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

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Vox Fluminis 29 the pile he found a two-day-old news- paper. As he picked it up, a sheet of paper fell from between the leaves. He caught it as it fiuttered to the floor and looked it over. It was a sheet from a memo pad and across it were scrawled some words in a peculiar straggly writing. Johnson unsuspect- ing. Carry on as planned. Cost and account records to be found in Vault Five to the left. Combination XV273. Change 25,000 to 2,500,000. Svenn was a little surprised to see the name of the head of the corporation, J. W. John- son, scrawled on a piece of paper, ap- parently good for nothing more than to be tossed into the waste-paper basket. However, the matter did not interest him particularly. He realized, with a yawn, that he had work to do. Slowly he rose to his feet and began to toss the papers back into the basket. Their next trip was to the furnace. Sf lk Pk if A month later in the London Times. these headlines appeared, HJ. W. John- son, Head of Johnson and Johnson In- corporated, Convicted of Embezzling 552,500,000 Insurance Money of Resi- dents of Birminghamf' NANCY KENNEDY, Grade X, Nelson Hall. YAKS THE Yaks belong to the same family as the ox. They are found only in Tibet and part of China. The Yak is soon recognized by the long hair that grows from its limbs and around its sides and which, sometimes, is so long that it reaches the ground. The Yak can be quite easily domesticated. It is very heavy for its size and has short legs and a long, narrow neck. The male Yak has long, cylindrical horns. Male s.pecimens, that are fine animals, stand nearly six feet high at the shoulders and weigh well over one thousand pounds. Yaks are to be found in the most rugged and inaccessible districts, and always at high elevations, as they are not able to stand the heat. It has been said that heat is fatal for them. Because they are creatures of the hills and consume only grasses and greens found on the mountains, they cannot be induced to eat grains. The Yaks are the motive po-wer of the Tibetans. Their strength in bearing burdens, their skill in crossing glaciers, their bold contempt for icy rivers, make the Yaks as useful for the Himalayas as camels are for the desert. Although the Yaks that have recently arrived at our city park are domesti- cated, they are the true beasts of bur- den of Tibet. Go out and see Yak' and Yill sometime. 7 AUDREY IVEY, Grade IX, Douglas Hall. ..i FROM A GARRET WINDOW The world is such a barren place, When all the view is chimney pots, And noisy, red-brick tenements Between the grassless vacant lots. It is a land of alleyways, And gray, slate roofs that stretch for miles, Where sit the solitary rooks, And tomcats leap across the tiles. Below, upon the cobbled streets The countless people hurry by, Above is just a blank expanse Of dreary, sunless, smoke-dulled sky. BETTY BASTERFIELD, Grade IX, Douglas Hall. 1l-1 PARAGRAPHS FROM SOUTH AMERICA HIS creature is not very p-leasant to meet. It is not accurately known how large the octopus grows. The whale and the octopus have terrible Hghts. The octopus places one tentacle over the whale's blow hole and another around the tail, thereby strangling the whale. The battle gets fiercer and fiercer, until the whale, being very an- noyed, dashes his foe against the bottom The Octopus

