Medora High School - Medorian Yearbook (Medora, IN)

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said Betty frankly. Please where do you belong? I feel as if I didn't belong any where yet, I put in my Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior years here three years ago. I've been ln Europe ever since. Now I've come back to finish my art course. This is my Senior year, too, said Betty. So we are classmates as well as col- lege mates, said Jack. When the clouds parted and a burst ot pale November sunshine fell athwart the harbour and the pines, Betty and her companion walked home together. By the ,time she reached home he had asked permission to call, and had receiv- ed it. As time went on Jack called many times, and Betty seemed to be well pleased.- One day while she and Priscilla were sitting before the fire, Priscilla announ- ced quite suddenly, By the way, did you know that Gilbert Jackson is going about with Christine Stuart? ' Betty was trying-to fasten a little gold chain about her throat. She sud- denly found the clasp difficult to man- age. What was the matter with it, or with her fingers? No, she said, carelessly, knowing Christine to be a very pretty lltt'e creature. It was at the close of school that Bet- ty and Jack were sitting in the little pavilion on the harbor shore where they had talked on the rainy day of their first meeting. There Jack asked Betty to marry him, Betty felt that she ought to be thrilled from head to foot. But she was not, she was horribly cool. When Jack paused for his answer, she opened her lips 'to say her fateful yes. And then she found herself tremb- ling as if she were reeling back from a preclpice. She pulled her hand from Jackfs. Oh, I can't marry you-I can't-I can't! she cried wildly. Jack turned pale: What do you mean? he stammered. I mean that I can't marry you, re- peated Betty desperately. I thought I could--but I can t. Why can't you? asked Jack more calmly. Because, I don't care enough for you. So you've just been amusing your- self thls last year? he said slowly. No, no, I haven't, gasped poor Bet- ty, I did think I cared-truly I did- but I know now I don't. You have ruined by life, said Jack bitterly. Forgive me, pleaded Betty miser- ably, with hot cheeks and stinging eyes. You can give me no hope? he said. Betty shook her head mutely. Then-good-bye, said Jack, and he was gone. School was over and Betty with her A. B. degree returned to the cabin. She then went to visit her aunt and when she returned a month later, the first thing she heard was that Gilbert had tvphold fever and was not expected to live. Would sorrow never cease, thought Betty. She walked blindly across the kitchen through the door and out to the hammock which was between two great pines. She sat with clenched hands staring unseeingly across the valley. The sun was just sinking below a dis- tant mountaing the day was dying and Gilbert was dying with it, She knew now that she loved him-had always loved him. And the knowledge had come too late--too late even for the bit- ter solace of being with him at the last. At the peep of dawn Betty could stand it no longer. She slipped from the cabin and started down to the stream. When she reached the violet patch, she stopped and looked down at them: they were so pretty, she sat down in the middle of the patch and then the thought of 'Gilbert came again to he and of when Gilbert four years ago had come there to talk to her. Her eyes fill- ed with tears and her shoulders tremb- led with sobs she could not control. Presently she lifted her eyes and-she saw Gllbert's boots not far from her: was it a dream, she was afraid to lift her eyes, afraid they would vanish. Betty, came a clear voice. She looked up and there stood Gilbert pale and weak. Betty got to her feet, she knew not how. Oh Gilbert, she said, I thought you were dying-dead. They told me -There she broke down and could say H0 IIIOFB. You misunderstood them, Betty, said Gilbert, I guess I did almost die. but I fooled them and lived for spite. Betty looked up and laughed. I'm glad you did, Gilbert. Gilbert took her in his arms anfl whispered softly, Betty, I love you-1 want you. Betty could not speak But she lif-ted her eyes, shining with all the love-rap- ture of countless generations and look- ed into his face for a moment. He wan'- ed no other answer. -M. S.

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Out In the World I-Iowdy, Schoolmate, how you comin Since you're in this world of strife? What you thinkin', what you doin' What you gettin' out o' life? Do you find the path as easy As the one you trod at school? No, I dare say, you'll acknowledge That you weren't such a fool. Do you member those old schooldays, When some days you'd feel so blue, When your lessons you had not learned But you managed to get through? If you'll only stop and study You will see what gain you've made, But I want to ask a question Where was the foundation laid? Now the question I will answer And I know you'll not deny, Way back yonder in our schooldays- And the thoughts they make me sigh. How I yearn and how I long for Just one day to spend again, Like the ones we slien-t so long fore, You and I were grown up men. D. Mc