Grants Pass High School - Toka Yearbook (Grants Pass, OR)

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22 {Tiff $nka fimut 3lt % fflprlp (£al utrll T WAS evident that Ned had something to say by the peculiar, indifferent manner in which he walked into the assembly room one evening after school and approached several of the girls who were gathered around the library table. ‘Well, here ‘It” comes; what have you got to say now?” Was the greeting Bess gave him as he entered the door. ‘‘Ah, go on,” he said to her in a half teasing voice, “I’ll bet you girls will have some of the darned conceit shaken out of you now.” And he threw himself into a chair and stretched out in an ungraceful position. “Well, what is it?” was the question asked by several. “What, don’t you know? “Ah, Ned, please tell us; you never will tell until you are coaxed.” “Have you seen that new girl who will enter high school next week? By jinks, she is a real little beauty. Magnificent figure. Quite a treat after the average high school girl. Big blue eyes, glorious golden hair and most charming manner. Imperious, you know.” “Doubtless the Imperious part would appeal to you, for you are only fit to be ordered about,” was Kate’s snatching comment. But Ned closed his eyes and rambled on. This was his opportunity to get even, for many times each and every girl had handed him one. “Now just believe me, before she has been here more than two weeks she will have captured our whole delegation.” “Each girl sat up and glared at him with wide-open eyes, war to the knife expressed in every face as clearly as could be. Ned gave them no chance to say anything. “She plays basket ball, tennis, the piano, the violin—and you can bet all the fellows think she is charming. And really, if I wanted a girl, I would try for her myself.” The mirthless laugh which arose! “Ho! ho! You don’t stand a ghost of a show if your description of her is true, for Ned, I imagine she likes a manly sort of a fellow,” said Dot cruelly. It was too bad that this odious girl should come and disturb their t -rangements, just when Ned would have to ask one or the other of them to go to senior ball. “But now, Dottle, you see I don’t want a girl. The feminine temper is too violent and uncertain, and the feminine tongue too caustic for my comfort. I prefer to remain a prize to be caught—ahem! Well, I have got to beat it. So long, girls.” Having delivered his bomb and made the girls quite unhappy, he left. Dot and Kate were thinking very hard, and wondering what was in store.

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(Et|p (Inha 21 “Now, Lois, run and be sure the doors are all locked; Virginia be ready to turn out the lights at a moment’s notice, and Sybil may have a pitcher of water ready.” Meanwhile, Marjorie bored feverishly at the plaster with her penknife, while the others, looking on, spent their energy In suppressing hysterical giggles. “Now, then, every one ready?” Every one was. The hat pin stuck in it'B place. ‘Now, Virginia, lights out, and be ready, girls, to chase upstairs in your stocking feet, and do remember to be quiet. ‘Mischief, thou art afoot, Take thou what course thou wilt!’ ‘Ready!” The hat pin was given a frantic Jab just as the lights were put out. ‘Ouch-oh-help-murder! Miss Jos-er-er, Miss Jefferson! Oh-h-h-h!” The girls were fast disappearing down the hallway when the parlor door opened and then followed a crash of what seemed like a million tin cans, and the cries and groans that followed, plainly showed that the “hayseed” regretted his visit. “Land sakes! Elizabeth, can’t you manage to crawl a little faster, we’ll miss all the fun?” “Sh-h-h-h, girls” commanded Marjorie, striving to check her own emotions. Gathered around the windows at the end of the dormitory, not five minutes later, the girls heard a soft step on the lower hall, which made them alert. “They’re trying the doors,” laughed Marjorie. “Open the window and be ready. Your water, Sybil. The only way he can possibly reach the street will be by jumping from the window below.” Just at this moment, as though in desperate straits, th ewindow slowly lifted and a dark figure loomed upon the sill and paused to gain its bearing. “He acts as if he knew his time had come,” giggled Virginia under her breath. “Note the exquisite poise.” The exquisite poise just referred to was, however, broken by a hawklike swoop to the ground, and a frantic dash on the part of Sybil landed the contents of the water pitcher into his frank and open countenance. Was it agony, or remorse, or perhaps it was malice stamped upon those features? As the figure disappeared in the darkness, and the girls gave Marjorie an ecstatic embrace, their leader gazed upon her companions with a look of profound wisdom: “Girls,” said she, “undoubtedly that hayseed’ goes down through history as Napoleon I, for this night, in the year of our IiOrd 1910, he has met and faced his Waterloo.” “But he’ll not trouble the enemy again right away,” ventured Anna. “Oh, girls, will we ever forget that face?”

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a hr a nka 23 Bess was too angry to be able to think, so she vented her wrath by spluttering, ‘I don’t see why Ned always feels It his painful duty to butt In. It was absolutely necessary for him to come up here and express his thoughts about that “real little beauty” as he calls her. He must think that It will hurt us if he does go with her.” Nan Adams was a timid, good natured little girl. Her parents were poor, and Nan could not dress as well as the other girls. She felt that she was dependent and helpless. Although every student liked her, no one paid very much attention to her. When any one of the girls wanted anything done that was not pleasant, they would ask Nan to do it, for she always did everything any one wished her to do It It was in her power to do it. “Ah, Bess, do not feel so cross at Ned, he was only teasing,” said Nan in her usual good natured voice. “Oh, of course, you undoubtedly know all about it,” snapped Bess. And with that she flounced off into the physical laboratory, where she was to make up some back work. Nan was Just leaving school. She passed to the door of the laboratory and Bess called her In. “Say, Nan, will you give this to Ned? And don’t watt for an answer?” And she handed her a little pink envelope. With a sigh Nan put It into her pocket. She had just started down the stairs when she met Dot, who handed her another dainty little note, with instructions to give it to Ned, and not to let anyone see her give it to him. She flushed. Whatever would people think? But, nevertheless, she took It, Just then Kate called her from tne assembly room door. Say, Nan, dear, won’t you come here a moment, please? Will you give this to Ned? And for pity sakes don’t tell the girls, or let anyone see you give it to him.” Tremblingly she crept downstairs, and was fortunate enough to meet the gentleman just coming up. “I have been asked to give you these,” tumbling the words out in a great hurry. There are no answers.” ‘Just wait a moment, please. Nan.” He stepped back downstairs and drew her into a class room off the lower hall. “I will read them first. It is mighty funny that I should receive three notes all in one evening. Something up. I’ll bet.” He opened one of them and read it with a puzzled little frown on his face; the next, and he smiled; the next, and the smile grew broader. “Say, Nan, do you know anything about these notes?” he asked. “No, I do not,” she trembling replied. “Well, will you meet me in the chemistry laboratory about four o’clock tomorrow after school. Say nothing about it to the girls, and don’t let anyone see you come in if you can help it. I want to tell you a secret.” Ned smiled. In a flutter Bhe promised and then ran home. When school was dismissed the next afternoon, the girls did not gather at tne library table as usual, for their afternoon gossip, but each had something else to do. Nan went to the laboratory a few minutes before four. Ned was waiting for her. “Your hand—quick!” and in a second she was safely hidden in a little room back from the laboratory.