Mission High School - Mission Yearbook (San Francisco, CA)

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Miss1oN HIGH SCHOOL mr' g em e ee-e -enezf-w at the death of his mate. No man shall judge another's failure to fight with a brave man's weapons as a craven's act. And that is why, immediately after he had come down from the Major's room, he went to his desk and then out through the open door, the moonbeams glinting on the revolver in his hand. Upstairs in his little room the Major lay in his bed, staring with wide-open eyes into the dark, filled with what was to him a great, new re- sponsibility. He could not sleep. Over and over he repeated the story his father had told him, lingering longest on the part where his mother had spoken to him. And then, simply because he had not told her to her face that he would never forget her message, he determined to go softly into his father's room and look once more at his mother's picture and tell her his message. He had never gone into that room without seeing her picture smiling serenely at him, and hence it was with a vague sense of loss, as though some one in whom he trusted had failed him, that he found the picture in dark shadow. He was unable to see it, and he had so set his heart upon telling her that he felt as though he must have the room lighted, that he might see his mother's face. He had so wanted to tell her that he would help him, even though he had not, as yet, conceived how, that he resolved to go down- stairs to ask his father to light the room. Not finding his father in the library, the Major, in his bare feet, walked to the open door and there saw him on the lawn, his right hand glistening strangely in the moonlight. He called to him telling him what he wanted- To tell her that l'll take care of you !', After all, A little child shall lead them. As Major's father caught him with a fierce tenderness to his breast, the child noticed that the gleam- ing thing was gone. They went back together up the broad staircase, each with a message for the picture in the big room. Below, in the library, could he have but seen it, the Major's favorite fire-picture was, as of old, serenely, calming, smiling, while the blue and the white and the red fire fairies danced on and on forever.-H. M. fEIe-venj

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THE M1ss1oN 690 f HW' me see her. Always l sat alone, waiting-always waiting-until the doctor came slowly and sadly down the stairs and told me that the fairies were going to take her away. So, at last, they let you and me into the big white room upstairs, and she said good-bye to you and to me and told you that you were to watch and guard me, as you were her 'Majorf 3' L'She said I was to Watch you and guard you ? said the Major won- deringly, his eyes were tearful, and he could no longer see his fire-picture. Yes, you, little chap, you don't know how badly I need some one, and often thereafter the Majorl' wondered why it was his father's voice sounded as though he had been crying. For to him, as you may readily understand, it was all a vague mystery, and, though he often went into the big room upstairs to gaze for long minutes of his baby life at the picture of his mother, it had always impressed him as something which was still, and soft, and restful, as a walk through the forest with the pine trees whispering over your head, or passing tiptoe up the church aisle on Sunday. Yet he did not forget this 'freally truly story. He remembered it in every detail and as he lay that night in his bed, waiting for the sandman to come, he promised himself never to forget it. Undoubtedly the Major would have been greatly troubled if he could have known and understood at what a crisis his father had arrived. People had said, when Major's mother died, that his father would either kill himself or else die of a broken heart. But the habits and principles of a lifetime are not easily thrust aside, and, although the idea of self- destruction had often occurred to Major'sl' father, he was too brave a man at least, he thought so then, to take the coward's escape from his sorrow. As time wore on, however, and the Major grew, the father found it harder and harder to fight down the feeling of incessant melancholy and to overcome his habit of solitary brooding. On the night when he told Major the story, he felt, indeed, that he needed some one to guard him, for out of the slow processes of the working of his brooding mind he had evolved an excuse that, at last, to his distorted sense of right, justified the coward's way. He argued that he tried hard enough to forget, only to find that each day he remembered everything more vividly than the day before-all that he had spoken of to the Major. He had fought hard enough to overcome his trouble and each day he found harder than the preceding oneg and so each night before the dead fire in the library, with Major fast asleep upstairs, he brooded more and more over the only method of release. Only a helping hand was needed to keep him from himself, but no one knew it, and least of all, did Major's father think of himself as his own worst enemy. Although he had realized to the fullest extent the cowardice of it all, from far back in the inner recesses of his sub-consciousness he sought and found some vindication in the despair of the primordial cave-dweller l:Ten'j

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THE MISSION Nou nlfoyh THE TOURN'AMENT AT SHOWDOWN Once as I lay down to rest, my thoughts wandered, and I saw two youthful hunters going to hunt Knowledge in the forest of School Les- sons. One hunter was named Industry and was armed with a rifle called Diligence. The other hunter was named Bluff and was armed with a rifle called Indifference. In the forest of School Lessons there were many wild animals that were hard to subdue. Some of these were called Chemistry, English, His- tory, Latin, and Physics. There were also some worthless ones called Lazy, Idler and Vagabond. They were very numerous, and were much easier to capture than the more ferocious animals. For each ferocious animal captured, the chief huntsman, School Mas- ter, would give four credits. When you had captured at least Hve of these animals, you would be promoted to higher hunting grounds where the animals were still more ferocious. Both hunters set out at the same time in different paths with the warn- ing of the chief huntsman not to shoot at any of the worthless animals, or they would not get all their credits. The first animal that Industry met was History. It did not take Industrious long to shoot History and he soon had him in his hunting bag called Brain Indus- try then met the worthless animals, but remembering what the chief- huntsman said, passed them by without even taking one shot at them. After a few months, he shot Mathematics and English, then Physics, after that Art, and by the end of the six months he finally captured Chemistry and Latin after a great chase. Industry then stored up all these animals in his hunting bag and started home for his reward. While this was going on Bluff was also hunting. The first animal he met was English. After wasting many shots he finally captured it. How- cver, Bluff soon met the worthless animals and wasted most of his time shooting them and having a great time at it. At the end of five months realizing he had only one more month to go, Bluff went hunting after the more ferocious animals. If it gave him a hard chase he would let it go as he was too lazy to follow it. So at the end of six months he didn't have much in his hunting bag, 'iBrain, to boast of. lTweIwe1