Banning High School - San Gorgonian Yearbook (Banning, CA)

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silk shirt, some cigarettes, and other masculine articles. Betty gave a little shriek of horror. Where could she have gotten that terrible traveling bag? Then it flashed through her mind. The young man who had sat opposite her on the train, of course. It was all clear enough now. She had noticed ihat the suit cases were alike, but upon arriving, in her eager- ness to get home she had carelessly, as usual, grabbed up the first thing she saw and this was the result. Convulsed with laughter she rolled over on the bed and laughed and laughed much to Hilda’s astonishment. However, she soon calmed down. What would Aunt Matilda say? Horrors! She would be disgraced for good now. Aunt Matilda would refuse to believe anything but that she had been carrying on some awful flirtation. And too, her new dress was gone. Where? Goodness only knew. But most of all, she was worrying about the disgrace of the suit case and Aunt Matilda. Well, she would have to tell her. She might as well have it over with. Slowly she finished dressing and slowly she descended to the library where her fate awaited her. “Well, Elizabeth,’ her aunt greeted her. ‘What now? And why aren’t you in a suitable dinner frock?”’ Betty poured out the story and the suit case was brough?¢ down to be inspected. Aunt Matilda touched the cigaretes and other articles with the tips of her fingers. But to Betty's surprise and delight and amazement she did not scold ox lec- ture. She merely said they would put a notice in the paper about it and that Betty was a most unfortunate child. And then they had dinner. The next day, which was the day before Thanksgiving, a notice appeared in the paper concerning the suit case. Some- one telephoned and said he had Betty’s suit case and would it be all right to call that afternoon and regain his own posses- sions? Betty answered the telephone and told him it would. It was a very pleasant voice at the other end of the wire and Betty awaited the arrival of its owner with quite an air of expectancy. To her astonishment, on entering the library a little later, she found Aunt Matilda chatting sociably with the young man of the train, quite as if they were old friends. Upon her entrance Aunt Matilda looked at her smilingly and said, “Betty, let me introduce to you Mr. Richard Camerson, a son of an old and dear friend of mine. Imagine my surprise at seeing him. I thought the family was in California, Richard, this is my niece, Elizabeth Blythe.”’ Mr. Camerson made quite a lengthy call. They had tea and laughed long over the suit cases. Betty found herself big-eyed with surprise several times at Aunt Matilda. She laughed and chatted as gaily as anyone and when Richard left invited him for Thanksgiving dinner. Page Twenty-one

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family had hardly been on friendly terms with her until about three years ago when Mr. Blythe was not expected to live. Aunt Matilda had then shown that she could be human because her nephew was one person whom she cared for. Since then things had been better. They had visited back and forth. She grew to have a real affection for Mrs. Blythe and all the children but Betty. She and Betty met nearly as strangers. One day years ago when Betty was seven or eight she had had an outburst of temper before Aunt Matilda. In fact she had acted disgracefully. Of course she had apologized, but try as she might, Aunt Matilda remembered and they always met coolly. Betty had given up trying to be anything but polite to Aunt Matilda and Aunt Matilda was in turn icy to Betty. The other children she admired and petted. Betty she tolerated. Betty hated her house, too. A beautiful mansion, to be sure, but dark and gloomy. Aunt Matilda did not approve of gadding for young people either. Betty saw her good time fading away in the distance. Well, she'd spend Thanksgiving Day with Aunt Matilda, and then she’d ask mother if she couldn’t go back to school on Friday. She could at least dance and have a taffy pull there. Hearing a deferential voice she glanced up and saw James who had come for her. Dabbing her eyes she followed him to the car. Sinking back into the luxurious pillows of the limousine she wondered how she would be received. Upon arriving she was ushered into Aunt Matilda’s presence. Aunt Matilda submitted to her kiss on the forehead and then viewed her through her lorgnette. “Hum! So you have arrived. Very well. Most unfortu- nate about Robert, but it cannot be helped, of course. Hilda, show Elizabeth to her room. My, Elizabeth, you have tracked some dirt in. Why do young folks insist upon leaving off rubbers after a rain. Dinner will be at seven thirty. You have an hour and a half to tidy up. | expect promptness, of course, Elizabeth,” and with this she dismissed her. Betty’s temper was thoroughly aroused as it always was after talking to Aunt Matilda. She flung herself on the bed and indulged in a regular cry, then got up, bathed and was combing her hair when Hilda, the maid, appeared, her eyes popping. “Oh, Miss Elizabeth,’’ she gasped, “‘is that your suit case?” “Yes,” snapped Betty. ‘What of it?”’ Hilda made no answer, just waved her hand toward the table where the suit case lay open. But Betty did not see, as she expected to, her pretty new pink evening frock, neatly folded, and her other dresses. Instead, she beheld a man’s Page Twenty

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After he had gone Aunt Matilda put her arms around Betty and kissed her lightly. “Betty, child,’ she said, “please forgive me for the way | have always treated you. [| have been just a stubborn old lady for a good many years and | want this vacation to be one of the jolliest you have ever known. Do you think you could forgive me for my actions toward you?” “Oh, Aunt Matilda,” cried Betty, “Tve been just a horrid— Aunt Matilda interrupted by saying, “The incident of the suit cases brought back to me something very nearly like an accident which happened to me when I was young.” It is needless to say that Betty stayed all the vacation time. Every minute was spent in gay and jolly fun in which Aunt Matilda was always included. Mildred Wenger ‘24. PRIZE ESSAY Steve and Mary The real name of this old couple was Stephenson, but he called her Mary: and ske called him Steve, and we learned to do the same. The first time I saw Mary she was leaning on an old broom with which she had been sweeping the ground around her camp. Whenever you find a woman leaning on » broom, looking idly around, you can be sure she is looking for someone to talk to, and Mary was. She loved to de two things better than anything else—talk and show off her cats. She had three with her on this trip—Minnie Mince, Maudie Mince, and Malty. She said that maybe they would buy a ranch in San Diego some day and that they would keep the cats to catch gophers on it. Steve had made a special box for them to travel in. Half of it was covered with chicken wire—I suppose that this was the living room—and the other part was closed. This half was where the cats slept, and in this box all three rode in state. During the daytime the cats were tied to trees, and at night they slept in their box. There was wild excitement whenever another cat came around. One night the cats got into a fight. Mary called it a ‘riot.’ The “‘riot’’ was started by a big black tom cat who bit poor Malty, and Malty in her excitement bit Steve who was trying to pacify them. Steve had to doctor both himself and Malty. He told me that in the Civil War the soldiers used equal parts of tobacco juice and turpentine well mixed on their wounds, and this was what he put on both his own and Malty’s bites. Steve was an old fellow of about sixty-five years. He wore Page Twenty-two ey ”