Higgins Classical Institute - Scroll Yearbook (Charleston, ME)

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H. C. I.SCROLL 31 Arabella and, let me tell you, it did not take her long to come to me. Our ,joy was incon- ceivable. I don't think I could ever bear to be away from her again. She had to go home in a shcrt time but she pro-mised to ccme back in the morning. I certainly do h:pe Mrs. Grand will leave me alone. I'm saving her extra change for an engagement ring. Bet you can't guess who it is! Friday: My, how this week has flown! Arabella was here this morning. She had on a lovely pink dimity dress. She is very beautiful. We pledged our tro-th. It's going to be very s-con. I guess Mrs. Grand is going to leave me here. Dear me, I hope so! Arabella Bill. W:n't that be wonderful? Saturday: I can hardly hold my pen to write this last epistle. I have aged a hundred years these past few hours. I hardly think I can put it in words, Dear, Diary, but I will try. Arabella, my own dear Arabella, was mur- dered this morning. Mrs. Grand saw her coming to see me and, right before my eyes, she killed her. I want future generations to know that once ,I lived and loved. N-sfw, all is ended. I am going to commit suicide. I am going to my true love. Please do not think me a coward, Dear Diary, and please do not be too unhappy. Good-by, fc-rever and ever. Lovingly, Dollar Bill Joyce Baker '46 NOT A FANTASY In the year nineteen hundred and forty- four A. D. in the month of May, one of the most startling of Nature's phenomen-ons occurred. This is a first-hand description as I saw it. While walking down Main Street in Ban- gor, I was pleased to see a very dear friend whom I had not seen in several years. I stopped her and greeted her cordially. I no- ticed that she seemed rather quiet, but as I had a great deal to talk about I attributed her silence to my offensiveness. We crossed the street, entered the Atlantic Restaurant and ordered lunch. As I continued to talk, I noticed more and more my compa.nion's si- lence. I began to wonder if she really was the person I believed her to be. I asked her if she had heard from a mutual friend lately. She replied, No, in a listless way. I asked her how her husband and children were and she looked at me oddly, replying that she didn't exactly know. I jumped in alarm and surprise. What had happened? Was I dreaming or was she suddenly men- tally deficient? Finally we separated and silently I promised myself to make discreet inquiries from her relatives, but I never did. V I continued on my way for I only had a few hours to finish my shopping before the bus left which was to take me back to Charleston. I went into F'reese's to buy a. scarf and inquired of the salesgirl for a particular type that I wanted. She was ex- tremely vague and rather helpless. I became angry at her and stormed away without making my purchase at all. This scene 'occurred several times in F'reese's. It cm- tinued in all the stores of Bangor. The peo- ple seemed rather vague and sleepy. In fact the Bangor populace became a sleepy mob of people aimlessly walking up and down streets, in and out doors and up and down aisles with no purpose at all. Automobiles, busses and street cars moved slowly and sometimes stopped completely where they were. Newsboys barely whispered the glar- ing headlines of their papers. A tremendous inertia had the city in its awful grasp. I became frightened and ran fearfully this way and that, not knowing what to expect next. There was no one to turn to in my di- lemma. You can imagine my terror and horrified unbelief when I began to- see people lying down where they had a moment before been standing, and falling into a deep drugged sleep. Cars went out of control, smashing into each other. Gradually all sound ceased and a dreadful, oppressive stillness settled over the now sleeping city of Bangor. I was panic stricken. I thought I would lose my mind. I began to scream, but my screams only echoed and reechoed in the still city. I began to run and continued until, breath- less, I arrived safelv here in Charleston, Where all was normal and as usual. No one believed my story and they still don'tg but I am passing it on to you. prove'it, lI can offer the fact that there were no morning papers the next day. Even the presses had been still all the night before. The only clue to my mystery is a clipping from the evening papers disclosing the discovery of an impurity in the city water. Fantastic! Unbelievable! You may think so, but to my dying day I shall never enter Bangor without remembering and reliving the horrible scenes I saw that day in May in the year nineteen hundred and forty- four. 'IWC' M. Baker '45 SOCIETY LADIES CAN It is a busy rendezvous with the tumult -of a number of garrulous women and the clang of tin cans. Then out of the hurly-burly we can dis- tinguish: Where is the candy thermometer? Who took my cup? When can these brownies

