Clifton High School - Rotunda Yearbook (Clifton, NJ)

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“PALS.” APA don t, please don’t,’ wailed little Tim, the zoo keep- er s son. Tim was small and frail, poorly clad and worst of all, lame. He was motherless and his father was a drunkard. For some reason or other, Jim, the boy's father, hated the big hippo. He was seldom fed, and the keeper had a great habit of poking the big animal with a long pointed spear. No one knew his reasons. At the time that my story begins the boss was doing this, greatly to the annoyance of his little son, who loved the animal. “Don’t, papa, don’t. You always hurt my hippo.” With plead- ing eyes, Tim looked up at his father. G wan away wit ya, ’ Jim answered and with a push that knock- ed Tim over, he rushed into another shed. I rn got up and going over to the cage, he began to talk to the animal. Did my pa hurt ya, hippo?” Then without waiting for an answer, he hurried on: “Papa hates you but I loves ya, hippo.” The boy pushed his thin face between the bars and the animal came over to him. 1 im stretched out his dirty, little hand and patted the big nose of the hippo. I im then quietly slipped out after saying good-night to the animal. I his hippo was very strange. He had been mysteriously sold to the Zoo and he had arrived at a mysterious time of the night. Strange to say, people who had seen this hippo called him educated. When a person near him seemed sad, hippo would go to the farthest end of the cage and put his back to the people. When the people laughed, he would come to the foremost part of the cage and look right at the people. Tim and he were pals. Several days had passed since the opening of mv story, and every day hippo had received the same little amount of food and had been unseemingly treated by Jim. Today the keeper was cleaning the hippo’s cage with Tim as over- seer. Several times hippo had started to go for the keeper but Tim had stretched out his hand and the hippo had come over and nearly swal- lowed the little hand with a loving caress. “Don’t you hurt my papa,” Timie warned. “Why, pa, you’re not done so soon, are ya?” “Looks like as if I was, don’ it?” And the keeper shut the door so hurriedly that he failed to fasten it securely. After a scant meal, Tim decided to have a talk with his pal. You may imagine his surprise—there was no hippo to meet him. Oh, father! Bill, Tom, quick! Nab hippo afore he gits away!” More than those three rushed out to see what the matter was. M hat, the hippo gone ? How comes this ? nine

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THE CALL OF HOME. 1 I FR the terrible struggle for Humanity was over, and our Sammies returned trimphantly, they brought with them scores of interesting tales, wierd, humorous, heart-rending. Some told of conquests, some of captures, of dangers, sick- ness and death; but they all brought some story of mercy, of love, and thankful deliverance. A pathetic incident was recently re- lated to me by a nurse who had just returned from the battle front- It occurred in a small charity hospital in Belgium. Moaning and tossing on his bed of pain lay the battered remnants of what was once a gallant officer. Faithful to his duties, he had been placed in a most dangerous situation, and the guns of the Boches had hewn him down, leaving him to starvation or death,—on Flander’s fields. When help came he was beyond the aid of human hands, but they brought him to breathe his last in this dingy medical ward. And there he raved in a state of unconsciousness, half his breast torn away, a leg gone, and his arms so maimed, it were a shame to call them parts of a human body. Yet his face was clear and unmarred, with only a blank look of terrible suffering and agony written over it. 1 he end was near. His breath came in gasps, his eyes rolled wildly, and inarticulate expressions were uttered. He could give no last message to any loved ones at home; he was’nt aware that he was dying; he knew nothing. Alas! Only another hero to add to the list of “unidentified.” Suddenly, out of the roaring of shot and shell, sweetly over the booming of the cannons, came a whistled refrain, and as the notes trilled on the clear evening air, the world seemed hushed to hear the old, old tune. The whistler passed beneath the window where the suffering soldier lay, and paused in his march. Then clearly and sweet as an angels’ serenade, he sang “Break the news to Mother— Tell her not to wait for me. For I’m not coming home.” The notes came fainter and fainter as he walked away, but in the ward they had worked’a miracle. The sufferer regained consciousness, the strength of the dying came over him, and folding his poor crippled hands, he murmured a faint prayer. An infinite calm spread around him; a smile lingered on his lips, transforming his face of pain to one of glory, and with a weak sigh, the attentive nurse caught the words— “----And forgive us our trepasses—as—Mother—forgives.” I. M. CANTIUS. eight

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“Tim, you fool youngster, you unfastened the cage.’' 1 im’s father grabbed him up and beat him unmercifully. The other men were too excited to take any notice of little Tim, and so he was left to the mercy of his father. “Oh, father, don’t, don’t, father! You’re hurting your little Tim1’ “Serves ya right.” Tim’s pleas were to no avail and Jim did not let him go until he was ready. Then he let 1 im drop, exhausted to the ground. Meanwhile the men were having a good chase after hippo. Hippo had scared a good many people. He had trampled the beautiful gar- dens until they were not tit to be seen, and last of all, he refused to be caught. The police and all the attendants were having a wild chase. “He cannot be caught, impossible,” one attendant roared. “Haven’t any cf ya an idear how to git him back into the cage'? I here was silence for a time. “Please, sir, I have,” a weak little voice took everyone by surprise. “I guess hippo don’t like my father. Hippo’ll chase him if pa 11 come out a that shed.” A dirty finger pointed to the keeper’s hiding place. “Keeper’s fault, most likely. Here, you two, go get Jim.” and the commander’s voice continued softer, “How’d you know, lad'? “I—I—I don’t know.” Tim was afraid his father might hear and so he hobbled over to the cage. Grumbling, Jim was brought and put in sight of the animal. At once the animal started at full speed toward him. Jim ran on toward the cage crying, “How’ll I git out alive? Save me!” “Don’t be afraid, pa, I’ll see as he don’t hurt you.” Tim followed his father into the cage and then when the hippo quickly followed, I im went over to the animal, stood on the feed trough and patted the creat- ure’s nose. “Run, pa, run, an close the door ahind ya.” Jim did this without a thought of what would happen to his son. Strange to say, the hippo only closed his eyes as if he were enjoying (he episode. There stood the pals, with a throng outside watching the strange events. Mumbles arose. “It must be him, John, yes, it must be, no other hippo would love a little boy like that.” A wel dressed man came up to Bill the head keeper of the Zoo. “Can you give the history of this animal ?” “Yes sir. He was brought to us by that man.” Jim was brought up, held by the collar- “Where or how he got him we do not know. Can you explain Jim?” “Well, me pals and me bought him off Charlin’s Grounds, las year from Charlin’s keeper. We bought hippo for $500 and sold’em to ’•ou for $3000.” ten