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

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20 Vox Fluminis dance. When he was finally alone, he went to the desk and was looking for the secret drawer when he heard voices coming towards him. He quickly jumped into the bed and drew the curtains tight. A carpenter had been summoned to repair one of the legs of the bed and Walter Raleigh had to lie still until he had gone. He quickly went to the desk, but just as he pressed the spot he was struck on the forehead and the lights went out. Walter Raleigh was surprised. He knew that he had been struck by the drawer of the desk, but the lights! Then he remembered that the museum closed at seven o'clock. The building was closed! He must get the paper and get out at once. He found the paper and put it in an inside pocket and then he hurried away. He got out of the room safely, but the problem was to find his way out of the place in the maze of corridors. He bumped into many things in his eHorts, but he kept on trying. At five minutes after nine the next morning a bedraggled young man pain- fully descended the steps and limped away down the street. A few minutes later in their room his friend greeted him rather sarcastically, but, ignoring this, Walter Raleigh took a sheet of paper from his pocket and gave it to his friend-then he wearily sank into a chair. What's this? asked Mac. Aunt Mary's precious document. You don't mean that! Do I look as if I didn't mean it? No, you don't, Mac admitted, but you will. Just look at this. I Walter Raleigh's important document was a Recipe for Nine-day Pickle. 66 RUBY BENIDICKSON, Grade XI, York Hall. NAVAJO UAN crept out of the cot on which he slept and, shivering, advanced as far as the doorway. He looked out onto the great lonely desert over which the sun was slowly rising. The great arms of the giant cacti cast grotesque sha- dows on the sand. The air was cool and still. The little boy standing there looking at this awesome spectacle sud- denly felt very small and lonely and a little afraid, not a bit the way he had felt the night before when Pedro had told him that he, Juan, was to stay all alone and look after the shop while Pedro went to San Blos, ten miles away. Then Juan had felt pleased and very proud, and, somehow, big as if he were greater than all the little devils who lurk in each particle of sand and each puff of wind in the treacherous desert. Juan was a Navajo Indian and ever since his mother had died he and his older brother Pedro had lived in the hut on the Mexican highway ten miles out in the desert. They made Navajo rugs and pottery, which they sold to tourists travelling on the highway, and made a meagre living in this way. Back in the small, dusty hut again, Juan shared his meal with his dog and watched the highway for customers. Finally a big touring car drove up and the occupants poked about in the musty crowded old shop and wondered, no doubt, at the strange conglomeration in it. From the roof and walls hung rugs, large and small, all with red in the pattern, and over the floor and counter was strewn pottery of all kinds,-jugs, clay burros, Mexican sombreros and many other things. To these people and others Juan sold many articles and by evening he was feeling very pleased with himself. Then it was he noticed that a wind had come down from the mountains and was blowing up tiny spurts of sand. Juan became frightened. O-ne of the too fre- quent sand storms was coming, he felt. Suddenly he remembered Pedro. He would be on his way home now. Juan began to worry. The storm couldn't

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Vox Fluminis 19 1 He drove right past her boarding house, The poor dame nearly bust. Says she, This is the sheik for me, I'll vamp him, yes, I must! She dressed her in her Sunday best, With ribbons, lace and bonnet, But-sad to tell-Sir Lancelot Ne'er passed again--dawgonnit! So, after years of patient and Exceptant expectation, The poor gal saw it was in vain And thought about cremation. She climbed into the family barge, Bedecked with orchids white. The family dumbell plied the oars As best his aged arms might. By six that afternoon the barge Hove to, off Camelot, And lords and ladies came to weep, Among them Lancelot. He read the missive in her hand, And he was much aHected. I gave the gal no just cause And here I am rejected. He dropped a tear into her bier And wept as well he might, And after, at the funeral march, He was the foremost knight. Within this tale a moral is For females sweet and meekg Before you give your heart away, Be sure the guy's no sheik! ANON. KNIGHTHOOD IN A PICKLE ALTER Raleigh Adams had been given a valuable antique writing table of the Elizabethan period as a birthday present by his aunt. As it was much too large for their room, he and his room-mate, Mac Riddell, were trying to decide what to do with it. Mac finally had the brilliant idea of selling it to a museum. Walter Raleigh was a bit dubious at first, because he didn't think that he should sell his aunt's birthday present. Mac persisted, however, and when he suggested that Walter Raleigh should use the money to take Mary Lou Radcliffe to the fraternity masquerade, he gave in. After sending an enthusiastic letter of thanks to his aunt, Walter Raleigh invited Mary Lou to the masquerade. She accepted, and as she had lovely red hair, she insisted on dressing as Queen Elizabeth, escorted, of course, by Sir Walter Raleigh. Two weeks later Walter Raleigh re- ceived a letter from his aunt. He thrust it towards his room-mate some- what ominously. Read this, he said. Mac took the letter and began to read. Good gracious! You are in a pickle, he said. A paper which she must have in five days, and in a secret drawer. It must be her will or some- thing. I don't know what it is, but I haven't got it and I can't possibly get it from the museum through the authorities in that time. I knew that I shouldn't have sold that present. What would you do? I, said Mac, I would go and get the paper. But, said Walter Raleigh, the pa- per happens to be locked in a secret drawer of a writing table which is in 'a room in which Queen Elizabeth might have slept. I can't very well just go and take it, can I? I would. But I can't. Why not? The next afternoon Walter Raleigh was nervously standing at the room in the museum. It looked as if a queen might have slept in it and the public was kept from it by a four-foot rail- ing. Walter Raleigh had planned to scale this, but every time he moved towards it someone would appear and seem to fasten an eagle eye on him. At last he looked at his watch. He had only a short time to get into the room and get the document, and to get back to his room and dress for the

