Milton Academy - Yearbook (Milton, MA)

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IN A CAVE BY Tl-IE. RIVER At last Hector was happy. His master, Colonel Sherwood, had bought Mandy from the plantation next to them. Hector had always ad- mired Mandy's high cheekbones and her darkest of dark skins that glistened and shone in the sunlight. One very still evening when there wasn't a sound but the distant peeping of the frogs in the swamp, he had heard her singing. It had made the shivers go up and down his spine with almost the same feeling he had had the night his mis- tress had called him from the fields and told him he was to be a house darkey and that he didn't have to work with the field hands any more. And now he was to have her all to himself. He had driven over to get her in the best buggy with a team of four, and had arrived home smiling victoriously, his teeth gleaming and his innocent, faithful eyes more alive than ever before. Ik if Bk Pk lk Ik Then came the first sad day he had known sin-ce he had married Mandy. The mistress had come down to their cabin and told them they must all work hard to help her because the master had to go away. She had said it was to fight somebody. Hector had never understood what wars were for. Why inter- rupt the peaceful, happy life of the small world he knew? He never saw the master again. The kind man who had bought Mandy for him, who had given him food and' clothing, and Whose wife had taken care of his and Mandy's little boy when he had colic, had gone for- ever. He hated Tomkins. Tomkins was the overseer that the mistress had gotten to run the plantation while she was away. Hector did not know why he distrusted him so. He supposed one reason was that he came from the North. It didn't take long for him to under- stand .another reason when one day Tomkins had forced Mandy to go out in the fields to work in the broiling hot sun until she had fainted! He often wondered where the mistress was, and his half-animal instincts told him she was gone forever. After that he never knew a happy day. The plantation was going to pieces and gradually the darkeys either ran away or were worked to death in the fields. Soon the day came when he knew that Mandy could last no longer. The overseer had forced her and another young negress to pull the plough over those acres of fields, lashing them with a whip every time they stumbled. He decided to take Mandy and the children and to run away. He knew of a cave in the river bank that would do for a shelter. IF il! Ik HK 41 Sk They hadn't been there many days when the littlest child got a page twenty eight the ITIGQUS - s1

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KILTIE IS INQUISITIVE If you've had any experience with Scotties, you know that they are very inquisitive, and Kiltie was no exception. He wanted to know just what made the big thing in the hall go back and forth, and just why he couldn't reach the canary-cage, and most of all, what was .at the top of the steep stairs in the barn. He was determined he would find out these things some time. One day, not having anything on his mind, and the garbage-man having beaten him to the neighbors' garbage-cans, he decided to climb those stairs in the barn. Finding not a soul in the Whole place, he strutted through the back door and to the steps. H-m-m, thought Kiltie, they're a little steep, almost as bad as the cellar-stairs. Well, anyway I'll try. Putting his front paws on the first step, he managed to reach the top, step by step. Looking round he was rather disappointed. All he could see was hay. A few dusty rays of sun came through the cobwebbed window, but outside of that it wasn't at all what he thought it would be. Well-now that he knew what was up there he guessed he'd go down again. He turned around,-oh, this would be an entirely diff- erent story. Looking down, he walked back and forth above the steps. Starting to put down one paw he heard a rustle in the hay and a small squeak. He drew up his paw, glancing around. Sitting on a few wisps of hay, looking the other way, was a small mouse. He had often Watched the cat pounce on mice. Now he would try it. Very stealth- ily he stole around behind it and then gave a. leap. The mouse scamp- ered away, but Kiltie kept on going. Through the open trap-door he fell, down the chute, bringing lots of hay with him, and next thing he knew he landed in Ace's stall! Ace, the mule, assisted him even further before going on with his hay. Now Kiltie knew what was in the hay-loft, and he knew, too, one way of getting down, but he had lost a good deal of curiosity. Anne Mattheis '41 O C th S FH G Q Ll S page twenty seven

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fever and died. Soon Mandy came down with fever too. Night after night Hector sat watching over her, knowing that her end was near and that he could do nothing about it. He dared not even leave her to get food but sent the remaining two children to creep up to the cabins of the plantation at night and steal some from the other darkies When they failed to return, he suspected they had been caught by the overseer. Perhaps they had been whipped to death. Ik lk if lk Ill Ill Mandy had met her finish bravely. Her last words were those of encouragement to him. He had made her all sorts of promises of starting a plantation of his own and getting the children back. But he knew he could never live without her. As he lay on the rocky floor of the cave, he was half conscious of rough merciless hands tying him up. He might as well give him- self up now. His whole soul was gone. Once in a while when he awoke from his trance, he would find himself in a cage full of other dirty negroes and vermin, or trudging wearily through the fields, but al- ways wishing for the relief of death. One day the overseer turned him out. The plantation was lost and there was no longer any need for keeping him. In his delirium he remembered the little cave. He must get there. The whole world seemed to spin and turn black before him, but on he struggled, some- times crawling or pulling himself along the ground. He was breath- ing hard as he staggered through the gate and down to the Water's pebbly edge. Then he felt the cool shadow of the cave creep slowly over him. There was Mandy, still wearing in death her happy smile at the thought of Hector's last promises. Now he could die in peace. He was with her. Frances Byers '40 GRANDFATI-lER'S ATTIC The old attic stairs groaned despondently under Mary Jane as she tried cautiously to creep up without a sound. Steady rain beat rhythmically on the two little semi-circular windows of grandfather's attic. The fact that it was raining was really one reason why ten-year-old Mary Jane was there. Her mother had sent her over to grandfather's house because she was underfoot and continually asking what she could do. She had happily trotted over to the big house and had been greatly disappointed to find that her grandfather had guests. Feeling she was wanted no- where and no one cared a bit about what she did, she climbed the stairs to the attic. As she tip-toed on the creaking, warped boards to the horsehair tid e rn ag U S page twenty nine