Fryeburg Academy - Academy Bell Yearbook (Fryeburg, ME)

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12 The Academy Bell If a foul murder has been com- mitted, he mused, the assassin has already made good his escape. This thought gave him courage and he forced an entrance. In the entry he collided with a hat rack, which he mistook for the outlaw, and al- most demolished it with severe whacks of his club. Then he made a careful reconnoissance, and dis-l lodged one of the burglar alarms. Spare my life, he yelled to the imaginary assailant, I'1l let you es- cape! He thought he had been stabbed with the frying pan. He rushed out of the house and secured the assist- ance of four of his fellow oflicers and the search of the building was re- sumed. Mrs. Banford was found in bed unconscious. Her husband was down in the yard in nearly a simi- lar condition, and the burglar was found under the sofa shivering with fear, and with his tail down between his legs. The cause of the panic was soon explained. Mrs, Banford had over- looked the presence of her pet dog in the house, and this innocent ani- mal, in running from one room to another, had dislodged the cheap and effective burglar alarms. PHYLIS MARs'roN, '28. AQUANIA The hot summer sun rose. over the still-sleeping city of Aquania, gild- ing the steeples and towers of the ancient city with the Midas-like touch of its slanting rays. The ruins over the old Roman baths were still in the shadow, but the sun, rising higher, touched their crumbling sides with a trace of former glory. In the newer part of the city, the bustle and hurry of the day was just beginning, but among these majestic ruins there were no signs of life ex- cept for the birds and insects, which held full sway. The birds filled the morning air with their joyful songs, welcoming the return of light and warmth. Two turtle-doves circled around the ruins of the Temple of Venus and came to rest on one of the few upstanding pillars as if they rec- ognized this to be a fit place for their lovemaking. Hither a goat herd drove his flock of goats to graze among the fallen stones and pillars, while he lay stretched in the sun dreaming away until it should be time to go home again. Hither, also, a pretty maiden hastened to fill her large pottery jar at a fountain which still existed among all these ruins. As she hur- ried back with the full jar balanced on her head, she nearly stumbled over the goat boy who was lying prone on the grass 3 she scolded him sharply for being so indolent but he only laughed and settled himself for an- other nap, and the pretty girl has- tened on home. All the long lazy forenoon the place remained deserted except for the sleeping goat boy and his flock. At noon the boy slowly arose from his couch and standing on two stones like a miniature Colossus of Rhodes, he stretched himself and yawned pro-

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The Academy Bell ll the pan now. Accordingly, each inside door was crowned with a tin pan and left slightly ajar. Banford also thought- fully placed a six-shooter under his pillow and stood a baseball bat with- in reach. Nf'w, Mirandyf' he courageously observed, as they were preparing to retire, if you are awakened by noise during the night, don't scream and jump out of bed. Just lie still, or some o' the bullets I fire at the burg- lar may go through you and kill you. Let me wrestle with the intruder, and I'll soon make him regret that he had not postponed being born for a few centuries. Then they turned down the gas with a feeling of security, and were soon fast asleep. About mid--night they were awakened by a noise that sounded like a clap of thunder, fol- lowed by a wail that almost chilled the marrow in their bones. Goodness'! screamed Mrs. Ban- ford in a voice swollen with terror, as she dived under the bedclothes, we'll be murdered in a minute. Shoot him Lucullus! Quick-shoot him. Banford after considerable nervous fumbling under the pillow, grasped his revolver and with an unsteady hand discharged its six barrels in rapid succession, but not with very gratifying results. One bullet shat- tered the mirror in the bureau, an- other splintered the bedpost, a fourth perforated a portrait of his wife's mother, and the other two left their imprint in the walls. D-d-don't be fuf-fuf-frightened, M-Mirandy, said Banford encour- agingly, his articulation sounding as if it had collided with an Arctic wave. I gug-guess I've kuk-kuk- killed him. He'll not kuk-kuk come here- At this juncture there was a noise in an adjoining room, as if a two- ton meteorite had crashed through a boiler foundry, and Mrs. Banford uttered a series of ear-piercing shrieks, that would have scared the life out of any burglar. M-Mirandy, stammered the frightened and demoralized Banford, grasping the baseball bat and swing- ing it around with such reckless pro- miscuity that he struck his terror- stricken wife on the head, M-Miran- dy, the house is fuf-full of mid-night mum-marauders, and we'll be bub- butchered in cold bub-bub-blood! Save yourself and don't mum-mind about me. And leaping out of bed, he sprang through a window on the roof of a back building, and acci- dently rolled off into the yard, fifteen feet below, just as another burglar alarm went off with a clamor almost as deafening and harrowing as an amateur orchestra. Mrs. Banford, thinking she had been hit by the burglar, emitted a fresh outburst of shrieks, while her husband lay groan- ing in the back yard, with a sprained ankle and a frightful gash on his head. ' A policeman had now been awak- ened by the uproar, and boldly mounting the front steps, he rung the doorbell but without any re- sponse. Then he hesitated.

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The Academy Bell 13 digiously. He then ate his lunch of bread and cheese, after which he promptly lay down as before and slowly sank back into the arms of Morpheus. In the afternoon a few travellers wandered about the ruins examining the stones curiously and then dis- appeared whence they came. At sunset the goat herd awoke with a start, called his goats together, and drove them in a straggling line down a narrow street towards the newer part of the city, and the ruins were again deserted. The su nsank out of sight behind a bank of orange and purple clouds, and darkness fell over the city of Aquania. Ghosts of times long gone and al- most entirely forgotten, ghosts of the time when the ruinous temples and buildings were things of beauty and elegance, ghosts of times when people thronged the forum and the various viae, all these and many others now came to haunt the ancient ruins. AVERIL HARNDEN. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE AIRPLANE One of the world's greatest men has compared this modern age of in- vention with that of life and death. There is no part of it which can be predetermined or foreseen in any way. There are new developments, new experiments, and new ideas be- ing brought forward day by day. In the history of every invention there is a time when the energies of science are not extended in an effort to improve the new fundamental. The history of the airplane has followed this time worn path. Man's first desire to ily verges back into that grand old age when aeronautical science merges into and blends with mythology which has no written record. There are two men mentioned by the immortal Ovid as making an attempt to conquer the force of gravity. They fitted them- selves with patterns of eagle's Wings made of wax and papyrus and with more boldness than discretion they sought to sail the air. There was not, even in the minds of the most learned, any thought that the air would be conquered by the forces of mankind and certainly not that it would be conquered by a machine heavier than air itself. Orville Wright on December 17, 1903, startled the world by announc- ing that he had accomplished the im- possible. Wilbur, his brother, fiew in 1908, flew two hours continuous- ly. People declared airship building had reached its highest point and would gradually die out. But contrary to general opinion the industry flourished and the Am- erican Continent was circled by air- planes in 1911. When the nations were in 1914 plunged into interworld strife and discord, airplanes became one of the most deadly weapons known to the civilized world. Possessed of great speed,vastly mobile and impregnable to attack, they presented a wonder- ful opportunity for development and