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Vox Fluminis 21 hurt, Pedro, could it-. As the wind howled and the sand beat against the hut the little boy crouched on his cot. Pedro had not come and it was late, very late. At last Juan ventured into the whirl- ing maelstrom of sand. A rope about his waist, he groped his way and stum- bled suddenly, jerking the rope so that it broke. Juan tried desperately to find it again in the suffocating sand which whirled about him. It was gone. His chance of finding Pedro was gone too, and had he only known it, this was his own end, for he wandered now not towards but away from the hut and who could live for long in that storm? MARION BOOTH, Grade IX, Nelson Hall. .,. LE VILLAGE SUR LA COLLINE E village sur la colline est tres joli. Les arbres au bord de la route du village sont frais est verts. Dans les jar- dins, il y a beaucoup de jolies fleurs. Il y a des pruniers, des pommiers, et des poiriers dans les vergers. D-ans le village il y a un petit ruisseau ou une famille de petit canards jaunes aiment a jouer. J'aime a me promener au bord de ce joli ruisseau. HELEN MCLEAN, Grade VIII, Nelson Hall. MY FIRST AEROPLANE VENTURE ITH the air of a martyr, I stepped into the cabin of the small Seaplane which was tied to the pier. My knees and hands were shaking and I don't doubt that I was as white as a sheet. Somehow I managed to sink into a vacant seat. I sat still for a few minutes and gradually calmed down. The engine started. I began to quake and to look with longing and envy at the land which we were soon to leave behind. The town had never seemed so beautiful and secure before. The plane had left the water and we were climbing swiftly up into the heav- ens. I looked back at the little village we had just left. It was rapidly disap- pearing. I looked down. We were fly- ing over rolling country covered with thick woods, while here and there busy little ants moved hither and thither. They all looked so far down. I couldn't see the altimeter, but I didn't care to. I looked around at my fellow passengers who, to my surprise, looked as though they were enjoying themselves. One woman smiled at me sympathetically. She must have undergone this torture at one time too. The plane turned a corner at a ter- rible angle. I glanced wildly around for some paper bags but when I discovered them-I found that I didn't need them after all. After this I began rather to enjoy myself, that is, in a certain sense. I looked down once more. We were fly- ing back toward the town. The white road below us, dotted here and there with tiny black cars, wound in and out through the green woods and fields. I thought how much nicer it would be to be in one of those cars than in this aeroplane. The town came into view once more, and we circled round it before landing. It looked like a small toy village com- plete with people, trees, gardens and a wide river running by. I was really beginning to enjoy the scene when the plane made another of those awful turns. I didn't feel quite as badly as when it made its first turn. Suddenly the engine went off. I start- ed, but realized that the ignition was always shut OH when the plane landed. We glided slowly down toward the water. The aeroplane was levelled just above the surface and we hit the water with a slight vibration. The engine was started again and we sped towards the shore we had left but a short half hour before. I climbed out onto the pier with a slightly unsteady gait. I soon recover- ed and began to tell my friends how wonderful and enjoyable flying was. The next day in the paper I read