Northern Oklahoma College - Roundup Yearbook (Tonkawa, OK)

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W 59 . ei iff'--45 er ,J J Paraphrase of Chaucer's Emily in the Garden Rose Vacin, '1 7 T'was 21 morning of beauty, the air was perfume, ' The birds sang their sweetest and earth was in tune. Fall' Emily in her garden these beauties did greet, And thus with her presence made vision Complete, Foigfairer was she than the lilies that grew, And fresher by far than the flowers bright hue. . . E'en dewy roses with perfume so meek, Envied the color that played on her cheek. Naught can I tell which excelled in sweet- ness, , For neither maid nor rose lacked in com- pleteness. Thus 'tiwas her wont before darkness had gone, To array in her gayest to greet the fair dawn. For to every ,qentle heart asleep The fragrant breezes called, Come meet The new clay, as a bride doth she seem. Robed ,in her garments of scarlet and green So it was that Emily would rise, Fore new day was born, and old one dies. She wore her hair in a long' yellow braid, On wh.ich the sunbeams nestled and playedg And when the golden sun had risen high, Fluttered from flower to flower like some . gay butterfly. And, While plucking a white bloom, now a red, - - To make a wreath to crown her fair head. Fonclly she lent her soul .in a song, Which well to angels might belfmgi- 157

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-- -1 , 6 powder put in his food. On the same day Lorenzo and Jessica had died in the same mysterious way. . - When this news reached Shylock, he sat in his counting room counting and re- counting his piles of yellow gold: moving it about, caressing it with his yellow, claw- like fingers, almost as yellow as the gold they so loved to handle. A hard, cruel 1001! came into his eyes, and a harsh laugh fell from his lips as he said in a hard, cruel voice, At last my plan has succe :ded, I am revenged! Shylock was rich-richer now than when he was driven from Venice. Everything the yellow hands touched turned to gold, and the jewels that his black eyes rested upon increased in value. No one knew where he dwelt, except Tubal, and no one rec'- ognized in the bent old man the ta!l.stern Shylock of old. A plague swept over Padua and the surrounding country. Hundreds died, and more lay at the point of death in the deserted cities, begging for a drop of water or a bite of bread. The land went untilled and grain was very high. Shylock sold his gran at an enormous price, and insisted on the last golciqece from the suffering people. - So far he had escaped the fever, and as he sat in his dingy vault counting his gold, nothing was farther from his mind. Suddenly he became uncomfortably warmg he arose and drank sparingly of his wineg but he was still thirsty, and drank again and again. His face became flushed and his eyes were livid with fever. Slowly it dawned on him what was the matter. An icy chill shot through his heart: he staggered to his feet but to fall prone upon the floor gasping for breath. His eyes closed and his breathing became slower till at last it came in great, sobbing gasps. - Suddenly his eyes opened. The room seemed full of a mystic lightfthe stone walls vanished and he stood once mo-re by the grave of Leah. Slowly a figure arose, roaed white with a golden halo around her head. When she reached the gates of the great Unknown, she paused and beckoned for him to follow. But he could not-his feet were heavy. Looking down he saw that he was bound to the earth with heavy, :2'o'den chains. Slowly the gates closed and his' vision vanished. He sank slowly on the cold stone floor, and a shadow of pain crossed his face as he cr'ed with a voice full of anguish, sorrow and regret. Too late, Leah! Too late! Too late! 156

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,,,gpf ,. . . , 'ii ,, '12:.,,g: isgm ' .gg ac- .Ll,...,.-.1 '- 'ha When Kay Was the Stakes Ruth Muskrat '17 It would have been humorous to us people ot Hill Springs, if we had not been too sore to see the humorous side of anything, when nature chose to play a trick, and the site of the new town was surveyed on Clayburn's land instead of Graymores, Wl1e1'l: 1.-ve1'ybody expected it would be. Maybe some of us did laugh in our sleeves, for we had a special grouch against Graymore, and we were glad to see him get left for once. You see, it was Graymore who started all this county-seat trouble, and it was 'Gfraymorc who was most instrumental in taking the countv-seat away from Hill Springs and . D moving it twelve imiles in the hills, away off from nowhere, to the center of the county- His object was as plain as the nose on your face to' a cool-headed fellow' He wanted the new site placed on his land so the price would increase to a nice little slice, but more important still, he wanted to carry on his bootle0'0'in0' business in his own 11tt DD D lu town to suit himself. He wasn't called the whiskey king for nothing The question ol' moving the county-seat was agitated night and day, and finally, through Graymores influence, bribes, cigars and whiskey, it was moved to the center of the county, within fifty yards of Gray1nore's tract, and the new town was called Kay. Clayburn .was a half-breed Cherokee-one of these tall, straight, handsome fellows that the mixing of the two races often produce-frank-facecl-well educated-but juS'f il young, happy-go-lucky sort off chap and we didn't expect him to put up much of at fiol t. 0 - ' ' ' gi Imagine, then, our surprise when we heard that he had refused Graymore's handsome offer for his sixty acres of hills and rocks, includino' new Kay. Those of us D . who knew Graymore, knew that such a refusal could only mean a fight to the finishg so w ' 't ' ' ' OW ' ' ' e, as ci mens of Hills Springs, straightened up to watch the scrap. Graymore made the first move-he always did, and usually the last too! He staked out his lots: named his town New Kayg erected a stone court house and offered it to the' county- free gratis-only to be declined-with thanksg while only a hundred yards away, in old Kay, the county was busy constructing, because of lack of funds, only a frame build- ing to shelter their records. Each town tried to out-rival the other in building new stores, hotels, cafes and the like. The fi Kay, stuffing the boys with booze. Jim Clayburn politely pulled out a gun and told him to get out and stay o-ut. Then folks began to line-up. The Cherokees, who com- prised a large part of the population, and a number of other people who weren't dazzled by lGraym0re'S 1T1iUi011S', Were with Clayburng while on the othe' h l G2 ' lc ' - 1 ana i iymoie l'lIl a large number on his side, who stuck fo-r various reasons. There was onlv one per- son of th tv f t' . e X o l ac ions who dared to come and go as she pleased, and that was Dora, Graymores gay little step-daughter, whom everybody, on both sides' loredg and who was, as so-me one from Hill Springs expressed it, Jim Clayburn's best friend. Graymore fought with a bull dog's tenacity, but he seemed to be loosing ground, and then came the time he played his biggest card. The night he chose for his meet- ing was as bad as the work he had to dog a dark scowly night -so black you coulcln't see your hand before your face. The two men who met him at the old log cabin were the usual reprobates who did his dirty jobs for him. They were there when he arrived. slouching around the old table which, with the exception of a long bench and a broken backed chair, was the only furniture in the room. A dirty black cloth hung over the o-ne little window to hide from any chance passerby the feeble light of the smoke blackened lamp on the table. Graymore entered with a bustle, tgok the chair and at oncf: began business. ght began in earnest one day when Graymore was polknosing around in Old I asked you boys here tonight to do a piece of work for me I want you to burn that courthouse in Old Kay. There's a hundred apiece in it. What do you -say ?'f Nothin' doin', Graymore,'i Nig Jackson answered. 'tthe jobts too dirty for that, YJ' know, an' besides, I like .lim Clayburn better than a hundred dollars. If you thought there was enough in it, dirty job, or no- dirty job, Jim Clayburn or 158