Harmony High School - The Ferguson Yearbook (Harmony, ME)

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and I buried him- They looked for tracks and the sheriff almost fainted when he could- n't find any but the ones made by himself, Bill, and the dead half- breed. Gerald Stadig '53 FALSE ALARM Today is February 2, 1951. We, the students of Harmony High School, thought we were about to have a day out of school. At 6:45 a great many of our radios were on in our homes. Johnny Rise and Shine gave a broadcast that all of the schools in Union 63 would be closed for the day on account of the ex- tremely slippery roads. All of those who heard this were very excited. Off came our school clothes and we jumped into our baggy dungarees and shirts with the hope that we would be able to hang around the house for the day and be able to do whatever we pleased. One certain individual left her breakfast dishes and now she will have the task of doing them when she returns home tonight. She usual- ly does them before she comes to school. Every time anyone walked into the schoolhouse someone would walk up to him and inform him that there wasn't any school. Those who had- n't heard the broadcast were Very much astonished. Of course, this called for an explanation. Well, at 8:30 the school day began. At the present moment no one has any idea who sent this information in to WABI. Anyway, the day began and when the attendance was taken there appeared to be seventeen stu- dents who were not in their seats. About 9:30 one of the faculty came trudging upstairs after deciding she would report to school- During re- cess other students could be seen traveling up the road with broken- hearted expressions to the school. One reason that encouraged us to come to school is the satisfaction of knowing that the school lunch pro- gram Will serve apple pie for dessert. Virginia Moran '51 THE LET-DOWN It was a nice sun-shiny day and the corridors were filled with excited voices because of the coming basket- ball game. The cheerleaders Were all prac- ticed up and with high spirits were waiting for the deciding game. The teams were all ready for a tough game but had high hopes for a vic- tory. It was a game deciding wheth- er we were to be third or fourth place in the league. All week long it had been the talk of the town. The people had great hopes for a victory and would al- most bet 6-1 that we would win the game-that is, if they were the bet- ting kind. There was a big write-up in the Bangor Daily News which foretold the score of the important game. Our pictures were in the paper with a write-up about each player and the team in general. Everything went off fine in the forenoon until about 11 o'clock and then came the let-down. We were to leave at one o'clock- in the after- noon because there was a long trip ahead of us. At twelve, the phones were buzzing and the words aston- ished everyone. There was this mes- sage, No game! The reason? It had rained and turned into ice. Iva Knight '52 EAST IS EAST AND WEST IS WEST It has been said that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. I need not enum- erate how many times this has been proven, but I should like to cite one example. The case of Percival Van Lester- Percival Thadius Van Les- ter to be exact. As Tex would put it,

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PHANTOM WOLF A group of prospectors were gath- ered around a campfire in central Alaska when off in the distance they heard the low wail of a timber wolf. That reminds me of an adventure that was told to me by my father when I was a boy, spoke up a griz- zled old prospector. It's supposed to be true, but you can believe it or not. Bill York came up here to Alaska just after the gold rush started and he, like most other men, went to work panning in the streams. He found gold the first day but he didn't get enough to amount to any- thing. He had been in Alaska for about a year when one day he came upon a young timber wolf with a broken leg. He picked it up carefully and put it under blankets on his dog sled and went immediately to his cabin where he set the wolf's leg and made him comfortable. As the weeks passed, King, the wolf, regained his strength and the leg grew strong. Finally one day Bill took King to the door and set him free. The wolf, now nearly full grown, loped swiftly into the nearby forest and disappeared. That night, as Bill was getting ready to go to bed, he heard sc1'atch- ing and a low whine at the door, which he opened. King was trying to get in. Bill was glad that King had come back because he wanted a big dog as a companion to go with about a thousand dollars in gold dust and nuggets that he had found in some nearby streams during the summer. He left King to guard his cabin against prowlers who might try to break in. Bill had been traveling for about three hours when, as he rounded a sharp bend in the trail, he saw his way was blocked by an armed ban- dit. Hold up there or get a slug between the eyes, shouted the stranger and Bill quickly brought his team to a stop. All right, Where's the gold? growled the bandit. What gold ? returned Bill with a puzzled expression on his face. 1 ll give you five seconus to tell me wnere it is and if you dont lm going to shoot you right between the eyes so that you can watch the bul- let coming, spoke the bandit harsh- .y. At that moment a grey form shot from the woods and leaped at the bandit. It was King! I-le had fol- lowed his master beside the trail and now saved his life. Une uay as he was passing a waterfall, he noticed a shelf under the falls. Jumping onto the shelf, Bill discovered, much to his sur- prise, a narrow cave leading back under the river. On both walls was a vein of gold about six inches thick and leading as far back as he could see into the daik interior of the cave. Bill started mining the gold im- mediately and when he took a load into town many people tried to find out where his secret mine was but no one was successful, not even two ambushers who had attacked him on thle trail home, for King was on the Jo . Bill didn't make another trip to town for about six months and when he did go, his trip was. uneventful but unknown to him, on his return trip, he was followed by a half-breed who wanted very much to find Bill's secret mine. Bill took one load of supplies into his cave and as he came out for ano- ther, a shot rang out up on the ridge. Running up to where he heard the shot, Bill saw the sheriff leaning over the body of a dead man. As Bill approached, the sheriff spoke, Looks like King has saved your life again Bill, I saw him tackle this man when he was getting ready to shoot you. What ? Bill almost shouted, King died about four months ago

