Medina High School - Mirror Yearbook (Medina, NY)

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18 THE MIRROR It shook the windows, rattled the doors, and whistled in the tree tops. I remember hearing the approach of those gruff voices, but no more. Then a strange feeling crept over my body. I seemed to be sinking-into I knew not what. But unwilling to show the white feather, I decided to look my tormentors in the face once again. Thought was action, I looked. There stood brother Ted bending over me with a glass' in his hand, the contents of which were all over me. Wliat was he saying? After he had repeated it three times it sounded some- thing like this- Hey, Sis, didnlt you get my letter? I say, what 's the matter with you? Sit up and let me present you to- At this point his three companions came in saying: Aw, come on Ted, don 't you know we 'bout scart, the wits out of the poor little thing? Get around here and do the introducing stunt. You nearly drowned her with all that water. After I had been duly presented to the boys amid much laughter, Ted who could never resist teasing anyone, if he- had the opportunity, got down on his knees in an attitude of pro- found humility. As sob-er as a Sphinx he delivered the fol- lowing speech: Really, Sis, we just wanted to have some fun. VVe don't have any school this week, so I brought' the guys home with me. Aw, forget about it and make us some fudge. I obeyed his command with the meekness of a lamb, after deciding that I could get even with those boys with doped fudge more easily than any other way. But that is another story! L Q

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TIIE MIRROR 17 TED'S SURPRISE Esrrnan J. BoYD M OTHER and father were away. They had been gone three days and this was the fourth. The first two days Mary Jane, my cousin, l1ad stayed with me, but l1er mother was taken ill, so she had to go home. That left me alone in a l1uge rambling farm house, a mile and a half from anyone with Jack and Jill, a dog and a cat respectively. It was the last day of November and it seemed to spell mys- tery. It was not crisply clear with frosty blue sky and bracing air as a well regulated day should be. Neither was it framed in a swirling snow storm. The day opened with a slow sulky rain that looked as if it had come to stay, and the air was full of little jabbing slivers of east wind. My spirits were about as cheerful as the November day with its grey sky and soggy at- mosphere. After dinner I attempted to read, but my mind strayed from the story so that I had to give it up. As time advanced a veil a.lmost as thick as the grey mist circling tl1e river hills seemed to wind itself about me. At last tl1e tearful day wept itself into a wet twilight, muffled in mist. I was huddled lonesomely be- side the library fire, listening to the cold drip-drip from the roof-edge. The floors creaked and snapped as if someone were Walking, walking to his own death, now upstairs, then in the kitchen, now beside me and then back upstairs. First, they were soft and fearful, then louder and braver, until by seven o'clock discontent and nothing to do had nagged me into a regu- lar fit of nerves. VVhen a half hour later steps rang upon the porch, and the side door resounded with a knock, my heart went flip-flop, and I resounded to that knock with a shivery feeling in my elbows. Wlien I opened the door, in filed four masked figures which be- cause of my nerves seemed like giants. They asked me where the silver was, and when I told them I didn't know, they seized and bound me. After they were sure that I could not escape, they left me with the cheerful promise that they would attend to me later. Again, that everlasting walking, now near, now fa.r away, first soft and then heavy. Then, to make it all the more pleasant the wind started to blow.

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THE MIRROR 19 GNIHTON-A MYSTERY CHARLES PARISH THE box itself was about eighteen inches long, six inches in width and about the same in depth. Un the outside was this inscription: In this box you will find gnihton. Nothing might have come of the affair if Sy1vester's wife had not just finished a story in which there was a similar box, which was filled with jewels. Even then the affair might have been forgot- ten only that while Mrs. Sylvester was looking at the rest of the goods she came across some old documents. Among these was a diary of the man who had owned the box, and in the diary the box was mentioned. The history was as follows: Ebenezer Jones, a descendant of the Mayflower stock, had been left the box by his grandfather who had been a cab-in boy on tl1e Mayflower. The cabin boy had stolen the box from the Captain of the ship on which he had worked before. The Captain had taken the box from a pirate who had found the box in the hold of a ship which had been lifted by a submarine earthquake from the profound depths of the sea. The pirate had told the Captain that the box had been built by the Norsemen and that it contained a refuersable substance called gnihton, which is very similar to that which you have left when you accidentally drop your last dime through the grat- ing in a sidewalk. At this point Mrs. Sylvester stopped reading. Oh George I she exclaimed, We must open the box immediately. I am dying of curiosity to see what is in that box. What do you sup- pose gnihton means? Mr. Sylvester went out in the woodshed, got an ax, a crow bar and saw, and a pair of fingernail clippers. After working steadily for several hours the cover of tl1e box was loosened. Then Sylvester placed the finger nail clippers in the space be- tween the cover and the box and began to tap gently and easily. Bang! Bang! the cover flew off with a loud noise and Syl- vester leaped forward to see what was in the box, but Mrs. Sylvester beat him to it and held the cover reversed before his eyes. Then spoke that lady with a sarcastic smile, Maybe you will listen to me once in a while. Echo-In a man's head there is gnihton.