Mondovi High School - Mirror Yearbook (Mondovi, WI)

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 THE MISSION OF THE LITTLE PINK VALENTINE. (Margaret O’Mera) What is all that bustle and hurry about and wlmt ».s to become of me?” ex-i-itcdly asked a dainty pink valentine, which lay on top of all the others in the third grade valentine box. “I dare you to peek out and see. I’ve been trying and trying to, but I’m not tall enough to see over. “Oh, I’ll tell you,” said a large overheating comic. “You little dunce, don’t you know this is St. Valentine’s Day and like as not you are intended for that tous-el-headed Jack Green. I’m going to little Grace Bremen, I know I am, ’cause I heard .Jack Green telling a lot of fellows when we were coming to school, that he guessed about the time Grace looked at me, she’d know she was red-headed, and she wouldn’t walk around with her nose tilted quite so high.” “Well,” sighed the little pink Valentine. “I wish I were sure of where I am going. Boost me up, will you, so T can look out and see what is going on.” The big comic then lifted her up so that she could easily see out of the slit in the top of the box. “Oh, look! she cried, “at that pretty little girl on the front seat. Hasn’t she the loveliest curls? I hope T go to her. See tlu ladies coming in. Oh. now they are coming to take off the cover to our box and give us away. My, but T wish I was hack in the drug store window. Let me down, quick.” The cover was lifted off bv a pleasant looking lady and one by one the valen- tines were taken out. Each time the teacher came after another valentine, the little pink one and the large overbearing comic shrank back in the dark corner together. Finally they were the only ones left in the box. They had sadly said good-hve to all of their companions, as one by one they had been taken out. Now the teacher came back and lifted out the comic. He was passed down the aisle to little Grace Broman. She quickly grabbed him and put him in her desk. Why did the boys always have to tease her about her red hair? While she was hating Jack Green with all her heart for sending her the big comic, something else was being passed down the aisle. When it got to her seat she read the words “To Grace from a loving friend.” It was a dainty pink thing with a sweet love message inside. She forgot all about the horrid old comic, and held up the pink valentine to show Jack Green that she had at least one pretty one. Five minutes later when school was dismissed, she put the comic and the pink valentine in a book together, and started home. “Why, hello pinkey,” was the comic’s greeting. “I guess Gracie won’t walk around with her freckled nose quite so high, after the lesson I’ve given her.” “I'd be ashamed of myseif to make fun of a little girl just because she has red hair. She looked so sad until I came to cheer her up. I’m so glad I made her twice as happy as you made her sad.” 15

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iai A RACE WITH DEATH. (By Edward Stiles.) It was growing dusk, but still early in the evening, when young Pierce Beufourt unwound his long-lashed dog whip with a stinging crack over his six dog sled team, and started his faithful huskies forward with a rush of pattering feet, to carry the doctor to the Northwestern Fur Company’s station five hundred miles north of the Canadian border. Pierce had left the station five days before to get the Doctor to attend the captain’s little blue-eyed daughter who lay deathly sick with pneumonia. It was late in the spring and odds were against the doctor and trailer. The ice in the streams was beginning to soften and made travel exceedingly dangerous over the short perilous passes, but Pierce, faithful to his captain volunteered to risk his life in order to bring the doctor to save the girls life, and the doctor ever a faithful to duty was willing to meet the emergency. All through the night Pierce urged the dogs on, and followed behind the sled to keep them where more than dog tenacity was necessary to cope with the snow and ice. Not until early morning did he come to a halt for a bite to eat, and to allow t 'c dogs to rest. In less than an hour, the team was again in the harness and buckling unto the collar behind their sturdy lead dog, old Spike. For two nights and one day they breasted the north winds and soft snow with never a wink of sleep, and very little food. Once the sled went down into a soft air hole and one dog was drowned before he could be gotten out and the doctor narrowly escaped getting a wetting which would have delayed their race with death. After this, the huskies were ever on the alert to avoid such dog de- vouring traps. In all his days on the north trail, Pierce had never tackled such a trip. Finally, at midnight of the third night, he was forced to halt for rest and nourishment being so weak as to be unable to travel any further. Early morning saw them several miles from their halting place, still tired, foot sore, but mushing steadily towards the fur station and sick girl. During the afternoon one dog, unable to stand the strain, dropped, and was put out of misery with a death blow from the trailers axe. He was cut loose and thrown into the brush for the hungry timber wolves which had been following the party for the last seventy-five miles, leaving only four gaunt muscular dogs to do the work of six. At the end of the fifth night a forced halt was again made to save the dogs from an excess of torture. The last hundred miles was made in a staggering, half-blinded rush. The doctor who had traveled on snow shoes most of the last two hundred miles was in half a daze and traveled on, unconscious of any existing pain, began to show signs of utter exhaustion. Twenty miles from the station, two fresh teams and drivers who had been waiting and watching for the outfit took the doctor and Pierce on. and rushed them in. The doctor administered remedies to the sick-child who soon recovered and cheated Death of its prey. Pierce was in a serious condition having frozen both feet and hands from which it took months to recover. Old Spike lurched forward on his head dead at the station door, never to hit tin tortuous trail again. The old inhabitants at the station never grow wearv of telling of Pierce Beufourt’s race with death. 14

