Eastern High School - Punch and Judy Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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10 F e “JT am going to take her over © i ing a of chocolate cake this evenIng, ersation, I will find— course of the conv’ : ie Emily ed, She couldn't very GE hen the Ma- have done anything else W jor was looking like that. : a “You will do nothing of the kind. : will stay away from Montgomeries unt I give you my permission to go there. You will also write a note of regret to i rr fer e- Mr. Montgomery canceling your engag' day night. If you ment for next Satur I u may use My wishes, need an excuse, you ; d, cutting commanded the Major in har tones. And, turning on his well foot he hobbled quickly away from the room. Angry tears blurred the sunny blue eyes and the small fists clenched uncon sciously. “Well! T won't! So there ! she told herself determinedly. “He needn’t think because he was a Major 10 the war that he can order me around. 1 ther was a colonel and ¢ blood in me. p Uncle Harry guess my own fa T’'ve got plenty of fightin But, it is so hard to kee in a pleasant humor. Oh, I just can’t stay home from the Leonard's dance. The new engineer, who 1s building the Curry bridge, will be there and everyone in Lacony says he is the catch of the season. Of course, I don’t care about that, because I'll be with Danny, but it will be fun to watch the rest.” And she hurried back to the chocolate cake. The next day, at church, the Major's coolness was most pronounced. It had been the custom, when the feeling be- tween the two families had been friendly. for the Major either to bring the widow and Dan home with him for Sunday din- ner or for the Major and Emily to go to the widow’s. But, instead of the usual congenial word of greeting, the Major was barely polite. He lifted his hat as courteously as he possibly could considering the ill-will in his heart, and offering Emily his arm, started to walk e middle of the street” “Danny stood gumb-founded in th cross, hard-hearted away. But even a old bachelor couldn't get ahead of Danny Montgomery: ) Major,” he cried cheer- “One minute, ‘ ily, “aren't you coming home to dinner today? Its your turn to come with us, you know.” Emily’s hear Major should say, Dorking rooster Pe faint if he did. ¢ stood still. Suppose the “To eat my poor She knew she would But the Major was a eman, even in his wrath, so he lifted his hat again and said, rather sourly, “No, I think not! T thank you,” and passed on his way. Danny shot a mute, questioning glance at Emily but she could explain nothing there. Danny stood dumbfounded in the middle of the street. Never in all his days had he seen such queer carryings on. It troubled him and yet it amused him. But it didn’t amuse Emily as she sat stiff and silent in the Boothe carriage. Tt only made her so very angry that she had to swallow hard to keep down the tears of mortification. But she was still determined to keep her engagement with Danny. She thought the long, lonely Sunday would never end. The Major could not sleep in the sunny bay window where the soft, spring sunbeams danced merrily on his bald head because he could see that aggravating Dorking rooster and when he saw that it made gentl

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THE EASTERNER 9 the big Dorking rooster that he couldn't get his breath for nearly ten minutes af- ter the Major had finished. ‘ After every square inch of the Ma- jor's acres and acres of land had been thoroughly searched and the Dorking Tooster was still missing, the Major made it so exceedingly uncomfortable for those around him that no one except Emily and old Dr. Terguson ventured to come within ten feet of him. There- fore, it was small wonder that Emily was wishing most fervently he would sleep— at least long enough for her to try her luck at a new recipe for that chocolate cake for which the Major was so fond. By some underhanded means another bothersome fly had gotten into the room and was practicing some new dance steps on the slippery surface of the Ma- jor’s head when, purely by accident, it slipped down his nose. That woke the Major immediately. He had no sooner gotten rid of that awful fly when, through the open window, came the most exquisite music in all the world to the Major—the long, wavering crow of a Dorking rooster. He jumped up so quickly that he forced his full weight on his sore foot. And the Major was no slight man! But he was altogether too excited to stop to use those ugly words again. He simply stood and stared as though he was loathe to believe what his own eyes saw. On the wood-stump in Montgomery’s back yard was a beauti- ful Dorking rooster crowing and flap- ping its lovely feathers for all the world like his own lost rooster. “Emily !” he thundered. Emily had just mixed the eggs and butter, but she dropped everything when the Major called like that, and tan into the sunny sitting-room. She followed with her eyes in the direction of the Major’s finger that shook with an- ger. “What—what—what do you think of that? There's your perfectly delightful Montgomeries for you! ‘Nice’ people, they are to steal a man’s best