North High School - Polar Bear Yearbook (Des Moines, IA)

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three farmhouses and, away in the distance the black, black trees. Harriet looked up the other way, where the business part of town was situated. She thought she heard a faint whistle. Just then the full moon broke through a bank of clouds and the girl discerned a figure. The nearer the figure came the more plainly could she distinguish a jaunty Irish air, and— surely that was ragged young Felix O ' Brian ! Felix Oil Folix! she called, her voice tense with anxiety The whistle stopped. Out of the darkness came a sur- prised voice, ' ' Sure and Til be comin ' if ye ' d be kind enough to tell me where ye be. Fm here, Felix, shut in the library basement. It ' s Harriet Elwood. Huh! grunted Felix, and in a moment he had found the window and was within a foot of Harriet. Got another chair? he asked in a very matter-of-fact voice. Here, Til pull ye up. With one bang of his first, Felix brokeT;he window pane into a thousand pieces, then proceeded to pull his neighbor out of her prison. What a relief it was to stand outside and breathe the fresh autumn air! In a lew words Harriet explained the odd situation and poured out her thanks to the boy she had hitherto scorned and despised. Fll never be able to pay you back for your service, she ended with a grateful sigh. I ' ll not be askin ' nothin ' , the boy returned. His Irish humor was very amusing and Harriet relaxing from the strain of the last hour or two, laughed till she almost cried. Of course, on reaching home the story had to be re- peated but Harriet allowed herself very little sympathy be- fore she dropped her pocketbook into the astonished Mil- dred ' s lap and said verj penitently, I ' ll take it all back, Milly, what I said about the O ' Brian children. I ' ve saved up just enough to buy my new kodak but please take it and use it for my share of the O ' Brians ' Thanksgiving dinner. ' 89

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She had not noticed the janitor, when he looked in at five o ' clock and decided no one was in the room, for at that time Harriet w as completely absorbed in some birds that she had studied about in school. The old man had locked the door and gone away, leaving Harriet a prisoner in one of the most unusued parts of the building. The rush of feeling that swept over her when she en- deavored to open the door can better be imagined than de- scribed. After the first moment of despair, Harriet cried out for help as loudly as she could, but her thin voice was shut up in a dark room, and besides, she reasoned on second thought, it was far past five o ' clock, the library ' s closing time. The poor girl sat down on one of the high-backed old chairs and tried to collect her thoughts. She remembered reading a story of a man, who, being shut up by accident in a safe vault, passed through such terrors before his release that he believed he had spent two days and nights in the place when he had really been there only a few hours. Harriet resolved to try and think of pleasant things, perhaps they would distract her mind from the horrible reality. First she thought of home, but that involved the twins, her only sisters. Harriet never realized before how much she loved those mischievous, boyish little sisters. Why, oh why, had she so rudely refused their offer to have a share in their little charity work! How dear home was to her then, when she seemed so far from it! This thought made her feel that she must find some way out if possible. The only windows were so high that she could not possibly reach them. Perhaps she could with the help of a chair! Harriet found that by standing on tip-toe in the chair she could just see out of one of the windows. She pressed her nose against the pane and looked all about her. Across the street was the grocery store, beyond, two or 88

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A QUAKER WEDDING. Mary Heald. When I asked my father to tell me something interesting about his boyhood, this is what he told me : When I was a boy, one of the things whiVh wore nf great interest to me was a Quaker wedding. The old Quaker meeting house was so arranged that the men sat on one side and the women on the other. There was a partition between, so high that they could not see each other during meeting. They had a ' Fourth Day ' meeting ever ' Wednesday and if there was a couple present, who desired to be married, they made this desire known here. The man would arise and, going to the one he had chosen, he would lead her to the front of the congregation. He would then say, We hereby announce our intentions of becoming husband and wife. ' A month after this, at meeting, he would do this again, announcing the continuation of this plan, or the with- drawal of it. Two weeks after this, the marriage occurred. All the people of the community were present, as it was a great occasion. Meeting took up as usual and all was quiet for about an hour. Then the young man arose and led his bride to the front. They were both clad simply. The bride had on a gray silk dress of rich material but simply made. She also wore a little gray bonnet. The groom was dressed in a gray cloth suit of the best material, but made without a collar. The young man made a speech something like this : ' I take to be my wife, promising by Di ine guid- ance to be to her a faithful and loving husband. ' Then the bride promised to be a true wife, and they both sat down on the front row of the women ' s side, and the meeting prog- ressed as usual. After the meeting was over, the clerk of the church asked the people to sign their names as itnesses of the ceremony. Then the congregation went to the bride ' s home where a wedding dinner was serv ed. 90