Hardwick Academy - Hardwickian Yearbook (Hardwick, VT)

Page 40 text:

To lx loss quick to criticize More ready to forgive. To use such talents as we have That happiness may grow To take the hitter with the sweet. Assured ’tis better so To lx quite free from self intent What e’er the task we do. To help the world’s faith stronger grow In all that’s good and true, To keep our faith in God and right No matter how things run; To work and play and pray and trust Until the journey’s done. God grant to us the strength of heart, Of motive and of will To do our part and falter not His purpose to fulfill.” Before we leave we wish to thank our parents, our teachers and our church for striving all these years to give us a firm cornerstone upon which we may build usefulness, security, happiness and peace. Elaine Ferland CLASS POEM This friendly old school we are leaving And in later years all will lx grieving. We’re leaving our friends, young and old And leaving our colors, the purple and gold. Twelve years we’ve walked with heads uplifted, Thinking of our future plans Though there are some that arc more gifted They all will walk with the common man. Now as we take these last few strides On the path we have known so well We think of the ones who stood by our sides To make sure that we never fell. Maeanna Smith Alan Squire.

Page 39 text:

VALEDICTORY ADDRESS Parents, Teachers, and Friends: To-night we graduate! Graduate from twelve short years of studying, working, playing, searching for an education that will enable us to accomplish some good; with strength to battle difficulties and overcome them, grace to confess our sins and forsake them, patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished, charity to see some good in our neighbor, faith enough to make real the things of God, hope enough to remove all anxious fear concerning the future. “To each is given a bag of tools, A shapeless mass, a book of rules, And each must make, ere life is flown A stumbling block or a stepping stone. And what do we have in this bag of tools? First and of greatest importance is faith. History is but a record of the triumph of faith and human hope, an even continuing story of the eventual triumph of good over evil. We go out into a tough world filled with crises and forbodings, war and persecution. History again shows us that it has always been so, but Love, Brotherhood, and Freedom under God, can and have been beheaded, stoned, burned and crucified. There have Ijccn slavery, ignorance, and intolerance. Faith has held on, building hospitals, asylums, schools, abolishing slavery, giving men and women more dignity and human rights, giving refuge to the persecuted. Every age has had its Caesars, and its Pilatcs. We have the ruthless rulers of the Soviet I’nion. But the freedom fighters of Hungary have shown us that truth and faith cannot be completely trodden into the earth. They have given hope and courage to all the world. A noted preacher when asked why Daniel was not devoured by the lions replied. “Because most of him was backbone and the rest was grit. So alongside our lamp of faith may we find grit and back-gone to give us courage and strength to encounter what may come, to make us brave in peril, temperate in wrath, and in all changes of fortune give us loyalty and a quiet mind. As we read of atom bomb explosions, it will help us to see the flowers blooming all around, hear the birds singing, watch a robin building her nest, hear a neighbor whistling cheerily in his garden, seea batch of newborn kittens. The bomb is made by man; evidences of spring are heaven born. We will not be afraid. The‘shapeless mass’, I think, is happiness. And happiness, the joy of living, consists of‘giving and doing for somebody else’ on this, ‘all life’s splendor depends’. It is easily done, a gift of clothing or food to the persons who need it. a kind word to the sorrowful, an expression of encouragement to the striving. trifles in themselves, but they will do much good in 24 hours. We may rest assured it will come back to us, so let’s look at the result. If we send one person-only one-happily thru each day, that would be thousands in the course of a year. Our main purpose in life, I think, is “To be a little kindlier With the passing of each day To leave but happy memories As we go along our way. To use possessions that are ours In service full and free. To sacrifice the trivial things For large good to be: To give of love in lavish way That friendship true may live:

Page 41 text:

37