Dorking rooster,” sputtered the enraged Major. Emily opened her sunny blue eyes wide. “Why, Uncle Harry, what on earth? Don’t you suppose the Mont- gomeries can have a Dorking, too,” she argued. Probably it should be inserted here that the Montgomeries were very good friends of Emily's and young Danny Montgomery had more than a fair chance to make himself more than a very good friend. But the idea of any- one within seven counties having a Dorking rooster equal to his did not pro- duce a happy effect upon the Major. It wasn’t very likely that a widow of Mrs. Montgomery’s means could afford an expensive Dorking rooster that should crow, flap its wings, and have the sun make fascinating colors on it exactly like the Major’s, and he said so, in good, plain English. Emily was shocked be- yond words that the Major should har- bor such a thought for the shortest pos- sible time even, and said so in good, plain English, also. But, what cared the Major for Emily, or anything else in all the world except his precious Dorking rooster. “And,” went on the Major, “I am sure that I heard Mrs. Montgomery say distinctly that she expected Dr. Emend- son for dinner tomorrow. It is only to save my Dorking from such a fate that I would bother myself with a woman so common as to steal her neighbor’s rooster !”” “Oh, Uncle Harry! You never are going to ask her if it’s ours! Oh that would be too terrible!” gasped Emily. That her uncle should even think their neighbor was a thief was terrible indeed, but to accuse her of it was - infinitely worse! Merciful heavens! That would be an end to all her dream castles,

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THE EASTERNER him so red in the face and made the pain in his foot so very annoying that he couldn't stay seated. And he never could sleep in any other window. The truth of the matter was, the Major was used to watching the bird-like figure of the little widow flutter around watering her plants and feeding her chickens, But, of course, he didn’t know it. Five days passed and the Major's rooster was still gone and the widow’s which had not received the sad fate, after all, still crowed joyously and proudly on the wood-stump in the widow's barn- yard. And the Major, because he couldn't sleep in his sunny bay window and couldn’t sleep any place else was enough to worry anybody's nerves. “He carried something in a sack of burlap” Late Saturday afternoon, old Sam Hawkins, the colored man who chopped wood for almost every family in Lacony. appeared at the rear door of Booth’s and asked for the Major. His eyes were al- most white, he was so badly scared. He seemed to be uncommonly nervous and agitated about something which he car- ried in a sack of burlap. This some- thing made queer little noises that sound- ed precisely as the Major's Dorking rooster would have made if it were shut up in a sack of burlap. The Major glared at him, in the very worst way. “Well?” he grunted. “Even, suh! Muh conshuns done tole me suh, it says, suh, deed it did, suh, “Now Sam’ Hawkins ain’t you-all done shamed yo’self?, You march that ‘ere rooster right back to Major Booth.’ An’ T’se done it, suh. Deed I has. I was 11 a-fattenin’ him foh muh wife’s birfday but I fot it was to purty foh to kill. Ah done hopes you-all ‘ll fohgive me, suh.” Old Sam, being an exceedingly wise old colored man, laid the sack on the steps and, while the Major was rejoicing over his returned Dorking, took French leave. “Well, I'll be blowed!” ejaculated the Major very much in earnest. “Well, I'll be blowed!’ Ahem!” And he blew his nose vigorously. “Well, I'll be blowed!” “Cock-a-doodle-doo !” crowed the Dorking as it flapped its bril- liant wings joyously. The Major put it under his arm and went off in search of Emily. But Emily had seen the whole performance from the pantry window and had taken such an excellent oppor- tunity to carry Mrs. Montgomery a piece of chocolate cake. “Oh, Danny!” she called across the low white fence lined with holly-hocks. Danny came running. He couldn't get there fast enough. Danny ate his share while Emily talked so he could tell her how delicious it was before he went in. When she finished “explaining,” he threw back his head and laughed, as though it were a joke. “Why, Em,” he said, “Mother has been dying to show off her new Dorking rooster to your father and compare the two. Uncle James sent it from Eng- land, and Mother is proud as Lucifer “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” he crowed laugh- ingly. “If a Dorking rooster had given you as much misery as it has me, you'd hate even a joke with a rooster in it,” pouted Emily. That night, while the young people were at the Leonard dance, the Major went over to talk to the widow about Dorking roosters, but he got side-tracked and found himself, much to his conster- nation, of course, talking about a thing he knew nothing about. You see, the Major was getting old and gouty and when Emily was gone he'd be needing someone to chase away the bothersome flies while he slept in the sunny bay win- dow where the sun-beams danced across his slippery head. The widow was the very one and—the Major knew it! Dorotay R. SHANER.