Cleveland High School - Legend Yearbook (Portland, OR)

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years have we waited in vain for his coming! Nay, child ! Speak not so. He will never re- turn. His withered hand shook slightly as he looked through a small packet of unimportant contracts, written in a hand which he could not read. They were placed in a small leather bag, in which many other such packets reposed. And now, he murmered in the soft cadence of his Arab tongue, now we shall see who this last adventurer was. With Hermos ' eyes fastened on the folded pa- per, the old man opened it, glanced over the un- intelligible words, and dropped his gaze to the name at the foot of the document. Slowly, with the white weight of his robes trail- ing at his heels, the father of Ahmed Ben Hassen emerged from the tent. The hot sun was climb- ing higher into the sweltering heavens. The desert bandit ' s eyes sought the hazy horizon, where twenty miles distant, lay a crumpled white torm.. He will — never — return — . On Getting: Off a Crowded Street Car ViviAX Charter Who has not felt the joy of achievement in the accomplishment of a difficult task? Who has not gloried in the victory of a hard-fought battle? He knows how I feel after I alight from a crowded street car — jammed and packed to overflowing with people. Powell Street, bellows the conductor. Hur- riedly I collect my various packages, balance them on one arm while I ring the bell. Crash! There goes a package to the floor. Good heavens! What a time and place to drop a package! I snatch it and begin my struggle to the door. You may believe that a football player has hard work breaking through the opponent ' s line; but he has ten men to help him, while I, all alone, must go through a mob to the exit. With my books as a battering ram and my el- bows as spears, I push my way onward. Umph! My history book punches an old fat gentleman in the chest. Ow! My elbow pokes a young man In the ribs. Ouch! I step on someone ' s toe. I am sure it was on his corn. Hurrah! The vestibule is in sight! I grit my teeth and clench my fists (mentally, you under- stand.) I catch my breath and begin anew my struggle. Hurrah! The door is in sight ! With my strength renewed, I resume the battle. Slashing right and left wit h my books, I gain the door. An- other push — I am on the sidewalk. I heave a sigh of relief — the relief that comes from the knowledge of a task well done. I look at myself — hat on one ear — books bent at the cor- ners — coat twisted half off — bow untied. But where ' s my free-for-all letter? Frost Flowers Kenneth Collins Now I, I fashion frost flowers In the amber night moon ' s beams. I love to fashion frost flowers Into delicate drifts of dreams. But oh! when the golden dryad Of day looks up from bed, My flowers fade into soft white mist And vanish overhead. Page 22

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BERBER RETURN OF THE BELOVED JAUN ' ITA TUXSTAI.L For fifteen years ha e I andereii, murmured Ahmed Ben Hassen as lie lifted his finely cut head to the desert heavens, and n ) - I return to my heloved father. Poor father! He was e ' er kind to his errinij son, and e en these long years of separation cannot have taken his love from me. And little Hermos — little Hermos — The clear gray of the young Arab ' s eyes filmed A itli tears of love and anticipated pleasure. Davna, the slim gray horse he had purchased in Cairo, moved through the early morning at a good pace, for he, too, was looking forward to the comforts of the oasis which lay twenty miles to the south, farther into the depths of the Sahara. It Avill he pleasant to hear the groans of the sleeping camels, and the sigh of the shifting sands once more, rambled on the dreamy Ahmed, and I shall tell my father of the ways of the American ; and with the money hich I have honestly earned, we will add a dozen camels to the string. For my fair Hermos I shall build the little white house with vines, as the one in which resides my friend John Doring, and his wife. I wonder — ' The intense silence, which engulfed the silvery desert for miles around, was relieved by the mono- tonous thud of many hoofs on soft sand. It cannot be, cried young Ahmed, that m ' father has heard of his son ' s arrival, and comes forth to welcome him to the sanctuar ' of his home! But yes — they see me — Ahmed, as he sat the impatient Davna, looked down thoughtfully at his white riding breeches, shirt and light riding boots. I should have been adorned in the robes of my countrymen, he thought vaguely. A party of perhaps twelve horsemen topped a ridge of sand dune immediately before the bov, hesitated, then swept down the inter ening space, leaving a lone horseman silhouetted against the gray sky, in which just a suspicion of dawn appeared. With a little cry, and a futile, protective move- ment toward the small fortune «hich la in the carriers of his silver-trimmed saddle, Ahmed turned Davna and fled as if he were a man possessed. The flowing robes and majestic bearing of the lone horseman proclaimed a bandit sheik, a desert outlaw. When dawn came, with a breath of hot wind, a party of robed horsemen entered a quiet oasis. A slim gray horse, sweating beneath the weight of heavy, silver-trimmed saddle, though empty, tested the coolness of a deep basin of water. The tall, majestic individual sat his heavy black, his covetous eyes taking in the sensitive, drooping ears and slim legs of his recently acquired stable addition. It is a wonder, he spoke in an aside to one of his followers, it is a wonder that a dog of a foreigner should have such taste in the selection of a mount. Did iiu procure the papers from his body? I will then have coffee. Call Hermos! The head-dress throA n back, the renegade ap- peared as he really was: a sad, bent old Arab. There was a light, half tragic, half satisfied, in his cold eyes as he sat drinking, with a lovely girl, the black desert coffee. It is just one more point toward revenge, my Fairest of the Fair. We hope for the return of our beloved Ahmed, but he will never return. Nay, never! Those white dogs ha e him in their in- terests. He is no longer Ahmed Ben Hassen, proud son of the desert, but an American merchant. He cares not enough about his people to write and tell them how he fares. A bitterness unusual even in the passionate tribe to which the old man belonged was in his voice. Bring to me the papers secured from this last degraded offering of fate, and we will see if he was worth the energy my men expended. A fair chase he gave, on that wisp of wind he rode, but now — Ah ! But were all the tribes of the lowly white nations b ' his side, slain by the hand of Ahmed Ben Hassen ' s aged father! Hermos stood before him, straight and lithe in her soft silken robes. The papers were held in one trembling white hand, just out of the old man ' s reach. But, jVIaster, she ventured, perhaps those men whom you have slain and robbed so mercilessh ' are the trea.;ured sons of some equally fond father! Perhaps even they have a Hermos waiting for their safe return in some far countr ' ! ( ! Father of Ahmed, return to your gentle occupation of camel driver, and leave Allah to his work! Even now Ahmed may be returning to us, though for fifteen Pai e 21

