Hamilton High School - Hamiltonian Yearbook (South Hamilton, MA)

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4 THE HAMILTONIAN many minds of Doris’ classmates. Who could this richly dressed, handsome lady with the Bradleys be, they won- dered. Ethel returned from the exercises thoroughly disgusted with Madeline. She had felt positively ashamed of Doris among those other curled and smartly-attired young girls and decid- ed it was time to act. The next afternoon Aunt Ethel an- nounced that her visit would end in two more days, and that she had made a decision. Mrs. Bradley secretly breathed a sigh of relief; Ethel always wished to claim all one’s attention while making a visit anyway. “Since I have been here, Madeline, I have been greatly surprised at the way in which you have brought up Dor- is,” she went on. “Why, she was the only girl in the graduating class who wore long hair and old-fashioned cloth- ing. Why didn’t you have it bobbed? Furthermore, if you and Mr. Bradley consent, I wish very much that I may have Doris for a few years to travel with me. You cannot imagine how I have longed for a young girl to dress and treat as a daughter, and I shall be very good to her,” Finally the decision was made. Doris was to go with Aunt Ethel. As soon as she arrived in the South, her hair was bobbed, and an entirely new ward- robe procured for her. Then after a brief rest and more days busily en- gaged in shopping, Doris and her Aunt left for Paris. To Doris these had been the two most glorious years in her life. Aunt Ethel had given her everything which she had wished for, even a car on their return to America. Doris shifted her position and was off in her dreaming again. One day while still in Paris, an acquaintance of Aunt Ethel’s had sent an invitation asking them to tea. There Doris met Jimmie! Jimmie was the only son of Mrs. Fields. He was twenty-three, full of life, heir to the Fields’ fortune, and very good-looking. He had taken Doris out into the gar- dens of the hotel which he and his mother occupied, and seated on a shady bench they had talked for some time, and thus the acquaintance began. “Do you play golf or dance?” he asked, and learning that she did not, he had taught her. “Do you really mean that we shall meet in America?” she then had ques- tioned him, and had learned of the nearness of their homes. Then, after they returned to Amer- ica, Jimmie had been the faithful es- cort of Doris during the entire social season. So absorbed in her own thoughts was she that she did not notice the ring of the telephone until her maid came to the door with the announcement, “Miss Doris is wanted on the telephone.” Then she arose from her chair and hastened to the telephone while the maid outside the door heard one side of the brief conversation. “Jimmie?”— “Of course not.”— “I’d be simply delighted.” — “Yes, at eight sharp.” — “Goodbye.” “Seems to me Mr. Jimmie is parking his roadster in front of the house and using the telephone a great deal lately,” grumbled the maid as she rearranged the chair in Doris’ room. Later, as Doris and Jimmie drove down the avenue. Aunt Ethel, watching from her window, also gave her silent opinion regarding Jimmie and his roadster. — Dorothy Bancroft, ’26.

