Balmoral Hall School - Optima Anni Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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22- rr- . Never the Twain Shall Meet Then a number of things happened in rapid succession. The tree shuddered. The mirrors flashed alarmingly. The bells cried out as with fear. The brightly coloured lights flashed danger signals, then went out. The majestic evergreen made a last valiant effort to stay upright, then slowly began a descent which ended with a crash and a chorus of tinkles. Silence ensued as we viewed the chaos. The once stately angel now appeared slightly inebriated, with dilapidated halo and wings askew. The round balls had been reduced, in a few seconds, to jagged ruins. Horror was replaced by indignation and everyone began to talk at once. What? Who? How? . . . The cat! some experienced person exclaimed. All heads turned to the corner by the fallen tree, where sat the culprit, sleek and smug, licking her paws with satisfaction. Over one ear was perched a jaunty sprig of greenery. Quickly she shook it off as if to dispose of the evidence, then, assured of herself once more, blandly winked at us with both eyes. Try and prove it was I, her manner suggested. Several hands grabbed for her, but, too swift for us, she darted away, tail in air, to seek peace until this disturbance subsided. Since then, in our house, there is an unwritten law which maintains that Christmas trees and mischievous pussies do not mix and ne'er again the twain shall meet. Lyn Stephen, Grade X. A Trip to Earth by Two Neptunes Sign On. All set Oubla? All set and ready to go Goublaf' All right then, five, four, three, two, one, fire! A mighty lurch gave us knowledge that our flying saucer was in flight. My name is Goubla and I live on the planet Neptune, far off in the solar system. My friend, Oubla and I are off to explore a distant planet called earth. We have heard that a race of people live there and we are off 'to see what we can see. Soon our planet was a blur in the distance and we set ourselves down for a short trip in our deluxe flying saucer. As we whizzed past Saturn, I saw my friend Sacais hanging up his scales to dry in the moonlight after his yearly bath and I waved to him but he did not seem to notice me because I did not hear his big roar which meant l-li! Soon a green dot appeared on our radar screen and a shout arose from Oubla and me. Earth was in sight! As it grew bigger and bigger I became frightened! What would this new world be like? What would the people be like? It was too late to wonder now, for we were coming in for a landing. Thump! We were on ground! I opened the door and looked around. A sigh of relief arose from our throats. The new world was the same as Neptune. Big, tall, brown and green trees were all around us, and vines wound themselves through the branches. We crawled out and started to explore. Tall green and brown grass tickled our feet, and a sort of flower, which I thought smelled very nice, started to close around me. I quickly whip- ped out my ray gun and froze the flower solid. Then we ran across another strange thing, which had no color, or smell and we could see right through it. There was nothing like this on Nep- tune, so Oubla put a jar full of it in his pocket to take back and show. We found nothing of any one living in this area so we went back to our air-ship and started to climb in. Then to my surprise and horror, the trees seemed to come alive and chase after us! I whipped out my ray gun and turned them into frozen things. I do not like this Goublaf' Oh, Oubla, if you call this magic I will take you to a head man, when we are home, and ask him what you have up there, I replied. This is not magic, he said. This is Black Magic. I shut the door and started the motor. We were off! e We next landed on a spot that we thought should have some people living near by. We crawled out and the first thing I saw was a tall thing and it looked as if it were about to fall on us, so I shot my ray gun on it and it was frozen. Then a loud screech arose, followed by many more horrible sounds. They've landed! was the cry. The men from Mars have landed! Oubla and I took one look at each other and jumped into our flying saucer, not for a moment thinking that we could have seen the people of the new planet. But, men from Mars were dread enemies of we Neptuners and we didn't want to meet up with them so far away from home. It was some time later, out in space, thatll collected my thoughts and figured that they might have meant that we were men from Mars. But how could they? We Neptuners are the most handsome people with long thin, green bodies with six arms and twelve legs, six eyes, and a long suction mouth. I wonder? Oubla and I are going back to Earth some day, but now we just cannot wait to get bafck to the safety of Good Old Neptune. Sign Off. Shirley Martin, Grade VII.