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What a dang fool name. Now Tex was a wiry, taciturn in- dividual who thought that a ranch was a place to raise cows, not fanci- fied dudes. But since his employer was Percival's uncle and since the old man said Percival was coming for an indefinite visit, Tex expected that was just what would happen. He didn't expect, however, that Perci- val would be his chargeg that came as a blow. This wasn't going to work. Tex knew that when he met Percival at the station. He could see that in the dude's quick, nervous movements, in his affected manner. This opinion was intensified still more the next morning after breakfast. Tex was trying to teach Percival to ride, and the dude went consistf ently to the right side in spite of Tex's reiterated objections. When Percival asked if it wasn't the same distance up either side, Tex groaned aloud. But he was persistent, Tex was. He made Percival keep trygig. Yes, he was persistent and patient, but only human, so when the dude finally got up on one side of the horse and fell olf the other, Tex gave up in disgust. Go ahead and look the place over, he offered, but don't get lost! As the dude disappeared around one corner of the barn, Tex muttered, Great! Great! This is great! And things continued to be great In less than ten minutes Percival was back excitedly waving a string of rattle-snake rattles big enough to choke a cow. Tex blanch- ed and his lower jaw dropped' Where - - - Where did you get those '? he whispered hoarsely. Off the biggest worm I ever saw! was his answer. t'Tell me. did - - did it bite you? Tex gasped. No, Perciva.l replied nonchalent- ly, but the malevolent little beastie certainly tried. As Tex confided to his employer later, It was kinda unnerv1n'. After that Tex kept an eye on the dude as though Percival wasn't right in his head. The grand climax came, however, when Tex sent him out to milk a cow. Coming into the barn a few minutes later Tex found the dude sitting on a stool regarding the cow with a perplexed expression. Say, he inquired of the Texan, How do you work this thing? Tex gave him a brief demonstration and then left. Just as he cleared the door, Percival came flying out and caught Tex amidships, bearing them both to the ground. As he strug- gled to his feet, he looked back at the barn and quavered, I don't think that animal likes me. This was the last straw. The straw that broke the Texan's back, so to speak. Out of sight of the dude Tex took from his pocket a telegram. It was a cherished souvenir of his trip to Dallas. It read: Dear Tex, Please come home- Your employer. Much as he valued it he would have to sacrifice it, he figured. Sit- ting down on a log he produced a pencil. With this he changed the heading of the telegram to read Dear Percival and the signature to read Your mother. Then saunt- ering around the corner he drawled, t'Hey, Perce, telegram for you. And that was why the next day- but let's quote Tex. East is East and West is West and I never was so glad to see a twain in my life as the one that took back that durn dude. Luella Gardner '53 THE MOST UNFORGETABLE CHARACTER I KNOW Just four short sweet years ago I met the most wonderful person I have ever known. She lives in a small town located about sixteen miles