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30 H. C. I.SCROLL object came hustling toward her. She be- came paralyzed with fear, as it swerved and barely missed her, or, so it seemed to Liz- zie's inexperienced eyes. fOf course, we know it was an automobile, but Lizzie had never seen one before..J Gradually she regained her normal pla- cidity and somewhat subdued bu-t still de- termined she mzved on. She was contentedly observing the portion of the universe visible to her slightly near-sighted eyes when a chugging sound attracted her attention. It grew louder and louder until it was right over her head. She looked up timidly and saw, to her astonishment and fright, a huge silver bird hovering overhead. She had seen birds similar to this one before, but never cne so near or so noisy. COf course, we know it was an airplane and probably this pilot was practicing low-flying or uhedgehoppingub. Lizzie had never been so bewildered and dumbfounded, and thor- oughly frightened in her life. She turned quickly and ran for home as fast as her four legs could carry her, determined to stay the rest of her life in her own small pasture, peacefully chewing her cud. Limie, the cow, had taken her first and last, jolur- ney into the modern, civilized world. ' M. Baker '45 MY PET AVERSIONU The thing that I dislike the most in life is gossip. A person who go-ssips is an idle tat- ler and news-monger. He delights in spreading personal tales and groundless ru- mors. He acts as a familiar friend to every- one but in actuality is one of the most de- structive enemies a, person could have. In every small town there are gossips who make it their business to know and broad- cast that of others. As a rule they are pess- imists and never want to see the bright side -:lf life or see the good. in people. A gossip seldom says anything good about anybody. If he does, it is not because he really wants to, but because he is afraid -of revealing his own true nature to the person with whom he happens to be conversing. He goes about prying into the affairs of -others, gathering small bits of this and that, weaving it into an unpleasant story, and then begins spreading it like wild-fire. Often if, is done because of jealousy, but in many cases it is done without the least provocation. One who gossips only lowers and ruins his own character instead of the -clne's whom he ridi- cules. He will put himself out to be excep- tionally nice to your face but when your back is turned he will stab you in the back. The invention of the telephone is a great disadvantage to a community as far as gos- sip is concerned. If you are on a party line, it is always in use when you want it and when the gossips finally do run down and you have the line to yourself, you have to be careful what you say because there are always interested people listening in. Women have the reputation of being the ones who do all the gossiping, but not en- tirely. For example, if there are any seats in a country store, they are usually -occupied by men. Although they won't admit it men like to talk nearly as well as do Women and they do not always talk about their Work or hunting and fishing experiences. Gossips in a town can cause a great deal of unfriend- liness and unhappiness and can do much to prevent the devel:-pment of a thriving and pleasant community in which to live. God gave man one tongue And twice as many ears In order to repeat But half of what he hears. Marie Scott '45 DAIRY OF DOLLAR BILL Sunday: Today I went to church with Mrs. Grand. She hid me in the bottom of her purse so that when the osllection plate was passed, she would not be able to find me. Then she could put a nickel in with a clean con- science. I was very much disappointed be- caluse Mrs. Grand does not allow me to see much of the world. I guess she likes me pretty Well. Monday: This morning she lost me behind her desk. My, it was dusty! I thought I would sneeze George Washington right off my face! There was a cute little spider down there, dear Diary. Her name is Arabella Spider. She and I are going to correspond. Tuesday: Mrs. Grand found me this morning. It nearly broke my heart to have to leave Arabella. Her last words to me were, Dear Dollar, I will spin a web to you and bring you back. Our love cannot end like this. Gracious, she sure is sweet! By the way, Mrs. Grand seemed glad to see me. Dear me, I do charm the women don't I? Wednesday: This afternoon I went to a bridge party. Golly, how those Women could talk? I could feel George Washington blushing. I was very much injured, though, when Mrs. Grand crammed two pieces of cake and a couple of sandwiches in on top of me. Some- times she is so very rude. Dear Diary, my heart longs for Arabella. I do hope I will see her soon. Thursday: Today she left me on her desk! My heart was thumping and bumping so, that I was afraid she might notice it and m-ovve me. She did not, however. I sent a message to