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,,l9 intelligent and quickly mastered the use of the harness, Larry noticed King was always wanting to -be ahead of the other dogs in the team. One day Larry 'tried him in the lead. King was finally the -head of his team where he always wan'ted to be. Larry kept King there all-ways. 'Well King, Larry said one night a few months later, I guess tomorrow we'-ll leave for the winter patrol. King seemed glad and snuggled 'his nose closer between Larry's knees. King was kept in the house as 'he kept Larry company and enjoyed playing games with him. King wasn't 'happy about being 'left outside. Each morning when Larry fed the other dogs, King would march beside him, and if a dog was over-anxious he would growl at him until fhe quieted down. Early the next morning Wilsion packed and hitched the 'team to the sled and left the little lonely settlement on the Arctic Coast. One night, about 'three days later, Larry was fixing ca-mp when he slipped and sprained a ten- don in his leg. It was very painful and 'he had to bandage it. For a day Larry 'had to ride on the sled, and this was very hard -on the dogs, slowing them down considerably. They were going over rough ice now and had to make their own trail through the deep snow. . One evening near the end of their journey, the sky was clouded over and it looked like snow. Larry shouted at King for more speed as he had to go about five miles before he would reach civilization. He wanted to beat the snow. The weary dogs strained in 'their 'harnesses at Wilson's command. They, too, knew home was not far away. A few minutes later, a howling wind came up an-d it began to snow heavily. The temperature dropped, and Larry was beginning to worry. The dogs were slowing down steadily and King was straining in his harness to make the other dogs go on, Larry could just see the outline of Kings tail through the gathering darkness and driving wind and snow! It would mean freezing to death if they stopped, or getting lost if they went on. Larry picked up his whip and snapped it over the dogs' heads. Later on he had to stop for a brief pause as one dog collapsed, It was one of the best and he p-ut it on the sled. His left hand and both feet felt frozen. Wifth the driving snow in his face and the cold wind whistling about him and his team, they proceeded slowly. Larry didn't know what direction he was going, but he left it up to King who seemed to know where he was going. Brut was he going in the right direction? Larry began thinking. They had been about five miles from the settlement when the storm came up so they must be close now if they were going in the right direction. Suddenly there was a s-harp sound of snapping willows above the storm. This meant that they had left the sea ice and were on the main land! King seemed to give a bound of more speed as though an electric shock had hit him and his whole body seemed to become alive. This same burst of speed happened to all the dogs as they straine-d harder in their harness to produce more speed through the deep snow. Something must be near, thought Larry as he pressed his hand on his frozen nose. Suddenly, Larry saw a light shining through the snow and darkness-a cabin was only a few feet away! They reached the small cabin and Larry stumbled to the door and knocked. The door was quickly opened, only to find Larry Wilson covered with snow, hungry, tired and unconscious on the doorstep. When he came back to his senses, he found himself in bed with Doctor jamson and King standing beside him. He looked around the room and saw sun streaming into the room. The storm had passed! Larry tried to sit up, but a big paw gently 'held him down. King, King, muttered Larry, you are truly man s best friend . King growled gently and lay down as Larry was asleep again. Kings eyes were half open, but they were filled with contentment and admiration for his master! Barbara Sid gwick, Grade VIII. if' ta 87'-S Egg 55,4 O ,Q-HN? Quilt I if ii ,,. ids. l sat ' rear ll! at if I 5 A EXAFI 'lime

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an .-Z.l- The Good Spirit of the Christmas Village It was born last year, the Spirit of the Village. It was at one of those dining-room meetings, behind the curtained doors, that it began to grow. Our mothers recognized it, They encouraged it, and nourished it, and it became more real and more alive. It began to show. Needles and scis- sors moved under its guidance. Mothers wove and fathers hammered. In the heat of july the spirit flourished. The material side of its charac- ter was revealed as puddings and aprons, breads and toy boxes, shortbreads and dolls were pre- pared and set aside for the village . The Spirit invaded the school but did not interrupt our work. It was called Unselfishness and Cooperation in the senior school. Its head- quarters was in the school corridor, where the