Butler High School - Magnet Yearbook (Butler, PA)

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8 THE SENIOR MAGNET “The minutes seemed like hours and at last five o’clock came. It seemed just as the clock gave the last strokes, all those pokers came to life with a rustle and with muttered excuses filed upstairs for their capes and hoods. Then I stood, still dumb, at the door smilin’ and noddin’ good-bye. “Mrs. Prim and Mrs. Perwingle blustered up confiding like to me, saying how they all enjoyed my afternoon. All the others commented on my house and the good time they had,, that I’m sure they hadn’t. If lies choked, they would have died right there on my hands. When the last flurry and rustle of Mrs. Simon's silk petticoat disappeared from around the corner, I fairly flew to Seth—he always was a comfortin’ man. Then after I had had my crv, I swore I wouldn’t ever mix with trouble agin. That’s why I say society ain’t nothin’ ’cept a pertendin’ and it’s best fer you to learn that, Susa May. Now run along, the young folks is waitin’. Thanks for shellin’ the peas fer me and you look real sweet with yer laughin’ eves—and, Susa May, remember always to wear yer hair in them braids, Susa.”

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THE SENIOR MAGNET 7 house a shinin’ and my parlor all opened and aired. I’d even took Grandpa Sheller’s picture down an regilded the frame, and had glued the handle on the big vase, what was one of my prized weddin’ presents. Went even so far as to varnish them legs on grandma’s horse-hair sofy. Laws, I was so busy that the air fairly clicked electricity when I sizzen through it. “Seth said as how all he could do was to shave the lawn, and he did. Haerts and flowers! I’ll never fergit how he went a-rampagin’ around that twelve by eight weed patch, the slivers of grass a flyin’ up and sticken’ where they lit, making Seth just look like a dilapidated straw man. “At last everything was ready, the crullers all a dainty brown and so ap-petizin’ they fairly made my mouth water, but I daren’t eat one for fear there mayn’t be enough. I set ma’s big coffee kettle on and hurried up stairs to slip on my best silk and take a last peep around. Seems as if a powerful lot of things was awry—first a wrinkle on the bed quilt, or a tidy on crooked, or a candle not lit. It was style in them days to have candles lit in the bed-room and fer layin’ off the company’s wraps. So when I about had my dress hookekn, I had clean fergot the coffee, until I smelt it. I hustled down stairs fergittin’ to fasten the rest of the buttons. I went to take off the coffee when Seth, overcome by how sweet I looked, just naturally made me upsot the stuff all over me. Then the brass knocker sounded. I grabbed a pink check apron and tied it over the stain and flurried me to the door. There was Mrs. Simons and Mrs. Perwingle, both particular in house and dress. I just had time to show them to the room and slush Seth into another to get slicked up when the knocker clanked agin. More and more come until the required thirty had arrived. There they sat, all stiff as so many pokers; there I sat, red with embarrassment and the combination of pink apron and purple coffee stain dress. “First. I felt they looked at grandpa’s regilded picture, then at the cracked vase, then at me. I was too tongue-tied to speak and break this general survey, when all at once the silence was broken by Seth’s voice from the stairs: ‘Hey, Jane, where’s my suspenders ?’ “I could just have fallen through. I could fairly see Mrs. Prim’s hands a-risin’; she always was so particular abount edikate. All I wished was to get away from their quisitive glances, so I excused me and I flew up stairs to fall into Seth’s arms a-crvin’. Seth just a-petted my hair and sent me back into that lion’e den with instructions to talk about the flannels the Aiders were makin’ for the heathens in India. Well that kept them busy for a good spell and then came time to eat. “I thought sure I’d redeem myself then and it was right proudly I brought in the plates of gelatine and crullers, then coffee and candy, and I settled down to eat like a nesting hen. First one coughed, then another. I looked all around to find out what they had et that was wrong but their faces was like that of a stone jury. I felt sort of quaky and so I began to taste everything to see the cause of the coughs. “Everything was fine in my estimation until I came to the crullers, and no wonder they coughed; they should have choked. I had used salt to coat them instead of sugar. I could just see that hulking Seth pourin’ the salt into the sugar furkin. I was always foolish about a-lettin’ him monkey around the kitchen.

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THE SENIOR MAGNET 9 DETECTIVE TIM Ei.tzabeth Abrams “Extra! Extra! British break through Hindenburg’s line! Extra! All the latest war news! But Tiny Tim’s shrill cry was drowned by the lusty cheers which were greeting the arrival of Pershing’s troops in London. Although the sight of American soldiers in Regent street was no longer an uncommon one. it never failed to stir the little newsboy’s patriotic heart and to make him wish he could light beside them for his flag. But Tiny Tim, known by this name because of his lameness and continued cheerfulness, seemed to have no place in the wild enthusiasm of the crowd. Why was he not like other hoys; why must he alone limp slowly along while his companions raced beside the soldiers; why must he stand forlornly on the curb unable even to march with the hoy scouts in the long parades? When he thought of his inability to help the men in the trenches—many of whom had been daily customers at his stand and some of whom would never return—even his happy disposition could not keep down the lump which persisted in rising to his throat. For after all Tinv Tim was only a little fellow and sometimes his lot in life looked pretty hard to him. As he watched the steady procession of khaki-clad figures tramping down the street on their way to the transport, hot tears rose to his eyes and turning from the noisy throng he crept into a quiet side street. There he sank into a dejected little heap and cried brokenly until the sound of heavy footsteps approaching caused him to sit up and hastily wipe away the traces of tears. A man passed near him, taking no notice of the dismal figure on the doorstep. and drew out a packet of papers from which a scrap of paper fell unheeded as he hurried on. The hoy reached for the paper and was about to follow the man and return it to him hut he was nowhere in sight so Tinv Tim’s curiosity prompted him to see what was on it. The paper was covered with closely written words hut they weren’t such ones as Tim had learned at school so the neatly folded scrap meant nothing to him. He was about to throw it away again when he noticed something very familiar at the bottom of the page, “214 t-2 Manchester Lane, 12:30 diese Xacht, and he certainly did know where that was, for didn’t he live at 215 Manchester Lane? But 12:30 —what could 12:30 stand for? Maybe half past twelve. However, Tiny Tim was too busy thinking of the soldiers to care about such nonsense, so he crumpled the paper and thrust it into his pocket. lie picked up his crutches and started down the alley, whistling merrily, for Tiny Tim could not he sad very long. At the corner he stopped and leaned against the post to rest for a moment. Following him were two men, so deeply engrossed in their conversation that, when they also paused at the corner, they did not notice the little cripple standing near by. “Now, you he sure to get there on time. Not a minute after half past twelve,” the man with the hlack moustache was saying. “I’ll be there all right, hut where’d you sav we’d meet? I’ve lost that slip of paper you gave me and it had