Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

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GOLIATH- STUNG NDAY calm settled up¬ on the house, Sunday wickedness upon the twins, Sunday despair upon Aunt Sue. That lady concluded the story of Joseph and his wicked brethren, of painfully personal in¬ terest, for had not Sidney that very morning cajoled the unsuspecting Sissy into the cis¬ tern and left her there in her anguish and despair? Then she began to read of the valiant David, who slew Goliath with his sling-shot and the twins painfully settled themselves with a sigh of resignation apiece. This duly finished. Aunt Sue gladly dismiss¬ ed Sid and Sissy with copious instructions as to what they should not do and the oft- repeated “if you must play, it should be something suited to the day.” Once out of the house the twins under¬ went a great transformation. Their pious demeanor changed to—something very dif¬ ferent. They were evidently bent upon mis¬ chief, but, dutifully followed their aunt’s instructions; chose something, as they thought, “suited to the day.” Sidney, per¬ sonating David, made short work of the cat and all the chickens in the neighborhood with ' his slingshot. Now the time had arrived for the ad¬ vent of Aunt Sue’s weekly caller. This per¬ son, known by all as “The Colonel” and very important in his own estimation, greatly bored Aunt Sue by his continuous visits al¬ though that gentle lady would not for the world let him know it. From t ' he extreme newness of his attire, the radience of his boots and visage, and the nervousness of his manner it was evident ito the twins, (who had sprung into quick attenlion behind, the hedge when they heard the tap of his cane on the walk,) that some¬ thing unusual was doing. As ' he neared the veranda Aunt Sue rose smiling to meet him. He advanced rapidly and, after greeting her, cleared his throat with a violence that betokened that some terrible effort was about to be made. “ Madam,” he began, “Long, long have I thought—er—cogitated with what feeling of joy you—I should con¬ template the—the moment—that is—what happiness would be mine when the—the— oh, well, what I mean is that I have decided that I cannot live—” “Bet you can’t” said Sid, as a pebble hit the colonel, with a considerable force, in the ear, (for Sid, otherwise David, had at once recognized in the massive form of “the “Colonel” his enemy Goliath.) The ejaculation of that gentleman is pur¬ posely omitted. Aunt Sue with a gasp of shocked surprise sank back in her chair. The Colonel, howling with rage and pain, clapped his hand over the injured eye, shrieking, ‘ What the—the dickens was that?” Turning to her for sympathy he saw her, with a handkerchief before her eyes, trembling with the intensity of her emotion. As he approached her reassuringly a mistalc- able giggle from behind the handkerchief caused him to straighten up with a snort of anger and with one withering glance he left her never to return, and she joyfully dried her eyes. Vhen the re-pentent hero of the occasion came before her with hanging head and dis¬ mal mein he was met with much unmerited kindness, for which he could never guess the reason, and could only thank the Fates that he had escaped a well-deserved, licking. 28 EMMA SALINE.

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P. H. S. E N T E R P RI S E ’09 down ' cum- nally it he writ- jes’ —she don’t onth. gster was silly some und, state, jould f the and were Le re- man- ights The lark, sered )illar rried wore old issed. was lugli- th° ears. Mrs. ace? ;urn- inal- feel- ould lady her ach- and Lway nuch thru into the rooms of the lower floor. All was quiet about them. Suddenly, in a lull be¬ tween whispers, one of the girls started, and gave a low cry. It so startled the rest that no one made a sound or moved. Then from overhead a low murmur floated down the wide stair-case—a snatch of a song. Jeane, who was in the center, stiffened, and by the light of the one feeble candle they saw her face pale and her eyes widen. “That hymn! ” she whispered. “She al¬ ways sang that as she wrote at her desk. Why I must be mad!” In the dead silence that followed one of the girls gave an hysterical giggle and a boy muttered something under his breath. Jeane paid no attention. Then, with no warning, and as if she were in a trance, she started for the stairway. For a moment the rest hesitated. Then as if impelled by some mysterious power, they followed the girl up the stairs. Silently they trooped through the hallway until they came to the door ot the library. It was closed and underneath a shaft of light glimmered. Jeane, looking neither to right nor left walked unhesitatingly to the door and open¬ ed it. The rest crowded to the doorway aril looked over her shoulder. In a silver candle stick a candle flickered, and bending over the desk was the figure of an old woman, clad in a black wrapper. Her back was toward the door and she crooned a song under her breath. As they watched, scarcely breathing, she fumbled with a small knob and a drawer shot out from apparently the smooth top o f the dusty desk. From the drawer she took a paper, glanced at it and returned it to its place. Then she shut the drawe? and started to turn. At that mom¬ ent Jeane came from her trance and with a terrible shriek, fell back into the arms of her companions. Instantly the light went out and screaming and tumbling, the terri¬ fied crowd hurried down the stair-case, drag¬ ging the half unconscious girl with them. How they got out they never knew. The whole country side was startled in the face of such evidence and a few days afterwards, in broad daylight, some of the most credulous ones searched the old desk, found the hitherto unnoticed knob and there in the drawer which opened out, was the lost will. In it, it stated that because of her love for the sweet girl, who had been so kind to a lonely old lady, the great fortune should go to Jeane. All were glad for her and soon the village forgot the ghost, for no more lights were seen or strange noises heard, and they all felt that the old lady, having done her duty, now rested in peace. ISABEL GILBERT. 27

