Petaluma High School - Trojans Yearbook (Petaluma, CA)

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T H E ENTERPRISE ’17 He leaned forward with a sudden determination, and sat on the edge of the chair, so poised, until his father rose and put his hand on his shoulder. If the old adage “Variety is the spice of life,” be true, then Hendrick Graton was well and highly seasoned. Eleven months had passed since the day of the wager, and he had been in five different states and now he was in the sixth, California. He had taken his twenty-five dollars, given it to the agent in New York, and asked to go as far west as he could. The kind man gave him a ticket to Guthrie, Illinois, and while the train was waiting at Chicago —for Guthrie was twenty miles from there—Hen took a stroll around the station. As the engineer could not wait ten minutes for him, he left. That was the beginning of his luck. His next piece befell him on the University football field. He was getting along swimmingly and the five dollars that was promised if he would play as a IT. C. member, was nearly his; but just as he was kicking the deciding goal, his foot slip¬ ped—! He managed to procure his coat and trousers as he ran through the gym. When he had out-distanced his frenzied pursuers, he sat down in a park to take an inventory. All he had was his suit, a foot-ball outfit, and a pair of spiked shoes. So he pawned all that was not his own, purchased a pair of shoes and a hat, and with a few remaining cents, sent the pawn ticket to the football manager at the University. This was his only affair in Chicago. A later month found him in Colorado, and it also found a new Hen Graton. He was healthy and happy and willing to work at anything, and he had saved fifty dollars. He figured it up. “Fifty, or one-twen¬ tieth of wliat I must have, and I’ve ten months left to raise the other nine fifty. But at this rate I’ll only have three hundred at the end of my year. Ah, ’tis a cruel world,” and he sighed, smilingly. If all the attempts that Hen made, were to be briefly written, this would be a volume and not a short story. In short, he dabbled in every¬ thing that looked like money—herded sheep, kept books, spent a week as a circus acrobat, tried the “movies,” was deputy sheriff for a day, did a little plumbing, clerked in a hardware store, nearly joined the navy, did a little gold mining, ran an elevator, and posed as a chauf¬ feur—so it went, ad infinitum. The beginning of the eleventh month and he was with a wholesale establishment in San Francisco. He was sent ' to San Diego with instruc¬ tions to buy four tons of raisins, but he found better raisins could be procured around Fresno so he went there and did his buying. The man¬ ager thanked him for his good buy and then fired him for not obeying orders. After receiving his salary, he wandered up to Union Square and sat down to think things over. On the other end of the bench there sat. a man who could have passed as Hen’s twin brother. Hen did not notice this, however, and presently the stranger stood up, yawned and walked — 28 —

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(First Prize) H ENDRICK GRATON, or more commonly hailed as “Hen” Graton, was struggling with a collar, which by some mistake had found a place among his own, and he was sweetly uttering words of condemnation on “that square headed” French laundryman. After working himself into a white heat, he suddenly thought of getting a larger size, and he laughed to think he had not thought of it before. At this moment the butler appeared. “ Beg pardon, sir, but your father desires that you come down immed¬ iately, sir. Also, your breakfast is waiting, sir.” “Well, show it around the library till I come down,” and Hen reach¬ ed for another collar. As he came into the dining-room, John Graton gazed steadily at him with admiration in his eyes. He was a good-looking, typical college- bred specimen of an American youth. There was nothing to distin¬ guish him from the average son of a New York bank president, unless it was his well developed physique. His father was proud of his only son, but no one else knew it. “Good morning, Dad,” said Hen cheerfully. “Good morning, my son.” “James said you wished to see me,” he remarked after a time of silence. “Yes,” answered his father, “I do. Hendrick, do you realize that you are twenty-two years old tomorrow? And do you realize that you have been out of college exactly five months and in that time you have not worked five minutes? Also, do you realize that it is time you were doing something?” ‘‘ W liy. Dad, l—1-. ’ ’ “Wait until I am through please. Now understand, I’m not lectur¬ ing you, I’m only leading up to what I want to tell you, which is this: I’ll wager that you can’t take twenty-five dollars, see one strange land, and, before a year has passed, return home with a thousand dollars and a wife. If you win there will be a two thousand dollar bank check for you and a two hundred and fifty a week position waiting down at the New York National. But if you lose, you will be compelled to keep on work¬ ing and supporting yourself until my death. What 1 ask you to do is nothing exceptional. Now if you have something to say, say it.” Hen had a hundred things to say, but what he said was not one of the hundred, for he found himself telling his father, “Dad, I’m beginning to realize that I’ve been about as lazy and shiftless as a coon in a water¬ melon patch, and I — well, I — Dad, I’ll go you on that bet!” .— 27 —-

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THE ENTERPRISE ’ 17 hastily away. A few minutes later Graton’s eye fell upon a pocket book under the bench where his double had been sitting. He picked it up and looked it through. It contained twelve dollars and a first-class passage to the Philippines. As he read that word, the words of his father came to him. Here was an opportunity to see a foreign land! Why not? He had found the ticket, why not use it! And the ambition to win his wager blinded him to his honesty. But such is human nature. So he took the ticket, left the wallet and money and hastened to find when his first boat sailed. He found it left at two o’clock that afternoon and also that from then until the end of his voyage his name was to be Harold Blake, for such was the name on the ticket. The first day out, Hen was a victim of sea-sickness and he laughed as he thought of the time lie wanted to join the navy. Be he was able to enjoy the deck sports next day and that night he ventured into the danc¬ ing parlor. Many couples were on the floor and he noticed that only one girl was left without a partner. “By Jove,” he said to himself, “that’s the girl who looked at me so strangely the first day and who has fol¬ lowed my actions so closely. It can’t be that she is trying to flirt, for she doesn’t act as if she were. Well, she’s not bad looking, and she doesn’t look like a “wall-flower” and this is a fine fox-trot, so I’m going to find who and what she is.” And he did, but it was not until the last night of the voyage. They had spent all their time together since the night he first danced with her. Her name was Marion Handon and she lived in New York. They were leaning over the rail, watching the dark water speed by and neither had spoken for quite a time. At last she broke the silence. “You have been a very pleasant companion,” she said, “and I like you a great deal, Mr. Blake, but I — it — it pains me dreadfully to have to tell you that I have had orders to arrest you for embezzling from the New York National Bank.” She showed a detective badge. “I never thought I would care for a man I was sent to capture. You don’t look like a thief.” she added on a second thought. “And I’m not! Why I can prove that I —.” He caught himself. How could he prove it! He had no way of clearing himself, but if he could, if he only could. Five thousand miles from home and proof and in the hands of a lady detective! She was speaking. “ When we get into Manila tomorrow, I am to turn around, bring you back to New York and”— “Did you say that we are going back to New York!” he broke in with surprise. By the time he arrived and cleared himself he would have about one month left to earn the thousand and find a bride — and he cursed his ill luck. As he thought it over he decided to ask the detective if she would let him earn the money before they went back. It was his only hope. t £ — 29 —