have her way? The final chapter in the Kerney-Mulligan tale was added ten years later. In the marriage license column of Georgia’s home-town paper, interested friends read: Kelly Mulligan, New York, 23; Georgia Kerney, LeGrande, 22 Yes, woman will have her way! By FORREST TOWNSEND.

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51ir UUmmrratm Q ) r tt»3 -- - Sl%£g!3g0b ‘K' ■ ■— -=$'M »3 r- - Q Unman IfltU ®aur ffirr Wax] N the month of October of the year one thousand, eight hundred and ninety-nine, the Mulligans of New York and the Kerneys of “near Baton Rouge,” two families as unlike as environment could make them, found themselves thrown together with a common desire, namely, to acquire enough gold to retrieve their lost fortunes. Earlier in the year gold had been discovered in Alaska in the regions around Nome, and men were flocking thither from all parts of the world, eager to acquire their share of the glitteiing metal. In spite of family differences, Georgia Kerney, twelve years of age, and Kelly Mulligan, who was thirteen, soon found one ground of mutual understanding. “Ah’ll nevah use such horrible slang as these gold diggahs use,” declared Georgia, and Kelly asserted emphatically, “Bedad, I ain’t gonna quit de good ole Noo Yor’ lingo, either.” Dad Mulligan and Pop Kerney decided that there should be a school for the ten Mulligans and one Kerney, and as they were the leaders in the Nome district, on the tenth of October a school there was. Bill Yarnell, formerly a school teacher in Kentucky, whose “diggin’s hadn’t panned out good,” was hired to “learn ’em sumpin’ at an ounce per kid.” For three weeks Bill lorded it successfully as pedagogue in the opera house, a shack heated by a egless stove, and with other equipment to match. Then came the eventful Tuesday. Outside it was about twenty degrees below zero, and within the barnlike opera house, the school children were gathered as near the red-hot cast- iron stove as was possible. Kelly Mulligan, poker in hand, was idly twisting one of the stones which served as legs under the stove, when suddenly the stone jumped from beneath the heater, which started to tip over. The children scattered like quails and Bi 1 Yarnell turned just in time to find the red-hot heater on the floor. Quickly catching up the drinking water he soaked the floor with it and little damage was done. The rest of the afternoon was spent in cleaning the school room and attempting to discover the culprit. Bill took each pupil into a corner to be ques- tioned, but immediately after taking Georgia he called Kelly, although he was not next in line. That night as the children waded home through the snow, Kelly shouted at the top of his voice all the things he would do to get even with Georgia. All the South- ern miss said was “Ah guess Mistah Yarnell will give you’ns another thrashing if yo’ do.” The next day, true to his promise, Kelly tried to get revenge by dipping Georgia’s “pig-tail” into an inkwell, and when Miss Georgia proudly tossed her head, she threw ink over all nearby objects. Bill Yarnell kept both children after school, gave Kelly another thrashing and sent him home. The minute the door creaked behind Kelly, Georgia laid her head upon her desk and sobbed out, “Kelly nevah will speak to me again.” The year passed peacefully after this episode, for Kelly, the leader, had learned the strength of the master and the other boys profited by example. “Yo’ young’ns,” Bill said one afternoon in May. “bring some extra lunch tomorrow and we’ll go down to the mines.” The next forenoon found Bill and his pupils tramping down the trail to the mines, Georgia and Kelly lagging behind. Once more Kelly’s little demon took pos- session of him. “Now to get even with Miss Smarty!” He snatched her locket, breaking the ribbon on which it hung The trail led along the bank of a little stream. Many years before, an earth-

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 o alir iBiuimrrmm 5» 0 1 Wfr™-- altr S nttnr Pay The comet!y, “When Smith Stepped Out,” a new royalty play, was presented by the Senior class on May nineteenth. The cast was as follows: William Horace Smith, Uncle Bill.............................. Floyd Bivens Geo. Smith, his nephew...................................Forrest Townsend Richard Keene, a detective...................................Charles Hubble Bob Stanley, a wooer..........................................Clifford Wall Mrs Geo. Smith, Nellie.......................................Esther Young Muriel Armitage, her younger sister..........................Ruby Jennings Miss Winslow, a spinster......................................Pauline Neice Hilda, the Swedish maid........................................Frances Wise 29 fc 4i£4ik