Norway High School - Caduceus Yearbook (Norway, ME)

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THE CADUCEUS 25 mother from giving him money for candy, as it would make his teeth decay. Poor J immie! No wonder he longed for her de- parture. His dad spoke of Au11t Jane to his mother one evening. YVell, said Jimmie, H If Dad and Moth- er don't want her, that settles it. She isn't going to stay any longer ! H Then. he thought of all his detective meth- ods. His false whiskers wouldn't do, be- cause she had see11 them, and it would take more than that to scare her away. Maybe he could scare her with something spooky! VVell, he'd try, anyway. About midnight, that night, he crawled onto the porch roof right under her window. He was dragging tl1e heavy skeleton behind him. He climbed up on a post near the porch, and dangled the t'Thing. There was a scream, then silence. A trembling voice spoke. Will, is that you? Jimmie answered in a gruff voice, Who are you? Then to himself, Gee, she thinks it is Uncle William! Her voice came to him, shrill and scared. t'Will, what do you want'!!' Gruffly, Jane, I want you to go home. This is no place for you. He withdrew the skeleton, and ran to his room. He was becoming rather scared him- self. The next morning Aunt Jane surprised the family. She was leaving them on the next train. She said she had received an urgent message . Mother and Dad looked at the Great De- tective. He had on his false whiskers and his police badge, and was absorbed in a de- tective magazine. If they had any idea of what had happened the night before, they gave no sign, for Aunt Janels departure was welcomed by all. -Alice Lal-France, '31, He Learned to Like Baseball The coach of the Dalton baseball team looked rather gloomy. IIis star player of last year, James VVatson by name, had graduated. The infield as a result suffered, Watson having played first base. Young Bob Grant came to Dalton College with his brother's fame still being talked of. Young Bob was tall and much slimmer of stature than his brother 5 he was fine look- ing, although not handsome. His head was covered with a mop of curly black hair, he had black eyes, and his features were regu- larly formed. Everyone at college waited in expectation when the time of baseball practice should arrive, for all expected that Bob would turn out to be the man to fill his brother 's shoes. The first day of practice arrived and, to the college's surprise, Bob was not on the field. Everyone had taken it for granted that Bob would follow his brother's foot- steps-and his father's. The college boys believed Bob would go out for practice in the next few days at least, but, as he did not appear, his friends questioned him. He an- swered them all in the same way. saying he did not intend to play baseball. The coach urged Bob to make the team, but Bob said that he preferred not to play. After a few days, Bob noticed that his friends did not gather in his room as they always had and he also detected that they did not seem so friendly as before. The first game of the year was played with the local high school team. Everyone expected the game would be a runaway for Dalton. Instead, the college barely won by the score of nine to seven. Four of the high -school's runs were due to errors made by the first baseman. The coach made a final exhortation to Bob to get into a uniform. Bob refused. Dalton played the next two games with two small colleges, and managed to win both games by a margin of one run.

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24 THE CAIJUCEUS ming me around as though I were made of They pushed me into an old tray sort of thing that rolled along and first thing I knew I fell into a long, white cage with a cover on it. It was all dark and gloomy, and, oh, so close !-not a bit of air anywhere. Later I found out the thing was called a 'box', and, believe me, you never want to let yourself get caged up i11 a horrid 'box'. t'Then one day someone took the cover off and I could breathe at last. Wllen I looked around, I saw many other pens be- side me and people passing by, looking at us. This was preferable to the old box, but it was noisy and confused, and I didn 't get a bite to eat! People would look me over and handle me, saying, 'Oh, that old black thing-not that! There's a much nicer one over here.' Finally a little boy with a dirty hat, grimy hands, and ragged shirt, came and grabbed me up. Soon I was stuffed into a, little cave with a mass of nails and string. I found this cave was called a 'pocket'. After a few days, he stuck my head into a bottle and opened my mouth wide. I drank all I wanted. Gee, it seemed good to get my stomach filled up! I was so hap- py I thought I'd be kind to this chap. I worked like a Trojan all day long, but he was hateful to me. He crammed my cap on over my ears so tight I could hardly hear. Then he jammed me down into a little corn- er of that pocket cave and piled papers and cloths over me till I was nearly stiiied. He didn 't feed me any more or even give me a bath-just kept me there in the dark all the time. iron ! One day he swapped me for an old jacknife, with only half a blade! I never was so mortitied in all my life as when he set me beside that knife and said, 'It's a bargain'. My new owner is even more cruel. He slams me down every 11igl1t after Iive been banged around and worked hard all day. My teeth are dull 11ow, and, as he won 't get me any new ones, I just scratch, scratch, scratch, and he wonders why! He only feeds me half ink-puts water in it to make it last longer. Oh my poor stomach! Every day I go over a great big bridge with him and some day I'm just going to jump out of his pocket into the water be- low and that will be the end of me as far as he 's concerned ! -C. E. Longley, '31. The Great Detective Jimmie, the Great Detective, sighed as hc looked at his false whiskers. If Aunt Jane only would go homeli' His ideal was Sherlock Holmes, and he wished to imitate him, but how could he with his aunt there? Aunt Jane was a tall, thin woman. She wore spectacles on the tip of her nose, which made her look still worse. She was a very superstitious old lady, fussy, and hard to get along with. She always hoped to get some message from her dead hus- band. Her unexpected appearance had saved the Great Detective from a scolding, how- ever. He had been sent to the bank to de- posit the money just received on his 10th birthday. On the way, he had met another hopeful detective. Come on over to my house and I'll show you something awfully important in your business, Jimmie,H said Johnny. This proved to be a skeleton. Of course Jimmie bought it. His parents forgot to scold him in the excitement at Aunt Jane 's arrival. But everyone, including Jimmie, always referred to the skeleton with horror. They called it the H Thing. Aunt Jane had a habit of prolonging her visits indefinitely. She always cautioned Jimmie about wearing his rubbers, and not eating too much. She even stopped his

