Mechanic Falls High School - Pilot Yearbook (Mechanic Falls, ME)

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M. F. H. S. PILOT 21 the farm and was making a comfortable living for his family at the time of my story. Richard, her brother, was twenty and worked in the mills also. Silvia was especially fond of her brother. Silvia loved VVild Acre Farm with all her heart, much more indeed than the rest of the family did. Now as the Whip-poor-will began to sing his beau- tiful song which he sang every evening, Silvia burst into tears. She murmured softly, half to herself, half to the little bird: Why did it happen? Chl Why did Dad do it? That day at about ten o'clock a shin- ing new automobile had turned in at the driveway and swung up between the curves of the wonderful Wild Acre lawns. A gentleman had descended from the car and inquired for Mr. Daniel Morgan. He had said, remov- ing his hat, Please tell him that Franklin Johnston would like to see him a few moments. Silvia, for it was she who opened the door, had gone for her dad after invit- ing the young man to be seated. Her father had given a violent start at the name and-that had been the cause of all Silvia's tears this evening. - After Mr. Morgan and his guest had been in the library a few moments the farmer had come to the door and asked Silvia to come in. . Silvia could recall clearly as she listened to the sweet voice of the Whip- poor-will how slowly and sadly he had said, Silvia, this is your cousin, Frank- lin Johnston. I have never told before but when you were born your Uncle David Johnston gave me enough money to live on for two years. I was very poor then and I thought that one child was enough for his conditions were that he must have the first baby girl as his own child after she was fifteen. W I promised, Sylvia, and you-must-go . So tonight was the last time she would ever sit and listen to the little brown bird trilling his sweet song. Tonight was the last time she would sleep in Wild Acre Farm. Her clothes were all packed and early in the morn- ing she must leave for the city of Cambridge, -Massachusetts with the young cousin whom she now detested. The next morning Silvia said good- bye to everything she loved and rode off in the shining automobile to an uncle she never had seen. In Cambridge an old man of sixty- five, a very grouchy fif we may say such a thingj old fellow, sat eating his breakfast and muttering, Confound the boy! Why doesn't he hurry? I'll bet he'll loiter along and take all the time he can to get here from Sangeville with the girl . He passed a very un- easy day and night. He was on the verge of hiring a car and going to meet them when an automobile drove up and he saw a lithe, slender girl of fifteen, a very pretty girl with her brown wavy hair, pink cheeks and bright eyes, step from the car and come toward the door. He rushed to the door and picked her up in his arms before she hardly could get her foot inside the hallway. So , said he looking at her intently, So, you're Silvia Morgan, you deserve the name, girl, you're that pretty . He rang for a servant who escorted her to the rooms assigned her. Every-

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20 M. F. H. Walsh in the game? Believe me, if I were his father I would be the proud- est man on this side of the Pyrenees . Who says that Iim not proud of him ? demanded Walsh. So you're the guy, who won't let him play. If I were you I'd hide my head under my wing , retorted the other. I'll show you , muttered Walsh, and he hobbled down to where his son was sitting on the front row of the grandstand with his head buried in his hands. Go in and show that clam up there that you can play as you never played before , commanded Walsh. Do you mean it? May I play? Oh Dad! Ted's face lighted with smiles and he jumped to his feet. He fairly flew over the ground until he reached the gym. In less time than it takes to tell he was back on the Held, dressed in his football uniform. A mighty cheer went up as those who recognized him saw Ted go to the coach and whisper to him. The referee's whistle blew for the third quarter. When the team went onto the lield again, Ted was with them. Did he play? As a wild-eyed fan expressed it, The boy fairly ate up the yards . In five minutes the score was tied, fourteen to fourteen. For the next nine or ten minutes the ball zigzagged across the field. With one minute to play, the ball was in Yale's possession. Go it! Harvard! Do it shouted the half-crazy fans. The Yale center tossed the ball at S. PILOT one of his team-mates but luckily for Harvard he missed it. Straight into Ted's hands it flew. Ted started. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty , the people shouted. A touchdown! A hundred yard run ! shouted the wild fans, as Ted ran between the white posts. The crowd surged on the field and lifted Ted to their shoulders. reached the grandstand, father arguing with the When Ted he found his man who had sat behind him during the game. Well, he you're sorry ! shouted Walsh. is now , he explained, did it! Now I guess Here he when he saw Ted standing behind him. If it hadn't been for me you wouldn't have won the game . Never mind about that father. I'm only interested in the fact that you are once more a lover of football . Iola Chase, '33 THE SONG OF THE WHIP-POOR-WILL Softly down the mountain side came the cry of a Whip-poor-will. Silvia Morgan, sitting at her window in the darkness, was listening to his cryg as she had done every evening since she was seven and now she was Fifteen. The Morgan family consisted of Mr. Morgan, his wife and their children, Richard and Silvia. They lived at Wild Acre Farm in Sangeville, Maine near a small mountain called the Whip- poor-will, named for the small brown bird who inhabited it. Mr. Morgan worked in the lumber mill at Klamath Falls a short distance from Wild Acre Farm. He had bought

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22 M. F. H. thing about the house was beautiful and well kept. David Johnston had seen to it that everything any girl could ask for or want was supplied. He knew that Silvia would be homesick but thought that she would soon forget her old home. In his way of thinking girls of fifteen forgot easily, but he thought wrongly. Every evening Silvia would think of the Whip-poor-will who always sang and of Wild Acre Farm lying calmly under the sky. Two months of Silvia's life went by so quickly that she nearly gasped at thinking of them for her uncle had dropped her into a gay social life. At first it seemed wonderful but gradually she was becoming tired although she herself did not know it. Two weeks later a telegram came to her saying that Dick, her beloved Dick, was gone. Lost! Nobody knew where. He had started off to hunt on the mountain behind the farm. The woods were thick upon the mountain and they supposed he was there. This news coming to Silvia with her nerves at such high tension completely un- nerved her. For a month she was very ill but a' last she gained her strength. One day she told her uncle that she was going to return to Wild Acre Farm and help in the search for her brother who had not yet been found. Her uncle was very angry and told her that if she re- turned her father must pay him every cent he had loaned him. After his tirade, Silvia regardless of consequences and aided by her cousin, Franklin, managed to reach home. Her father and mother were glad to see S. PILOT her for they were sorry that they had let her go. Nearly as quickly as she reached home Silvia set about making arrange- ments for a thorough search after Dick. She would dearly have loved to listen to the song of the Whip-poor-will but she was far too busy. The mountain was searched through and through, but still no Dick. They had nearly given up in despair when one day just four months from the time she had gone to her uncle's there was a knock upon the door. Mrs. Morgan answered and then as she opened the door she screamed! Silvia rushed to her mother as she thought possibly it was a tramp. When she reached the door she gasped, for there with an old suit on, looking just as she had last seen him was-Dick. After he had been welcomed in every way possible he told them what had happened. He had gone over the mountain and down to a station on the other side. He had taken a train to Portland where he had gone with the idea of earning enough money to buy Silvia from the uncle. He had worked in a machine shop and had been so handy that they had given him re- markable high wages. He had just about enough to pay half the money his father had borrowed of his uncle but in another four months believed he could clear the debt. Four months later Silvia Morgan was sitting again at the wondow in the darkness listening to the sweet, soft wail of the Whip-poor-will. Today the last of the debt was paid and the family was once more united. As Silvia went to sleep that night she thought of her