Butler High School - Tropaeum Yearbook (Butler, IN)

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She was aroused from these thoughts by a noise, and looking up she saw some one coming on foot. Don, who had already assumed the position of guard, was growling fiercely, and keeping a close watch upon the approaching stranger. “Well, are you stranded?” called out a familiar voice, which Don recognized, and was soon jumping up and down in ecstacy. “O,is that you, Jack? What are you doing out here?” “Your parents are nearly frantic, so I came after you. I telephoned to your friends and they said you had left there at half past seven, and had taken this road. So I came to a place near here on a car, and as I could get no accommodations, I decided to start afoot and meet you. Have you had a break-down?” “O, no,” replied Ruth sighing, “‘I just wanted to fill the gasoline tank.” “Well, V'll help you” he replied kindly, and opening the tank he ex- claimed, ‘““Why how’s this? The tank is full already.”’ “It is? Well I wanted to---er---I wanted to---to light the lights.” “But the lamps are lit, for they were the first thing I saw when I came over the hill. I'll see if the machine is alright.” He soon found the part which was not working well, and in a few -minutes had everything ready. “Now Ruth,” he said, turning toward the girl, ‘‘before you start, I want to ask you a question. Do you always intend to treat me like you have been in the last few days? If my attentions are unbearable, I can soon leave and---” “But, Jack, you don’t intend to---” “Oh, no, of course I will help you home, for your father would be greatly frightened if I would leave you here all alone, and much dis- pleased with me if I should do so,” he replied, as he helped her into the car. Tor some time Ruth was silent, for she knew he meant every word he said. At last the silence became very embarrassing, and she ven- tured to make matters right by saying, ‘‘I guess it doesn’t pay to be- lieve everything you hear. I knew it was wrong in the beginning, but I wanted---”’ “Wanted to have your own way as usual,” he replied mischiev- ously. Mabelle Murch, 08. The Unlucky Mirror. “Oh, John, you can never guess what has happened! Oh, you could never guess, its just simply splendid, and so dear of Aunt Deborah!” Little Mrs. Gertrude Scott fairly danced with delight while her face shone with ecstacy. ‘‘The expressman brought it this morning,’ she rambled on, “its perfectly beautiful and I could scarcely wait till you came home so you could see it too.” 31

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An Automobile Episode. “Oh, we'll be alright, and you don’t need to worry about us,” re- plied Ruth Thornton bravely, to her friends that were cautiously ad- vising her. ‘‘Here, Don, jump up in the seat, and we will soon be speed- ing home at the rate of a century limited,” she continued, talking con- fidingly to a large Dane dog that looked up wistfully into her eyes. Ruth was the only child, and naturally had been petted and in- dulged so much, that at the age of eighteen her wishes were seldom crossed and never denied. She had left home early in the morning in her new auto, intending to spend the day with a friend who lived about fifteen miles away. Her father had been greatly opposed to her going alone, but after much coaxing and pouting he was compelled as usual to let her have her own way. Ruth had had such a good time that she had almost forgotten about going home, but the approaching darkness had warned her of the time, and with the dog beside her she was soon bounding along the highway at a fearful rate, regardless of the many lurches that the car gave. The dog looked proudly down the road, and every now and then he would lick his lips with his long red tongue, and look up at her inquisitively, as much as to say, “‘Aren’t we goin’ some?” They soon reached a lonesome country road about ten miles from home; no houses in sight, and the tall dark trees that stood on either ’ side made the appearance more gloomy. Sudddenly she noticed that the speed slackened, and after many jerks and lurches the car came to a standstill. vil “Well, what’s happened,” she exclaimed somewhat irritated, “I wonder if anytihng has broken.” She got out of the car, looked up and down the road to see if anyone was coming. Being assured that no one was in sight, she began to talk to Don. “What in the world will we do! I just wonder if---Oh, I know, she quickly added, maybe it needs cranking,’ and with this she immediate- ly preceeded to “crank” it’ which required no little effort. She got into the car again and threw back the lever, but no motion was made. “Goodness, probably I didn’t crank it enough,” she said somewhat illhumoredly, “‘I wonder if I have that book of ‘Rules and Regulations.’ ”’ The book was soon found, but her searching was all in vain, and throw- ing it down in disgust, she burst into a flood of tears. Poor Don! He looked first at his mistress, then at the machine, and with almost hu- man intelligence expressed his sympathy by many a piteous whine. “Oh, dear!’ sobbed Ruth, “if only I had let Jack come with me, we would have been home long ago, and now maybe we will have to stay here all night. Her revengeful spirit soon vanished when she thought of Jack, and how curtly she had refused his company that morning, in order to show her independence. In her desolation she became aware of the fact that she was wrong, and that it was folly for her to believe everything she had heard, especially when the author was a person who was very jealous of her. 30)

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“J give it up, Gertie. ‘What is it anyway? It must be something fine, I’m sure.” At this juncture Mrs. Scott grasped his coat sleeve, and fairly drag- ged him up the narrow little walk that led to the side door. Still hold- ing his sleeve, she led him into the little dining-room where pink and white geraniums blossomed in little red pots in the south window. Everything was spotlessly clean though very modest. There on the small square dining-room table spread with its snowy cloth lay a mag- nificent table mirror. Its polished surface shone and sparkled, and es- pecially so when the sunbeams filtered in through the curtains and dan- ced upon it. The stalwart John smiied as he saw the happy winsome face of his little wife mirrored there in a silver frame of roses. “Tt certainly is a beauty, Gertie,” he said, as he gazed with admir- ing eyes, but what possessed Aunt Deborah to send it tous? You know how terribly opposed she was to me? — “Yes, dear, | know,” continued his excited wife, “but wasn’t she the dearest, sweetest thing living to send it to us? Wouldn’t I like to hug her right away and tell her how perfectly beautiful we think it is! And now you know, John, she wasn’t opposed to you personally, but she thought we would both be too extravagant to get married and go to house-keeping on so small a salary. But we're just the happiest people living, in spite of our rahe es -five dollar salary, aren’t we, dear?” “Yow re a trump, Gertie,” said John as he gallantly stooped to kiss her, “‘and really Aunt Deporknn is'nt half so bad after all.”’ When supper was over that evening Gertrude exclaimed, ‘‘Wouldn’t it be perfectly lovely to have alittle round dining-room table to go with the mirror? Oh, just wouldn’t that be splendid?” “Yes indeed, that would be fine, and I’m hoping that it’ won’t be but a little while till we can have one, and leather-bottomed dining chairs to boot.” said John. “Say, John,” said Mrs. Scott in a timid little voice, ‘do you sup- pose we could get one now on the installment plan? I read in the pap- er today of a house on North Broadway that did business on the install- ment plan, and you only had to pay two dollars a month till you had it paid. Lets see, she continued wrinkling her brow with the weight of the. problem, “‘that would be 7 cents a day. Don’t you suppose we could get one now, John, it seems as though I just can’t wait!” All the while Mrs. Scott had been tugging energetically at John’s coat sleeve, and when he said, “Just as you like, dear,” in an indulgent gee she kissed him and “That? s just like you, fon, a she murmured, “its always ‘just as I say.’ ”’ The next evening when Mr. Scott came home from work his wife led him in triumph into the dining-room where stood the installment- plan table in its new abode. It was made of walnut, very simple in de- sign, but beautiful. “Well i isn’t that just splendid,’ exclaimed John, as He surveyed the room with a satisfied glance. ‘‘It’s a ‘beaut,’ Gere and just sets off the whole house. We’ll never miss the seven cents a day, and I’m glad 32