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26 THE CADUCEUS At last all of Bob's friends deserted him, and, being very stuborn, he still refused to go out. One day he received a letter from his brother, asking him why his name was not in the box-score. When Bob wrote back that he had not attempted to make the team, his brother wrote an answer, telling him that he and his father wished him to play. The very next day he appeared on the field with a new Hrst baseman's mitt. The coach gave him a few brief instructions, and sent him over with the scrubs. All of his recent friends were either playing ball, or were playing the part of spectators. The eoach, walking over to the scrubs, noticed that Bob played first base with the ease and grace of his brother. IIe called Bob aside, and asked him why he had not gone out before. Bob replied, 'tMy father, who used to be a famous ball player, and my brother have always dinned baseball into my ears ever since I was very young. As a result, I do not like the game. The Coach stared at him in amazement, and said, You don 't like baseball 'V' t'l think I would have enjoyed the game if I had not seen and heard so much about it at home, Bob replied. The coach gruffly announced, Well, you'll be substitute first basemanf, In the next game Dalton 's opponents were favored to win, but Dalton was the victor by the score of eleven to five. This success was largely due to Captain Frazer 's fine hitting, and to Bob, who replaced the regular first baseman in the sixth inning. On his second appearance, Bob played the nine innings, and helped to stave off defeat by a fine catch of a high liner and by co- tributing two hits, one being a two-bagger. After that. Dalton continued its winning streak, although many of the games were with larger colleges. At last came the decisive struggle with Milton College. The latter school had won all its games, as Dalton had done, but Mil- ton was the favorite, as her victories showed a wider margin tl1a11 did the scores of her rival. Dalton especially wanted to win be- cause Milton had won many more games than had Dalton, and the Milton team was anxious to avenge the defeat of the three former years. The day dawned and the weather was perfect for baseball. The crowd was silent as the umpire shouted, Play ball l The game was very even and, until the sixth inning, neither had made a run. In the sixth, Milton made three runs on four hits and an error made by the Dalton center- fielder. In the seventh inning, both teams made a ru11. Milton secured hers on two successive hits, while DFIIIOII scored hers by Captain Frazer getting a single and Bob a three-bagger which sent the captain in. The eighth inning passed uneventfully, and, as the ninth inning started, the Dalton fans gave the game up as lost. Milton failed to get a run in her half, and Dalton made her final try. The first batter made a line single over second, and this gave tl1e Dal- ton fans a little hope. But the next bat- ter popped up an easy foul to the catcher. The next man renewed their hopes by hit- ting another single. The man on first reached third safely, but after hitting two long fouls, the next man struck out. Cap- tain Frazer came up, and with a hard drive, sent the ball far into the outfield for a two bagger. This brought the man on third home, and sent the man on first to third. Bob stepped up to the plate, and, after two strikes had been called, he hit tl1e ball a terrific wallop sending it far over the out- field fence. The game was over. Dalton was victorious. After the game, the coach asked Bob if he didn't like baseball after all. Bob 's re- ply was this, It's a good old game. -Faunce Pendexter. '33.