Lansdowne High School - Lahian Yearbook (Lansdowne, PA)

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Leaving behind them their former companions, who search in vain for buried treasure, they silently steer their galleon out of the lagoon and glide over peaceful waters into the broad harbor of an island whose gleaming sands had been visible from a great distance and had beckoned them from afar. This island, which offers no resistance to the assumption of control is resplendent with gold and precious metals, and they think that at last they have found the treasure for which they have sought, but again the magi warn them that true wealth is to be found in life and not in material riches. Again they are tempted to remain in idle luxury in these glittering thoroughfares, where warm breezes sway the tropical palms, where the very food is provided as if by heaven, and where the magi begin to grant special privileges to those worthy of trust. This sacrifice is the third test of their Fortitude, and it is the most difficult of all, for there are many to whom the gates of wisdom are barred because they have not learned self-denial. Those who look beyond this enticing splendor of gold see a fertile land surrounded by beaches, and a goodly harbor protected from the sea by an L-shaped cove. And those who are wise know that this land, too, is meant to be a stepping-stone. They prepare to leave in their own ships, for they are Master Mariners, granted passports by the Harbor Pilots to go freely into the world, because they have overcome their tests of intestinal Fortitude. Some of them return to their native homes, and some few strain onward to another group of islands whose shadowy coastlines can be seen far away on the horizon when they are pointed out by the far-seeing eyes of the magi. There are those who remain in wastefulness upon the island, but they eventually perish, or battle their way alone through unfriendly seas. When a sailor once leaves the Lahian Isles, he can never see them more, for they elude the vision of those who have passed through these islands never long for them except in memory, for they have learned the Art of Living Well. ■ Thus ends one of the strangest chronicles of the sea. Although historians may discredit it and cynics scoff at it, the fact remains that some mysterious enchantment lurks over the Lahian Isles — an enchantment which is perhaps exercised by those wise rulers who guide the struggling children through the trials of apprenticeship, i is certain that they know, but they will not disclose their secret, and none beside them understand. The fishermen only know that when the heat of summer gradually is tempered into fall, that there suddenly swings over the horizon the vision of the LAHIAN ISLES. Scientists declare that it is a mirage caused by layers of hot air; and historians call it an interesting legend; indeed an English poet went so far as to write of the Lahian Lightship — The light that never was on land or sea. But the fishermen wisely shake their heads — they know, for have not they themselves sojourned on the islands? It is the magi. 16

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A nap Off The Sea Caaste An Territories of THE, LAHIATi ISLF.S JON'O CC WS JO IftUTtf 6C i I I »ll fOINU W«»» (mu ww«v) Iv cat.o •Si Cartograph compiled from survey data supplied by the entire staff of THE 1935 LAHIAN and executed in Pen-and-ink by Dick Ellenberger. Jane King, Nancy Perkins, and others. 15

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 gtHId port authority They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters.—THE BIBLE.