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32 H.Cl.I.SCROLL go into the cven? Do you think this cake is done yet? Finally after each one finds her require- ments, the subject of conversati-:fn drifts. It seems that one of our good women has recently undergone an operation. She thcught she would die. They placed her on a stretcher, then put a sheet over her. They wheeled her into the ward where all the patients were bewailing audibly and she thought she would die. Then onto the ele- vator and before she knew it, she was right in the operating room. A curtain was pulled and there she was, all alone with that Saw- bonesf' He tied her feet and arms to the stretcher and she thought she would die. Then he gave her ether and she couldn't remember what happned after that, except seeing him take out a lang knife like instru- ment. She thought she would die. From the expressions -cn her listeners' faces, I think they would have been glad if she had. Dur- ing this dying time, Mrs. Jones forgot she had candy on the stove and Mrs. Brown's nose began to pucker up: Smf, smi, smf. I smell something scorching. Scon the hilarity of the students is heard and one of the wcmen rushes to close the door for one might forget his position as a sophisticated student and ask to clean out the dish. Our good Mrs. Widdle Diddle, having fm- i.shed her canning for the evening, thinks she must be going, as she has a wh-ole ho-useful of company coming: her daughter Celicia andl her son-in-law, Alden, and all their charming little children. Her grand- mother is with her now and, she is a handful, she watches me at everything I do, you know how it ls, Dora? Well, ladies as I said before, I must be trotting along. Five o'clock comes early at my house. She grabs her pocketbook and trips out. These are -only two of the conversations carried on and the others are similar, but nevertheless they have their canning com- pleted for the evening. M. Rozelle '45 DAIRY OF A GREMLIN Monday: I started the week off well by making a nice big run in one of Betty's only pair of stockings. Wasn't she mad! What she said was terrible! It even made me blush. Tuesday: Today I let the air out of Jimmie's bicycle tires. As he was hurrying because he had overslept, I made him late to school. Conse- quently, Jimmie had to stay an hour after sch-:ol so he missed baseball. He was even madder than Betty. You know how boys love baseball. I do. Wednesday: I took it easy all day. into a fountain pen so went to write I made a All I did was get when Mrs. Green splatteration all over her light blue dress. It now has black polka. dots on it. Thursday? ll got up this morning spiratic-n. Thought I'd like to see a nice crash! So I took out the coupling in a train. When the train went up the hill, the last car rolled off the track and over the bridge. I heard that quite a few people were killed but I didn't stick around to find it out. Friday: Here it is Friday, the last day of school for awhile. I got it into my head that thc-se kids weren't doing enough Work. It was a wonderful day for baseball so I just got the teachers mad and they pounced a test on those students and everyone flunked it. Saturday: Let me tell you what I did today. Mary's boy friend called at seven so I tipped Junior off. Well it cost Jim a, quarter before he got Mary alone. Sunday: Today I decided to be good, seeing it was Sunday so off to the church I trotted, but when I saw all those openings I just couldn't be good any longer. To begin with, that alto was altogether too good so I dis- corded her. When the usher passed the plate, by some known means he dropped it and all those pennies rolled right down front. The sermon was getting pretty dry when I saw my friend Mr. Mouse and asked him to do me a favor. He :an up the ministers pant leg and the minister got so excited he yelled Amen which brought the .sermon to a close. D'on't you think I'm awful? M. Knowlton '47 THE WANDERER One more little angle worm has been brought into the world. For an angle worm, the life of little Henry, as we shall call him, was very interesting. Henry lived in a village with his parents, his brothers and sisters, and several other families of worms. The first Dart o-f his life he spent in child- ish glee with his playmates, wriggling their way through the ground trying to see who could make the biggest tunnel, the little worms had their fun. Hide and seek was an- other of their interests. The first rain storm Henry learned a, les- son he never forgot. Water poured down the streets in torrents. Everyone was swimming to get to the top of the ground. This was the first catastrophe of his young life. Hen- ry was one of the lucky ones. His escape was due to his mother's sad fate but it taught him the way to save himself from drowning. As Henry grew older, his curlosity made with a bright in-