Nelsonville High School - Saga Yearbook (Nelsonville, OH)

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The Scarlet and Gray in the back yard and the little darling plays there most of the time. I have a cat too, and I Petitt most of the time too. Last winter once the snow lay a foot deep and we hitched old Dobin to the Shay and went to Grandma’s one Sunday. Grandma had been sick and we were afraid she would have another attack. But she was Still- well. Grandma has everything nice to eat anti has the largest Parrying knife I ever saw. She crochet the prettiest yoke, it had a spider Webb in it. Grandma also has a well and it’s the best water I ever drank. Ours is city water and it’s always Riley. Pa, (as I have said before) has the queerest ideas, he wanted to dig a well in our front yard, but Ma said Nixon it. The last few years we have been having the loveliest Summers, Butt now winter is here and the wind is so Sharpe and cold. We girls have to lay away our White dresses now, too chilly to wear ’em. Young girls al- ways wear them till the last minute. The Coleman just brought a load of coal, I want to have a good fire to- night. my beau is coming to see me. But I don’t want the room too hot, because all sweet things melt, when they get to a certain melting point (this knowledge gained from General Science and my excellent teacher Miss Loaf-burrow, when I was a Freshie). He used to be a Porter on the train (not a black one) and he can tell some of the most thrilling stories. Pa didn’t want turkey for Christ- mas dinner so he made me go to the store and ask how much is a Duck- worth. Duck for Christmas when 1 wanted turkey. The idea! But that’s the way it goes, they never agree with me. There is a family lives across the street from us, and the husband is an awful drunkard. He comes in late at night and simply raves, like he’s half nuts. I’d leave him if I were his wife, I’d leave him'and Hyde some place where he never would find me. I went to a party about a week ago, they had a player piano, the kids sure did play it Lowden, everything was so noisy you couldn’t hear your ears (if this were possible). As I was go- ing home that evening a drank man came along and said “Hick-l-let,” just then a cow went by and let out an aw- ful Baugh, it was looking straight at my fed sweater. ( sure did go. I looked back and saw him (the man) running around a comer with all the speed he could muster, his Beard fly- ing in all directions. I ran directly into an elderly like gentleman, and he took it in a good humor, and said, “Girl, you Shirley wuz goin’ some.” I had some Nichols in my pocket and lost all but one. It sure was a Pierce to my heart to lose that fortune, but 1 will not Moume my loss, because I am going to Lancaster in a few days to visit my aunt. My cousin is home on a furlough. He is a Stewart on one of Uncle Sam’s liners. Gee! I’d hate to live on a ship and always see the White Spray dashed about on the waves, I’d much rather be on land and read the Sines on the shop win- dows in the good old U. S. A. —Essie Cline, ’22.

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The Scarlet and Gray a We had a Bumgardner, and I told Ma if she would Backus, we would try and put him over the Pickett fence. But Ma being an invalid, I had to Wheeler out and she was con- vinced. I then suggested a very dear friend of mine, a Miller, to take the job. Ma disagreed with me as she always does, so I took a good Ball over it. The tears just would come. I told her she was a regular Devol. Then she made me go to the store to see what was fresh country Butter- worth. But she being a Kreppel, I soon forgave her. That night I went up to her room to Warner I had a bad temper and was not to be fooled with. I then proceeded down the Hall to my own room. On awaking the next morning the sky in the North West was over cast, Pa stayed at home and made kraut. The Bryan sure did foam on it. At a street fair there was a Chap- man there who made excellent “Stews.” The fellows gave a dance. I just couldn’t dance the calls right although Leo Caldwell. The next day the girls had a picnic and we got lost. We soon came to a Cliff. The boys had ropes and helped the girls down the de Cline. Here we had our Fri and then started homeward. We heard John Russell and there stood Stan Wolf. No won- der John’s pomp stands straight up. That’s the reason, the Wolf is such a terrifying animal. When he had as- cended the de Cline in the Wood’s we heard Austin Ball. It frightened Cook John and his sauce pans silly. Mary ran at Goodspeed, and such a time we had. Beryl cried “Omara! where shall 1 be?” I ran as fast as I could the Ferree air playing hide and seek in and out my lungs. I finally got home and found the folks gone and the house locked. While I stood Patton my dog, I looked up the Lane and saw my beau coming. I looked so awful I started to go in and couldn’t find M’Kee. Pa’s a black Smith so I start- ed for his shop. I found the key to the house down there, so I went home- The mail man brought a card tell- ing me there was a package awaiting me at the Adams Express office, so I cleaned up and went Wright down to- see about it. I never was so sur- prised in my life, quite a large pack- age. It was the sweetest little pup. 1 just can’t keep from looking at it and Pa has the queerest ideas. He said, “Don’t Starrett in the face like that all the time, you’ll cause it to have fits.” There is a Pyle of Wood

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The Scarlet and Gray 5 A Wild Night It was a cold dark night. The northern star shone faintly in the black sky; a very light snow was falling, the pure whiteness of it con- trasting greatly with the dark but beautiful houses along the drive. A bell mournfully tolled the hour, resounding faintly over the frozen snow. A man slouched up along the walk, his steps crunching on the crisp surface; he was smoking a cigarette. As he approached one of the larger houses he stepped behind a tree, took the cigarette from his mouth and cast it in the snow then tramped on it grinding it into the snow beneath the tree. He nervously pulled out his watch, struck a match and galnced at the hour, taking care all the time to keep the tree between himself and the house. Two-seven, the watch said and the man swore anxiously. He glanced toward the house, a dim light was burning in the hall downstairs, while a brighter one burned in one of the rooms on the second story. “Still up,” the man whispered to himself, and wrapping his coat about him, he leaned against the tree. In half an hour the light in the downstairs hall went out. The man under the tree looked relieved and be- gan humming a tune to himself. In another fifteen minutes the bright light upstairs flickered and went out and the man, looking up and down the street to see that he was not observed, began treading softly up the walk to the house. When he was on the porch he again scrutinized the street and apparently satisfied with its cold lonesomeness, he tried the great bronze door knob. It did not yield under his hand, so taking care to muffle his steps he walked to- ward a window which looked out upon the porch. At first the window did not budge an inch, then under the in- creased pressure he exerted, it sud- denly shot up with a squeak and a rattle. The man stopped and looked around. “That dam noise was enough to wake the dead,” he muttered, then putting one leg inside the window he drew himself into the house. Once inside he tiptoed softly toward the small artistic looking safe in the comer of the large library. Then suddenly a woman’s voice rang out. the man stopped as if frozen stiff, al- though the safe was entirely open and he could see the interior of it. “Alexander D. Fletcher,” a shrill voice cried, “you get right out of that library and come to bed,” and not giv- ing the man a chance to say a word she rattled on. “It’s after three o’- clock, what in the world will the neighbors think of you?” And the poor man with a beaten look on his face gazed longingly at the array of bottles in the safe, took off his coat and hat and crept softly up stairs.