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THE NIGHT’S ADVENTURE. By Edith Melrose ’19. If Mac could have known what adventures awaited him a few miles ahead; he might not have chosen Stone Pike as a road by which to reach his destination. Not knowing, however, he reined Mink’s head towards the east, then turned in his saddle and spoke to Lassie, the small bay pony, as they trotted slowly along the hard trail. The moon sailing serenely over head played hide and seek with the feathery clouds, making quaint and fantastic shadows upon the earth below. Mac whistled softly to himself as he rode along. He had passed the state’s prison that day and had shuddered as he thought of the multitudes of sinners imprisoned within that great, building with its thick, moss covered walls. The scene before him—Natures boundless freedom —drew a contrast to these sinful men, and made him shudder the more. Thi-thought applied itself to a coyote yelping hideously in the distance, followed by the plaintive cry of a screech owl in a tree over head and farther up the trail a large jackrabbit stood, for a moment on its haunches, taking the liberty to gaze curiously at Mac, before scurrying away among the bushes. Thus Mac’s mind wandered between the scene before him to the one of punishment, and as the road was a lonely one and his senses accustomed to anything unusual, his attention was quickly drawn to the faint far-away clatter of hoofs. The rider, a tall man, whose face was concealed hy a broad slouch hat, paused in his haste, to inform Mac that two convicts had escaped that day, and then galloped over the brow of the hill. A queer sensation, ran over Mac—a sensation of conflicting desires. A desire to find the convicts and be the one te bring them back and the opposite—to allow him who sought freedom to keep it. The former idea predominated when a sharp turn in the road brought him in sight of a large clump of trees, some five yards ahead. As he approached the spot, his keenness of hearing caught a harsh voice whisper, “Now’s our only chance; jump out and catch the horse that’s following.” “Alright, come on then,” and as lie spoke, he jumped out into the road followed by bis comrade. So quick were they that they were untying Lassie’s rein before he realized what they had said and were about to mount when Lassie came to her master's rescue. Rising on her bind legs she came down with great force upon the shoulders of the larger man and driving him unconscious to the ground, and would hive killed him had Mac not driven her off After catching her again Mac looked alnnit for the other man and found that he had disappeared. Seeing his opportunity when Mac was busy with the other man, he had crept off into the woods to wait until Mac had gone on his way. Knowing that it would be of no use to look for the convict then; Mac galloped on homeward to get more men and a fresh mount for himself. After arousing his father, Mac spread the alarm through the neighborhood and within a short time men from all parts of the adjoining country were there with their horses and dogs to hunt down the remaining convict. When they had starter! Mac turned back to find the crippled one A short distance from the clump of trees, he found the larger man; a mere trembling wreck, with both shoulders broken and head badly bruised. Thinking that he would live but a short time, Mac carried him to neighboring house and summoned the doctor. While awaiting his arrival the convict told the story of his life. “I was born in Hampton, New York,” 16