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LERSER VANITIES UNFAIR jMarjorie Paxgborx Gizzard Washington, so titled because his pas- sionate affection for chicken had caused him to suffer the indignities of being a jail-bird, was angry with himself and with the world (represent- ed by Clay Center.) In a streak of poker luck he had made a bet that he could be married at any time he chose. He had wondered at the eagerness with which his friend had taken the bet, but after days of secret questing, only black despair filled his heart. The looking glass had revealed the lack of beauty he had supposed was his. A hundred dollars was lots of money to lose for the sake of a wager. It would go such a long way in paying chicken fines, but it looked as if — I craves to knowah some knowledge which I ' spects yo to give me like a gen ' men you ain ' t, broke in a drawling voice upon his thought . Washington ' s ebony jaw sagged in open-mouthed admiration as he surveyed the lemon-hued, vest- pocket edition of Venus before him. At yore dis- position, cream puff! he managed to shoot back at her, accompanied by a welcome to our city smile done in gold fillings. In return she displayed a set of non-false teeth that was the envy of all models for Pepsodent ads. Big boy, I wants to knowah whah Jedge Cum- min ' s lives and I craves the infoh now. Says which? I ' m nothin ' else but his long lost relative late- ly of the Chawklate Cream ' V anities of Noo Yawk. Sho ' l yo must have heard of them. Ellie! Danny! And there she was sobbing on his shoulder. Had his friend happened along just then, he would have endeavored to withdraw the bet. A few memories later, the two arrived at the seedy mansion of the Jedge. Danny ' s lower limbs were doing the Charles- ton from fear as he mentally measured the distance to the fence from where he stood and wondered if he could jump the enclosure in five minutes and sprint down the street to safety should her father make anv hostile moves. By the next morning everyone received the in- formation by invisible telegraphy that EUie ' s home- coming had been as cold as an Eskimo eating an ice cream cone in a refrigerator. But she was a block off the old chip and intended to stick to the last like a British bull dog on a piece of fly paper. When she met Gizzard that evening, she looked far from being the spark plug she was re- puted to be. Ah ' s feelin ' like indigo, confided Ellie. Mah fawther disinterested me; ah ' m almost homeless now. What say? I ain ' t got no capital ' cept mah looks — but then, Danny, I ain ' t so bankrupt, is I? Gawsh, cain ' t yo see enthus ' asm on my war town map? U-huh! Yo does appear kinda enthus ' astic, but Ah ain ' t so suah ev-thing ' s gwine to be all right. S ' pose I make it all right? Huh! V o couldn ' t. Meanin ' which, perzac ' ly? Yo millionaire idea is all air. Little old Noo ' awk for this gal ' less some hero does a rescue. Yore lookin ' at him. Come how? I ' m he. Washington was astounded at the cataract of laughter that greeted his ear drums at this juncture. He disliked the proposition of proving his state- ment to his doubting lady love, because it meant work. About the only way he could find to shine was to become a bootblack. His friend didn ' t know that he was courting death when he innocently nudged Danny and said Some chicken! His face came in contact with an enraged black avalanche which sent him sprawling jnto the gutter, dazedly wondering why all the sta rs in the universe had chosen to fall on him. Wha fo yo disconvenience dat gen ' men, Danny? Ellie questioned when his wrath had abated long enough to enable him to think. Page 23