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HISTORY OF CLASS OF ’0 9 T was a fine August morning on the fifth day of the twentieth century. We had been sailing delightfully along on the sea of Va¬ cation for some hours and it was this voyage that made us able to start on our pilgrimage through the thick¬ ly wooded fields of High School to Gradua¬ tion Hill. There were other people going on the same pilgrimage but they had started ahead of us and were organized into companies, each company having enlisted in it those who had been travelling about the same length of time. Those who had been there the longest thought they were pretty smart, were called Seniors, and the company next to them in experience were Juniors. I guess that the last company had a desire to be kind to us. I don’t know; but, anyway they told us that WE would have to organize into a company and that they would help us do it. Oh dear! Oh dear! We all went into a cave (we sat down in the back and they had front seats) and maybe you think we wern’t scared. They told us to nominate and elect officers and at 1-a-s-t we did get it done. Then they said we had to have a name so they called us Freshmen. What a name for us!, for I can assure you that we didn’t feel a bit fresh after we had left that meeting. In fact, we felt droopier than we had ever before felt—and I guess our own conceit has kept us from feeling that way since. However, I think the effect of the meeting was a good one for us, be¬ cause it made us try to be like the bigger bugs ahead of us. (The boys even began to threw aside their knicker-bockers and don long trousers.) But. woe, alas! After we began trying to reform, some of the company thought that we were a little too priggish, so they drop¬ ped out of the ranks and left us to journey on if we would. It was hard trying to be grown up all at once, but the Sophomores (those people be¬ longing to the company between us and the Juniors) seemed to realize this, for they fix¬ ed up a pretty little place on a green and asked us to “Come and trip it as ye go, On the light fantastic toe ” . We went and tripped it, but I don’t know, About the ‘light fantastic toe.’ After the dance nothing much happened, excepting a vacation, and during the first day we had two of these which were very much enjoyed by all. After we were once started the day did. not seem long in passing and when night came we found that the Seniors had reached the top of Graduation Hill and that they were going to leave us. Although we were a long way down the hill, we could see how pretty and how very wise they looked, and made a little resolution to ourselves that we would stick it out and that some day WE would march onto the tcp-tip-top of the hill and very sedately keep our places on the lawn while members of disbanded compan¬ ies, who had gone before our little bunch came and talked to us and gave us passports which would admit us into the world of men and women, (these were called diplomas) and then when this was all done we would be met by our friends w r ho would shake hands with us and say how glad they were that we had reached the end of our journey without having anything serious happen to us. This was an exceedingly pleasant little dream, and we determined to make it come true. After the Commencement Exercises (so the Seniors called them) the departing com¬ pany ' had a dance given them by the Juniors and then when the dance was over the end of the first day had come and we were all ready for a good night’s rest and a dream of what we would do the next day. When we awakened on the following morning, we found that a good fairy had touched us with her wand during the night, and had made us Sophomores and more than that, she had made us able to organize our company our¬ selves on this second day. But, one trouble gone, another is sure to appear. Imagine our surprise, when, on 29