Burbank Junior High School - Wizard Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

Page 29 text:

THE LOST MAIL One day when it was raining anc che flying field was de- serted, I took from a drawer a small book which was used as a diary and glanced through the contents. The book belonged to a friend of mine at whose place I was visiting. My friend, it seemed was an ace in the Great ' 7 ar, and he had known several famous flyers and so after the war was over he took up, almost at once, flying with the airmail. Since then he always kept a full account of his adventures in this diary As I glanced down the dates, I sa w one which was but a few months before I met him. Instantly I was interested and after a few minutes of reading and coaxing, I managed to get the story from him After he had been flying mail long enough to become a vet- eran to the other pilots, he began to take up the far more haz- ardous and important night flying . My friend whom we shall call Jackson, took up flying the stretch from Reno to Sacra- mento. On the third night of flying the new route, he vahished completely. The last that was heard of him was leaving Reno and just starting over the mountains. The queer thing about it was that the stars were out and not a cloud in the sky, the trip on a night like that was as easy as day flying. So the officials decided to investigate. Two army flyers were sent out on the route which Jackson took but ’the two planes came back and said that there was not a plane or remains of one within three miles of the entire route. The men hired a body of farmers and volunteers to search the surrounding country. That, however, brought no developments except the fact that two planes had o.bviously landed in a rocky but flat plat- eau. There were little marks near the tracks and heavy tram- pled footprints. 7ith that as the only clue, the inspectors began to work on the case and; a flight of observation planes started out. After an hour of steady flying and watching, a small shack was discovered next to a patch of woods which was twenty- five miles from the route of the mail. The flight land- ed in a level field and went up to the shack. The S. C. knocked and an elderly man with a heavy beard opened the door. Upon being questioned as to information regarding a plane, the man was all too ready to say that he knew nothing. So the men entered and were greeted by two other men who held a revolver in each hand. On closer observation, the revolver of one man was sirniliar to a gun which the air pilots carry. The flyers

Page 28 text:

THE BEAUTY OF TREES Just by shutting your eyes t can ' t you see a big orchard of apple trees all nicely lined up in rows? It is just the be- ginning of spring when little sprouts of green leaves start from the bare branches. A few days lat r the leaves are so big that hardly any of the brown of the branches shows. From some distance as one looks down over their tops, they seem like a huge spread of soft velvet. Then in later spring come the white an d pink blossoms. Nov;, the} - look like a huge field of well-kept snowy daisies. Then in the later summer the fruits get ripe, making the trees look different again with red and yellow apples. By the time the fruit has been gathered, the leaves start to turn an old greenish color. Then comes the windy season of fall and autumn. Soon all the leaves of the fruit trees start to fall and their beauty is gone for that year. --Hilda Immonen L9y n A QUAINT LADY She was a very old woman, an Austro-Hungarian, living by herself. She was dressed in high-topped shoes, which laced o- ver her ankles. Her hair, a dark bro wn color, was streaked with a silvery grey. She always wore dark brown dresses which came down to her ankles. This old lady also always wore a shawl when she went out, which made her look the more quaint. She seldom spoke to neighbors and, when she did, her remarks were unpleasant. She lived in a little brown house which she seemed to fit very well. In the front yard were stones and big rocks which she said were to keep the spirits away. Her face was wrinkled, probably with age or woriy. When she smiled, it was a wrinkled smile, but still it lighted up her aged face. S,he is just the type of a person for an artist ' s brush. — Claim! son L9y J Ut yj v WQT urn s o o O ' ' e - y? ■ o

Page 30 text:

were bound together in twos and disarmed. The three men then left and a roar of a motor was heard. Then a man came running down the ladder and unbound the group. Jackson swiftly told of a hanger camouflaged as a group of trees. They all ran to their planes but the gas was all drained out. The missing flyer took his plane which was overlooked and flew in pursuit. The pursued plane had a head start. Jackson telephoned the nearest airport, in the direction of the fleeing plane, to stop it at all cost without harming the plane and also to send fuel to the stranded pilots. The mail was all found on the other plane. --Norman Koch L9z ' A NIGHT MYSTERY One night I was walking down a dark street when all of a sudden I saw something black hiding behind a tree. I started to run but this thing put its long arms out and grabbed me. He carried me through a graveyard and up a hill to a dark old house, full of spider webs. It was a creepy place. He joined three other ghosts in a small room and they talked about put- ting me in the cellar with a skeleton. They told me the skel- eton was alive, I was so scared I couldn ' t do a thing. They finally put me in the cellar. Just a little light leaked through a crack. I heard bones rattle. The skeleton grabbed me by the throat and was shaking me when I heard my mother say Get up, or you will be late for school . --Robert Davis L9z ' A MYSTERIOUS JINGLE One evening as I was going to bed I put a dollar and a half on the table in a bag. I slept until eleven o ' clock and I heard something jingle. I didn ' t hear it for awhile and then I heard it again in the front room. I was scared for a moment. Then I went to sleep and when I woke up it was six o’clock. I went to my mother ' s bedroom and she was awake. I asked her if she had heard it and she said she had. We found that my money was gone. I said, There has been some- one here because my money is gone. I left it here last night. Soon I heard it jingle again. I looked around. My cat was chewing on the bag. During the night it had entered the house and pulled the bag off of the table. We were glad to catch the thief. — Arthur Heasell L9z '