Riverbend School for Girls - Vox Fluminis Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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VOX FLUMINIS 15 their paddles. The clear, pure chimes were beginning to make us feel homesick, also darkness was rapidly falling and the dangerous rapids were still ahead to be safely passed. The water was calm and clear as a mirror, the pine trees rose sedately and reflected their strong arms in the deep water, the birds were settling in their nests ready for a good night's rest. Everything was becoming quieter. which gave us a feeling of satisfaction that cannot be put into words. The moon was rising over the opposite horizon and the first stars were dimly beginning to twinkle in the heavens. The rapids are drawing nearer so, Row my friends! or darkness will surround us and we shall be at the mercy of the rapids. We murmur a humble prayer to our Patron Saint in whom we put our trust. Saint of this green isle, hear our prayers, Grant us cool heaven and favoring airs. CATHERINE BINGEMAN, '39, , Garry Hall. HOW THE GOPHER GOT HIS STRIPES OHNNIE GOPHER was an inquisitive little fellow. He was always getting into trouble. Johnnie lived at the edge of the village of Rabbitsford. One morning in spring, Johnnie came out of his hole in the ground to find a newcomer building his house in the ditch near the road. Johnnie, of course, wanted to know all the details. I'll go around and peek in later on, when the house is built, he vowed. One week later the house was completed. The day after Johnnie heard sounds which greatly piqued his curiosity, sounds of tinkling glass, sizzling, steaming, crackling. He stole across the road and peeked in at one of the windows. A little black furry animal with two white stripes down his back, was standing in front of rows of test-tubes. In his paw he held a field mouse. In his other paw was a brush and near him was a tube of what looked like petrified paint. ln an instant Johnnie, too, was petrified. The animal turned round and saw him! Johnnie was conscious of a desire to breathe pure air. Black- ness descended. When he woke up, he found himself on a table with the animal bending over him, brush poised in mid-air. Johnnie gathered that he was to be used instead of the field mouse. The animal told him that he was testing a new permanent dye. Johnnie was turned over and painted. Blackness descended again. When Johnnie woke up he was in his own house, in his own bed. He got up and rushcdto the nearest mirror. His beautiful

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14 VOX FLUMINIS ODE TO STUDENTS With apologies to Mathew Arnold C The Forsaken MGTWIGRI Come you students, let us away! Away from book and pen. For who can help from going astray When the spring has come again, With the robin and the wren Now the southern breezes play Across the sky, Once cold and gray, One and all, let us away! This way! This way! Come you students, wipe Off the frown, Toil no more. One last look at teacher and gown, The bottle Of ink, just spilt on the floor, Then come down- CYOu can not learn though you strive all day! To the bay-come away! Students, could it have been yesterday That we heard a teacher say Exams will be coming any day? ' Through the turmoil and the swell We heard the sound of the recess bell? ' Or were we in a fitful sleep Among tall grasses cool and sweet, Where angry eyes would never gleam If it might even hopeless seem Some Algebra and History pound Into your head 'till it Ustruck ground Or where if e'er your Chemistry Is not as good as it should be You could not come back Saturday? But the week-end is over, we cannot stay, SO we must return for ever and aye. RUTH WOOD, '36, Douglas Hall. A CANADIAN BOAT sONG-MOORE. THE sun was quickly setting in the west when my friends and I were paddling slowly homeward after a long, hard day of work. We were singing and keeping time to our paddles when, out through the quiet of the evening, we heard the familiar chime of our own home church, Saint Anne. There was still some distance to travel before reaching our destination, so I urged my comrades to quicken

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16 VOX FLUMINIS golden-brown coat had two black stripes down the middle of it! Johnnie tried everything to remove the stripes--Bon Ami, patent corn cures, soap and water-all to no avail. The stripes would not disappear and there they remain until this day. . JoYcE J oHNsToN, '40, A Douglas Hall. THE STAR Vibrant star out in the west, Silver dew-drop from the sea, Put in heaven by nature's artist Just to look down here at me. I Even tho' the dark surrounds you, And at dawn you fade away. I imagine you are dancing, Dancing, on your merry way. Come back tomorrow evening, In all your silver sheen, And tell me of your travels, And things I've never seen. - LoU1E LE1sT1Kow, '38, York Hall. RIVERBEND FORTY YEARS -HENCE HERE I sit a confirmed old maid of fifty-four propelling this dear little gyro of mine in the vicinity of Winnipeg. I just happened to be looking through some of my old diaries the' other day and the ones of 1935 and 1936 reminded me of those good old days back at Riverbend in Winnipeg, so I decided to come back and have a look at the place. Here we are-not bad time, five hundred miles an hour. They have a few additions since the days I was here. How time slips by. 4'Could I look around your school, please? Why, yes, of course. Would you like to see Miss Carter? Miss Carter! By all meansll' , What's this I see! Why the dear old school has turned modern. All these fixtures are quite the newest thing and the furniture- well, I say, I wish I had a few of our old class back here to see the place. . It sounds as if someone was tearing down those stairs at an awful rate. Everything for speed these days. Well, blow me down, as Pinny used to say, if it wasn't---.