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Literary Department THE “BRADLEY GIRL” QITTING in her daintily furnished sit- ting room in her aunt’s large south- ern home, Doris Bradley was musing. She wondered vaguely where she would have been if she had remained at Greenvi lle, Vermont, and if her Aunt Ethel had not made that unexpected northern journey. To begin with, Doris had been just “a plain high school girl” in a small Vermont town. As she was in her last year of school, of course, like many others she was seeking employment for the following year. But in business as well as in social activities, Doris was unsuccessful. Her friends just natur- ally passed her by when planning some social activity, because she had heard it whispered, she was just “that plain Bradley girl.” So her attempts to get into business had turned out the same way. After glancing at her rather shabby figure, numerous managers had dis- missed her saying that she was “too young” for such a position. Doris knew that they were too polite to say “a bit shabby.” “Too young,” she would think angrily to herself, “to have a position of salesgirl. Why, I am nearly nineteen.” And so it had been, while graduation drew nearer and nearer. Then suddenly, as if a bomb had exploded in the Bradley fam- ily, came Aunt Ethel’s telegram that she was already on her way north to make them a temporary visit. “Just in time for graduation,” said Mrs. Bradley to Doris after reading the telegram, “she certainly ought to be proud of you.” Doris later remarked to her reflec- tion in the mirror, as she thought of her stunning, fashionable aunt, “Yes, she’ll be proud when she learns that I am the plainest and most unpopular girl in the whole high school.” She sighed as she thought how often her mother had boasted to the neigh- bors that “her” daughter was the only one in her class who wore her hair down her back, wore cotton stockings and plain old-fashioned shoes. She, at least, was not going to let her daughter grow up into one of those “modern flappers.” Hardly had the excitement of Aunt Ethel’s telegram subsided when Aunt Ethel herself arrived. Her arrival as always created a great deal of ex- citement. She had married a wealthy banker, and had settled in the South. Since his death she had lived in the luxury for which she had craved when young. Her only regret was that she did not have a daughter whom she might “fuss over” and educate. In spite of the fact that she pretended never to notice young girls. Aunt Ethel secretly watched and admired them. Her first glimpse of Doris proved to be somewhat of a shock. She had ex- pected to see a modern, bobbed-haired girl. “Why,” she thought, “should Madeline dress her daughter in such a fashion? She had had what she wished for in her younger days.” At once Ethel began secretly to make plans ; however, after graduation would be time enough to reveal them. At the graduation exercises Aunt Ethel was the subject of curiosity in

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THE HAMILTONIAN 5 THE SAPPHIRE MYSTERY large office of John Reginall had the atmosphere of excitement, as his employees grouped together and talked noisily and excitedly. Suddenly John Reginall, detective and expert on mysteries, walked quietly into his pri- vate office. The talking was hushed and the clerks were once more about their daily work. Reginall thoughtfully paced the floor. Certainly the thief that had done this last deed was crafty! Not only had he stolen the valuable sapphire without alarming any one, but he had not left the slightest trace, not even of flnger- prints. This made the discovery hardest of all. The same thief had robbed be- fore in the same way, and had gotten away with it, so now something must be done. It was late at night when he walked slowly home. Opening the door in his room, he thought he heard something creak. He laughed softly. How nerv- ous he was! Going to his desk, he telephoned to Blanchard, his trust- worthy helper. Twelve bells struck on the clock when Blanchard turned the key in the door and walked in. “Hello there,” he called to Reginall. Reginall jumped, then said hastily, “I must have dozed ; sit down.” Both men talked seriously. In what way could they track this thief? How could they go about it? When and where could they begin ? As these three questions revolved in their minds, suddenly they could hear the soft pit-pat of someone or something in the next room. Soon the two men saw something that paralyzed them with surprise. A huge black bear stood in the moonlight of the window. Clumsily the animal walked toward the desk! Reginall opened the drawer and fum- bled for his revolver, but found to his surprise that it was not there. By this time, the bear was standing on his hind legs. Blanchard picked up the paper file on the desk and threw it at the crea- ture. The bear staggered a moment then plunged forward and struck Blanchard savagely on the head. Im- mediately the latter fell back with a thump. The bear made a loud grum- bling noise, then made for Reginall. At once a sharp command stopped him. The bear dropped his front legs, and walking to the window disappeared. Reginall spoke to Blanchard who did not answer. Then a rap was heard on the door. “Open it Reginall,” said a voice, “I am detective Linehart of Scotland Yard.” When the door was opened Linehart walked to Blanchard, without even a look of astonishment on his face. Reginall looked on wonderjngly as he saw Linehart feel of the dead man’s pocket, and with a queer smile take from it a small bag. Upon open- ing it, the sapphire shone in all its blue radiance. The robber had been dis- covered under Reginall’s very eyes, and was no other than the man he had trusted most in all the world. — Emma Baldwin, ’24. “What is the suit worth?” “Fifty Dollars.” “All right; I’ll take it on account.” “On account of what?” “On account of my other being worn out .” — Rice Otvl.