Port Arthur High School - Sea Gull Yearbook (Port Arthur, TX)

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in one of her letters that ho had gone to college and, she had heard, was becom- ing quite a football star. That was the last I had heard of him, until, one night, a few weeks after my story hail been published, Elizabeth, Ray, Rolland. Sadie, John, and I rode to Beaumont just for a ride. It was a beautiful June night, and we were driving.r clown Pearl Street, laughing and teasing one another, when John, who hail just come home that week from a medical school to spend his summer vacation, said, HSay, Ray, Keith Mansfield came as far as Beau- mont the other day with me, He is just back from collegegszraduated. l think, in the civil engineering department. HThat's right, Ray said, Hl got a letter from him last week He said he would he in Beaumont for a few days this week visiting a cousin of his-you know he lived here a while before he moved to Houston. We looked for Keith, but did not see him until the following day when he came down to see Ray. Ray insisted that he stay a week with hiniewelli I am going awfully slowly iso to be brief e K e i th stayed, and, well, we naturally renewed our Olll acquaintance We were often partners at, parties, dances, and dinners, and, though finally Keith had to go back to Houston, it wasn lt long before he came backeantl, well after that l was the proud posses- sor of a great liig diamond on the third finger of my left hand, and then on the twenty-fourth of September we were married and left for Alaska, where Keith had some work to dOWaIHl we were, both very, very happy. I couldnlt help wanting to jump up and down and clap my hands the tlay Keith and I walked down the gangplank and gazed with homesick eyes at the scene of a busy Frisco wharf. Keith was awfully excited, tool You see Alaska is a wonderful plaeeiso vast truly America's Hfield of opportunity of today, hut after four years of it, one is glad to get hack to the States! Keith had promised that if I would be perfectly contented with my four years of Alaska while he was working on an important project there, at the eml of that time we would come hack to the States and just wander from one place to another for a whole month, then, he said, he would have to go to work again, although he wouldn't tell me, where. VVhilv in Alaska I had heard from different friends in Port Arthuin One of them, Mrs. Rolland Lawrence, wrote that Jeanette, who had married the summer after we graduated, was living in San Francisco. Being 1h 0 re we decided to stay over For a day and surprise helm Jeanette was just as delighted to see us as we were to see her. She had been married seven years but she didnlt look much older than when she finished schoolestill the hluo-eyetl, light- hairetl little girl that we all knew ut'toltl, She and tor husband were lovely to us, and we admired their beautiful little California bungalow, with its many flowers, so greatly that. we regretted that we had to leave, but we were anxious to get hack to Port Arthur. Jeanette and her husband hml lbeen there the year before, and they said that Francis Rusling' had come, as far as New Mexico with

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Elm mibycar glass of ' 7 M M I remember how very important I thought I was when I first graduated. I really believed that I had a wonderful career before me. At this time I think I had fully made up my mind to be a great writerel often dreamed of the surprise the stupid people in our town would receive When they heard of my success, and I wondered how my English teacher could ever have read mv seemingly wonderful literary achievements and not recognized my ability, The first step toward my career I decided would he to learn shorthand and typewriting; so I worked laboriously for six monthsithon when my literary spark failed to kindle, as I sat night after night nibbling at the end of my pen, I came to the decision that to write I must know more of life, and to know lit'e I thought 1 should travel. So, after being a steungrapher for a year, I visited relatives and friends in northern and eastern cities for several months, then came home. It was at this time that my enthusiasm for writing- IOSSGIIHI. 'llhv w'mtm' season had just begun, and many of my friends were home from college for the first winter sinee they had graduated. We had lovely timosia round of card parties, dances and dinners Every one was delightfully happy, and never did Port Arthur seem so charmingly happy and gay. I think I said my literary enthusiasm had somewhat abated. Well, to a degree, it had I no longer spent hour upon hour, planning Very dramatic stories in which my heroine suffered untold cruelties, finally to be rescued by some handsome present day knight. But often on a rainy day 01' while waiting for visitors, 1 would weave gay little romances out of the friendships of my friends; thny were simple, everyday sort of aft' rs, filled with the everyday sort of joy and sorrow that is known to each and every one of us. I sent one of these, a jolly little romance, to a well known magazine, really expecting: it to he returned, and now, as I look back, I renwmher the unutlel-ahle joy that filled me as I received a check and a request for more stories instead of the returned manuscript. Happiness supreme! I had every friend read and reread that story when it appeared, and though now I can find faults in it, I still have that magazine at the bottom 01' my chest of keepsakes. ' The fact that my story had been accepted, seemed, at the time, to he the greatest thing that. could ever happen to mevhutiwell, strange to say. I hardly know how to tell this nextiI shall tell it In'ieflyiand hurriedly pass on, I had known Keith Mansfield ever since I had been about, sixteonl In fact we had been very good friends, but after a while he moved to Houston, and I saw very little of him. Then after I left on my trip north, Elizabeth told me

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them. They said that he had a ranch there and seemed to he getting wealthy. His ranch was close to Tucson and as we had to stay over there for several hours we wired Francis to meet us. Well, I was surprised to see Francis! He looked exactly the same, only larger, and he still grinned in the same Hlittle boy fashion that we all knew. But to get back to the surprising feature as I said, we had wired Francis to meet us, and therefore had expected him-hutiwe had not expected the charming young creature with the large brown eyes and clusters of black curls, that looked with undisguised admiration at her grinning young husband I was sure that she was Mrs. Rusting even before he introduced us, for who but a wife looks at a man in that ttyou-are-the-grvatoxt-person-inethr-wurldy, way? Didnit I feel the same way about Keith? tVasn't l awfully proud of my great big, brown eyed, brown haired, young civil engineer? Well, I think so! Francis insisted that we spend the time of our stay visiting his ranch, and 1 did want to get acquainted with that dear little wife of his, so we accepted his invitation. 1t didnit take long to cover the few miles to his place in their big touring ear, and it was not long before we were ushered into a big, comfortable, roomy house with plenty of windows and doors, and furniture that was made to use as well as to look at. But I must hurry. You see, it was my very first Visit to a ranch, and l was perfectly delighted;hut finally we had to leave and we just did catch our train, and wave goodbye to my old sehooltivllow and his friendly little wife before we were out of sight, From then on our trip was long and tedious, but we finally reached Bean- montt Here Elizabeth and her Honliest man met us at the station in their car and we immediately started forittllomo! Many a time had I motored over that old road between Beaumont and Port Arthur, but never before with the same feeling, the same love for each turn and each familiar roadmark! i could hardly talki Everyone else seemed to be talking at once, but I stared 'with strained eyes to catch the first sight of that dear old Port Arthur. Finally, after years, it seemed to me, it came in sightafirst, those big, black Texas Company tanksathen Port Arthur! There were tall skyscrapers nowil could see them outlined in the distance, and long before we reached Blamhs Bend we were in the city. It had grown mar- velouslyi Now the Hmodel addition was all built up and it certainly fur- nished a pleasing entrance to our city by the sea. I am going to skip over those first few days. They were gorgeous! Com- pany from morning until night, and everyone talking at once. I shall never forget those first days of our homecoming! The third day we were home, Keith and I spent, the day with Elizaheth-- and Hthe onliest maILH We had so much fun! Beth and 1 fixed lunchaand