Hamden Hall Country Day School - Perennial Pine Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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America---I'm Thankful I am an American, a member of a free Democracy, the best country in the world, and practically the only free one left. You might ask me in a scornful way, you the pessimist of this world,HWhat have you to be thank- ful for? Thousands upon thousands of people are being killed every day: thousands are dying in the European countries from starvation and exposure. Well, I'll tell you, and perhaps you'l1 see the good things in this world, too. I'w trnakful for all the people who aren't killed cvcry day, those who are Still living and still fighting for liberty and democracy. I'm thankful for every tree and flower, brook and meadow, hill and valley, city and town in this vast Democracy of ours. I'L so proud of my heri- tage, to be an American, the most coveted possession in this world of strife. ' You ask, nls your country the only thing you are grateful for?H I answer, UO? course not, but in- directly it bears on everything else. My family, my home, my school, my religion, my recreation, all these things I love are dependent upon tais country.n Again I say,,UI'm an American! I'm greed and I'm grateful and I'm humble to be so fortunate in my heritage.n Dorothy Harris - '45 WBT All the world is in tumult, Brother slaying his own kin As some monster on earth That doth commit the foremost sin. Where there be two men or more, One hath notg the other hath. There shall be unholy war That bringeth on Almighty's Wrath. Poor men shall never know his place On earth, where there is roomg And God shall strike with his great mace And drive them all to doom. Hath man the right to take a life Which God, gracious, did give? Hath puny man the right to kill And yet himself to live? David Miller - '45

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ws WILL Nom spares T This is.the tale of a tiny boy not yet ten years old. The boy's name-well, let us call him Little Jackie . Little Jackie lived in Norway, town un- known. Born in 1935,Jack1e was raised on the ideals of truth and consideration for all. Throughout his short life this idea constantly remained in his soul Little Jackie went to school merrily like many other small lads of his age at that time when Nazi hordes invaded Norway. That afternoon he was skip- ping happily home from school when the planes roared overhead and the mechanized soldiers tramped through the small town. He stood when he first observed the conquerors. With a stra1ght,dotermined countenance he watched the Germans approaching the spot where he stood. Ono of the band shouted at him to remove himself from their path and with a bold gesture attempted to execute the movement if the small boy would not do it himself. Since Little Jackie did not stir an inch the burly German hit him a stinging blow on the head, felling the boy. Jackie rose slow- ly and stood his ground. The band of Nazis mocked him,but the boy faced them calmly. Like a true sol- dier he dared the enemy to hit him again. The German turned scornfully on his heel. From this moment on the Nazi was Little Jackie's personal enemy, For two years the freedom-loving awaited the chance to get his revenge on the man who had mocked him. It was the eve of Christmas when he determined to fulfill his solemn oath. The townspeople were celebrating Christmas when the orders came to stop the merrymaking. . Hastily dressing,Jackie hurried past his mother's door and slipped out of the house. All along the stree sentinels had been posted,so he crept along the dark alleys. when at last he had arrived at his destination, he crawled on his hands and knees to a large house where he knew the enemy was stationed. The youth lured away the guards who were on watch in front of the house by setting fire to the woods surround- ing the building. Qhickly he entered the front door and hid in one of the alooves in the huge hallway. Presently three men, not entirely sober,stag- gered through the hall and entered a room not fifty feet from the boy. Among them he observed one to be his rival. He took careful account of his surroundings and noticed that in the room which the officers had entered there was another small room in which he hoped to trap the two companions of the Ger- man. ? ts