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28 Vox Fluminis smell of new cloth. We saw snow white materials used for hospital supplies, bright plaids for dressing gowns and various other multi-colored materials. On the floor were large bales of wool, sent straight from Australia to the Red Cross branch in Vancouver, whence it was sent to various other branches. Ea-ch bale contained spindles which, in their turn, contained skeins of wool, some of air force blue, some of khaki. But the Red Cross must think of peace too. Accordingly, layettes were being made for babies, whose mothers cannot afford clothes for them. Also, trousers and breeches of the old army uniform were being sent to ex-service men and to men on farms. Lastly came the final shipping pro- cess. We journeyed out to the ramp down which come the freight trucks. There we met Mr. England, who stamps and addresses cases leaving for the front. We watched with interest as he showed us his method of stencilling the addresses on the parcels. All his work was done to the music of the roller skating rink next door. The cases, we learned, were fitted inside with water- proof paper and then packed with fin- ished goods, such as sweaters, rifle mitts and seamen's socks. Twenty cases had already been packed and shipped that day, but there were enough sup- plies to fill forty or fifty more. We had reached the end of our trip, so we left Miss Pritchard and her wil- ling assistants, realizing how futile would be our efforts to explain their wonderful work, but hoping in some way to convey to all the idea that the Red Cross is a splendid organization. DOROTHY KENNEDY, Grade XI, York Hall. .. t..ll1--. AN ELOQUENT WASTE-PAPER BASKET FWE o'cl0ck! The whistles from the factory district of Birmingham warned the city's great business sec- tion that it was closing time. In a short while, the great stores and office build- ings were empty except for the janitors and other cleaners making their eve- ning rounds. The street-cars and sub- ways were crowded with people hurry- ing home to supper. Johnson and Johnson, Insurance, Mortgage, Real Estate -one of the largest office buildings in the whole of Birmingham, was no exception. John- son and Johnson always closed punc- tually at five o'clock and five minutes later not a soul would be left in the building. Then a legion of janitors and chfar women, laden with dust-cloths and brooms, would sally forth, and under their onslaught the dust and scraps of paper, accumulated during the day. would disappear. On the fifth floor, Svenn, the Swedish janitor, plodded wearily down the long corridor with his broom and dust-pan. He hummed softly to himself as he stopped at the corner to pick up the pieces of paper which usually accumu- lated there because of the people who were in too muchof a hurry to see whether they hit the waste-paper bas- ket. Thump! Svenn groaned dis'- gustedly as he saw that he had upset the large waste-paper basket which stood in the corner. He got slowly down on his knees to pick up the ava- lanche of paper which had fallen out on the floor. Then, because he was very tired, he aimlessly sat down in a com- fortable position, leaned against the wall, and proceeded to read the papers, odd scraps on which were written the thoughts of a great many people. On one scrap of pink, slightly per- fumed paper, he read the-se words, I never want to see you again as long as I live. From the letter of some heart- broken stenographer written to her sweetheart with whom she had prob- ably quarreled, mused Svenn. On an- other scrap, a caricature of a fat, pom- pous gentleman, was drawn. It was entitled The Old Man and Svenn saw that it bore a great likeness to the sales manager. The work of an office boy, he thought. Svenn continued his meanderings through the papers. At the bottom of

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30 Vox Fluminis of the sea. With the mighty force of the whale's body, the octopus is usually killed. However, if the octopus is not killed, it will eventually strangle the whale. The Whalers often find small octopi. In each tentacle, the little octopus has a small claw about the size of that of a kitten. One time last year, one of the whalers found a claw the size of a cow's horn next to the blow hole of the whale. From that fact you may be able to im- agine how large the octopus grows. Penguins Penguins live in large rookeries. There are many kinds of penguins in- cluding the large King Penguins, Hop- per Penguins and Boxing Penguins. The mother penguin will not allow the baby penguin to go near the water until he is grown up. Then he is allowed to paddle in shallow water, but he may not go beyond his depth, because he cannot dive and hide from his enemies. Penguins do not stay on land in win- ter. On a certain day in the year all the penguins leave and take to the water. They stay in the water all win- ter, living on fish all this time. Then when a certain day comes, be it warm or cold, they all return to land. The penguin, if caught when young, makes a very fine pet. Two pet pen- guins went into a graden with the gar- dener and as the gardener dug up po- tatoes, the two penguins piled them in a heap and kept guard over them. They must have thought the potatoes were eggs. ELLEN KINNEARD, Grade VI, York Hall. A WATCH IN THE NIGHT ln the dark of a summer night, As I lie in my little bed, The silvery moon brings forth a light That shines around my head. The stars play hide and seek In the depths of the sombre sky, The Mother Moon her watch doth keep As the hours of night fly by. BETTY J oHNsToN, Grade VIII, York Hall. MANUEL He sits in his doorway, sits and smokes, The children pass on their way to play, Oh, tell us a story, Manuel, Oh, tell us a story, please, they say, For nobody, nobody else can tell A story like you can, Manuel. He takes his pipe from his mouth and frowns, Well, leave me alone before I Will. But he knows he's glad to have them there, The children know, so they clamor still, A story, a story, oh, please, do tell, Oh, tell us a story, please, Manuel. The story's started, and then it's doneg And Manuel begs to stop, in vain, For the children's voices drown his own, Tell us a story, they cry again, I Another, another, oh, please, do tell, Tell us another, oh, please, Manuel. The story's done and away they go, Manuel smokes and sits in the sun, He really loves the children to say, As they gather round when school is done, A story, a story, oh, please, do tell, Oh, tell, us a story, please, Manuel. BETTY BASTERFIELD, Grade IX, Douglas Hall. THE ADVENTURE OF KITT'Y KAT IHAVE a grey kitten called Fluffy. His birthday is on Easter day. He will be two years old. I got him on Easter day. Kitty loves curds and cream. When I feed him, he always says, Purr, purrf' Mrs. Grey Cat was Fluffy's mother. Fluffy, would you like to live in the barn? Yes, said Fluffy. One day as Fluffy was outside he saw a dark figure moving about. Fluffy was frightened. He ran into the