Oshkosh High School - Index Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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MAT INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN again I discovered I could not move my left wing and that it pained me terribly. To save myself from being shot at again, I dove and swam until 1 could hold my breath no longer. When 1 came up, I was under cover of some thick rushes, but was just in time to see the hunter pick up my dead mate and drop her into his boat. With a sinking heart, I swam from cover to cover until I gained the bog upon which 1 climbed and hid. My wing throbbed with pain until I almost wished 1, too, had been killed. I lay in hiding, eating what I could find, which was not much, since I could not fly about. Gradually my wing grew stronger, and, when the lakes and marshes froze over, I was able to join nine other mallards and journey to the South. Today I am back in dear old Wisconsin, and am glad to be where ducks are protected through the spring months. I have been shot at continually from the time I left last fall, so do you wonder that I hardly know how to act or what to do with myself where there are no hunters to molest me? I have not as yet regained the sense of freedom and security I possessed when a baby duck, yet my heart no longer leaps into my throat at the sight of man. It seems almost too good to be true to be able to swim about the same old marsh and dear old nesting place with something of the freedom I enjoyed when a little duckling not quite a month old. A Day in May By NIA E. BLOOM The daisies peep from every field, And violets sweet their odor yield, The purple blossoms paint the thorn, And robins sing in early morn. The sun looks down with radiant eye And throws a smile around the sky; He drops his rays on hill and stream Warming nature with his beam. Behold, the lark is on the float; What warbles he in his sweet note? What warbles he with merry cheer? Lei love and pleasure rule the year. Pago twenty-three

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MAY INDEX ETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN A Mallard EARL WOLVERTON I WAS born a year ago this Spring among the weeds and rushes of a shallow creek, which flows into a good-sized lake. Our cozy nest, which was lined with feathers, was set among the tall green rushes just above the water ' s edge. I well remember that first day I scrambled to the edge of the nest and looked into the clear, limpid water below. There I saw another little duck- ling, just like myself, looking back at me. I called my five brothers and six sisters to see it. They finally waddled to the edge of the nest and be- hold there was another duckling directly below each one of us. Mother, who was in the nest, explained to us that it was only our reflection. Then she waddled into the water and swam about coaxing us to get into the water and come to her. We were frightened at first but finally ventured to at- tempt it. We floundered about at first but soon learned to use our little webbed feet to good advantage. Each day thereafter we took to the water without being coaxed. Here we played and swam about in the sunlight to our heart ' s content. These happy days lasted long into the summer. Then one day our parents called us together and told us that we were now old enough to take care of our- selves. Our parents, who had taken care of us all our lives, bid us Good- bye and then flew to a far distant marsh. There was nothing else for us to do but take care of ourselves. So we separated, I and one of my sisters flying away to a different part of the marsh together. Before our parents left us they warned us to beware of all men. We had seen men with boats but never heard nor saw a gun. One day in Sep- tember, just about sunrise, we were awakened by several loud reports, and my first thought was The hunters. We were thankful that we were hidden a long distance back from open water in the thick rushes. All day that fearful noise kept up. How I longed to go out into the open and swim about, yet dared not. As night came on the shooting ceased and all grew still as the darkened shadows came creeping into the marsh. We became brave and flew out into the open, joined some other ducks that had escaped, and swam about in search of food. As the days went by, we became wary enough to evade the hunters. But, one day, as we were sitting quietly among the weeds, we heard the swish, swish of a paddle coming nearer to where we sat. What were we to do? While debating how to get away without being seen, the boats ' nose came poking through the grass right upon us. Quick as a flash we rose with a whir, but almost as quickly two deafening reports rang out. My sis- ter fell with a thud and I felt faint and dizzy. Another report and a shower of fine stuff flew by me. I fell to the water and when I attempted to rise Paga twenty-two !

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MAY INDEX FOR NINETEEN HUNDRED SEVENTEEN Those Lengthy Lessons ELLEN GOULD Dear friends, I want to ask you all, If you have found it true. That since you started school, last fall. You ' ve had too much to do? Perhaps you know the reason why; — ;s not hard to explain, I ' ll do so in the next few lines And try to make it plain. You see, our school lets out at noon. But then, we start at eight! It ' s nice to be excused so soon. But hard not to be late. And since we have all afternoon. In which we have no school. The teachers give us lessons, long. Which is indeed, most cruel! Oh, you can work all afternoon — Thafs what they always say; Bui I should like to know, right soon. When we ' re supposed to play. ' Tis study this, and study that. Until we ' re nearly dead. And when we think we ' re almost through, Ifs time to go to bed. Dear teachers, you are not alone The ones for whom we work; So do not be too hard with us. If sometimes we do shirk. Recall the time when you yourselves. Were back in childhood days; Remember too, the Golden Rule, And practice it always. Oh, deal with us accordingly. Just make those lessons short! We ' ll work for you most willingly, E ' en though it be no sport. Again, dear friends, I ask you all. If you ' ve not found it true. That since you started school last fall. You ' ve had too much to do?