Milton Academy - Yearbook (Milton, MA)

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kers- One can't allow the poor dears to over-exert themselves, you know. So the poor dears, after much barking, stamping and chair- throwing in way of protestation, were hustled out of an oven-hot room into the cold out-doors and cars which would take them to places Where bigger and better night-life could be obtained. Gee! well that's that, and you can make fun of the Milton Sociables, but at least they're not as bad as that! - Or are they? Carla. Park '38 XF., 'Eff SONNET How many long and lonely hours I lie, Hearing the wind go Whistling round the place On huge, black wings outspreadg sweeping the sky, Clearing its path before it in the race Around my rain-soaked barn. This room to me Is as a thick, impenetrable wall I never can surmount. Never be free? Away! I long to follow at its call! In it I hear the battle hymn of old. The song of Muse, the martyrs' cries resound. The Christian's clamor, the whine of greed for gold, The freedom songs of lands oppressed are found. A part of this! and yet if I were there, My faint, inglorious song were lost upon the air. L. W. S. '37 page eighteen FTIGQUS

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Well, anyway, it was at a dance, at a place like the club, only it Wasn't. It was smaller and there were about twice as many people. There were rows and rows of gilded chairs in the middle, So the poor boys can sit down- one of the patronesses Ca dignified lionessl explained to me. I agreed that this was a good idea and wondered why we hadn't thought of it before. And then I noticed that everyone else around me was an animal, and it didn't surprise me in the least. In fact it seemed perfectly natural, and I seemed to know everyone. In the dressing room there was a tiny little mirror which all the girls were clawing, scratching, and pushing to reach. The more powerful ones got to the front and stayed there the whole time, while some poor sly mice squeaked around in back, trying to find a place. In one corner was a group of cats, purring, rubbing each other's fur, and talking in subdued voices about a slim young weasel wlho, in her mag- nificent winter coat, was looking in the mirror over the heads of the others. We were dancing. Lion-like ushers dragged protesting mice and chipmunks over to large bovine girls sitting against the wall. Miss Weasel was enjoying herself thoroughly, shrieking and tittering in her shrill voice. I danced with everything from bellowing elephants who stepped all over my feet and then honked an apology, to little lambs who did nothing but bleat and look sheepish. Then we had a grapefruit-dance. That is, all the boys stood at one end of the room and all the girls at the other. Then the boys threw grapefruits and tried to hit the girls they wanted to dance with. It was really lots of fun, but when it was over, everyone said how silly it was, and why did they have such a thing, anyway? My partner in this was a hyenag at least I think he must have been, because he laughed, long and loud, all the time, at anything and everything-especially his own jokes. So I was very glad when I was cut in on by a giraffe, who said absolutely nothing and was therefore quite a relief. When the supper-dance was announced, everyone made a mad dash for the door, and somehow the pigs reached it first, though they where by no means the quickest on their feet. We had to wait a long time for food because the whole stag-line had gotten there before us and was helping itself. After the supper-dance, the stags got up and pushed their chairs out of the way and things began to warm up. The orchestra warmed up too, and a flop-eared dog began howling into the mike about how he had his love to keep him warm, while Miss Weasel shrilled ecsftatically to anyone who could hear- Oh, isn't he divine! But of course, when everyone began to enjoy himself, the music stopped. I overheard one patroness say to another, with a business-like twitch of her whis- IJQH9 S6U6'I'Lt66TL -1- .l - l-li

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CHILD'S PLAY I saw that day what to me is one of the most beautiful sights in the World: two children sitting side by .side playing, oblivious of their sur- roundings, blissfully oblivious of the world outside, that world which someday was to be theirs, that world which was to carry them higher and higher, then cast them down, then pick them up again, only to precipitalte them lower than before, like a cruel and angry wave toss- ing up a grain of sand, regardless of their feelings or thoughts or ef- forts. But they knew not and cared not for these things. Their world was that table in the center of the room and their people were the soldiers on that table. Their land was the table equally divided into two halves by a white tape. Each child had approxi- mately the same number of soldiers and horses and cannon. They were, it seemed, satisfied with their lot. One child had his soldiers all dressed in blues and reds, neatly lined up in one corner of the table. He fondled them tenderly, he cared for themg if one fell down he picked him up, if one was broken he mended him. On the opposite corner were the small houses belonging to these soldiers. Toy trees were ranged along the front of the houses and toy cannon were placed un- der the trees. On the other side of the white tape the other child was playing. His soldiers were just as numerous as his brother's, if per- haps not quite so new and shiny. To make up for this he had more cannon and so was satisfied. This table was their world to do with as they would, these soldiers were theirs to toss about, to fondle, to break, to mend, to care for and then to put away when there would no longer be any use for them. Some day a strength beyond their power to resist would do the same to them. But they knew not of these things. And as I Watched I saw the older child get up and move the tape slightly, oh, barely two inches, to the side, to make room for some soldiers he had just fetched from the closet. And then I saw the younger child look up puzzled and hurt, buft the older one heeded not. And then a light smouldered in the little one's eyes and he said: You shan't have it-it's mine. The minute he had said it he knew that he had done wrong, for he knew his brother to be much sltronger than him- self. And his brother rose and said: I need ity I want itg it is mine. But they stood there glaring at each other, and then like two young bulls they were at each other. The peace of their childish kingdom was destroyed. But they didn't care-they were fighting for their individual rights, and they fought hard and long. And as they fought their soldiers were swept from the table and hurled to the floor and trampled down beneath their selfish feet, and their houses and their the fllag US page nineteen