Rockport High School - Tatler Yearbook (Rockport, ME)

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30 THE TATLER mongoose was just a little faster than the snake. Finally, the mongoose made the snake strike and with Very keen quickness, the animal grabbed the snake by the neck and killed him. About noon a native runner came to the village and told me that a wo- man had gone down to the river to do her washing and had been struck by the tiger. Watusi and I hurried to the other village as fast as we could go. When we arrived there, natives showed us the spot where the body lay. The vic- tim's body was sprawled out over the ground, partly eaten, with the right arm gone and one leg badly mangled. I decided that we should wait at night hidden around the victim's body, for the tiger would return for another dinner of his victim. It was around midnight when Watusi and I saw a dark shadow walking through the still night. As the shadow moved toward the open- ing, we saw that it was the big cat. I took aim and fired. The animal spun around in mid air and fell to the ground, but he got up instantly and ran into the darkness. We knew now that we had to get him quickly or many deaths would be left in his path. It was just getting daybreak when Watusi and I started tracking the animal. We found that he had been badly hit. The trail led into the edge of the swamp grass. We knew that there was only one thing we could do, and that was to get the spearmen to make a big circle of the area and close in. The procedure started with the na- tives yelling and jabbing their spears forward. Watusi was signaling me to come forward. I hurried as fast as I could, and all of a sudden there was a loud roar and the tiger ran toward Watusi. I yelled, Watusi, look out! It was too late. The tiger had struck with full force. I fired and heard the scream of the tiger. I fired againg then ran over to Watusi. There I found him with a broken neck. Tears came to my eyes, for I knew that I had lost a brave friend. I found that the tiger, 1d a long protruding spear between his fore- legs. The spear, I knew, was Watusi's. The tiger had been mortally wounded before I had finished him off. When we got back to the village, natives everywhere cheered me as a great hunter, but I told them that the great hunter was Watusi, who had lost his life for his people. The next day they held a funeral for Watusi. I watched them cremate his body and spread the ashes over a tall hill overlooking the village. Dur- this this ceremony I looked up and whispered, Good by, good by, Wa- tusi, and then turned around and slowly walked away. Danny Gross, '54 PLAN IN THE DARK It was a dark gloomy night and the wind outside was howling like a tor- mented animal. The house inside had the appearance of being cloaked in a black cloud. Everything in the house was quiet and still except for the silent, stealthy figure creeping out of one of the up- stairs bedrooms where he had been lurking. He closed the door quietly be- hind him and started to make his way down the hall toward the stairs. A loose corner on the carpet caught his toe and he tripped, but caught him- self just in time. His heart beat fast- er and he thought to himself, I must not fail now when what I am after is so close. Proceeding with care he again started toward the black pit which was the stairs. At last! Now he had covered at least a part of the way without mishap. He didn't want to do this but he knew he must have what he was after or die trying. Where is it? Here? No! Ah, now I have it. His hand grasped tightly on the banister and he began to descend. Suddenly a board creaked. He stopped and it seemed as though his heart was

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If you are thinking of going to col- lege, confer with the principal of your high school and he can probably give you some good advice in regards to going to college. Deanne Arthur, '55 HOW T0 CONDUCT ONESELF AT A CONCERT Are you embarrassed at a concert? You don't know what to do and how to act? Do you get bored? Well, here are a few suggestions to remedy such situations. At a concert one should act very dignified, attentive, and be generous with applause. For example, when entering one should run ahead of the usher, grabbing the best seats avail- able. If the seats are reserved, it is unnecessary to rush so. Just take your time and gape at the people on the way down the aisle. When waiting for a concert to be- gin, one should turn around and talk to an acquaintance a few rows back. This furnishes a time filler for the people in between as well as the par- ties gabbing. One thing a person should never forget when attending a concert is his gum. It is a good idea to wear shoes with taps also, as the perform- er will appreciate someone keeping time for him, with either taps or gum- snaps. One warning, though, a per- son with bad rhythm should refrain from these as it is very annoying to have someone snapping or tapping off beat. I If a person enjoys the performer, xt is good taste for him to 'jump up and down yelling and screaming loud- ly. The performer is grateful for an appreciative audience. If a person does a piece which is familiar to the audience, they should joinuin wholeheartedly, humming and singing. After a concert it is a good habit to go back stage and congratulate the performer. A fitting remark would be THE TATLER 29 Nice job, old boy! or something similar. If a person remembers these points, I'm sure he'll enjoy himself and never again be bored at any con- cert he attends. Joan Norwood, '56 STRIPED DEATH My job was to hunt down man-eat- ing tigers. I had just finished an ex- pedition down in Brazil, and had gone to Burma, India, where a mes- sage came to me saying that villages in Burma had been struck by Striped Death, which I soon found out was the tiger. Three years ago was my first contact with tigers, so I knew I had a tough job before me. Let me give you some detailed des- cription of this cat. He's the largest of the cat family with a coat of beau- tiful tawny yellow and with black stripes running at right angles with the body lines. His weight is approxi- mately five hundred pounds and his length is about eleven feet from the tip of his tail to his nose. When I arrived in Burma I found a man waiting for me. He told me he was my guide. His name was Watusi, the largest of the tribesmen. He stood eight feet tall and was coal black with rippling muscles, and ivory white teeth. He told me three people had been killed in three days. Watusi led me to one of the vil- lages which had been struck. In a few minutes the natives had set my tent up and put my equipment away. The equipment, I might add, was cameras, nets, guns, and food sup- plies. The next morning I had just crawled out of the sack when I saw a mongoose, a small brown animal about a foot long, fighting a deadly cobra snake. I watched them fight for fifteen minutes or more. With lightn- ing speed the mongoose would run to the snake and bite his tail about the time the cobra would strike, but the

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. 1is.thvca.t. No one stirred, so he began to steal silently on his way again. He finally reached the bottom of the stairs after much uncertainty. Now to find that door. He knew just where it was because he had memorized every detail, so that he would know where to go when the time came. He thought he knew! But, what was this he had walked into? Strange, it felt like a wall. At last he found the door leading into the room of his destination. Now, of all times, was no time to be careless when it was almost in his greedy fingers. Every plan must be followed care- fully. Moving quickly over to the shelf, he reached up with one hand to the container. He put his hand into it and felt around. A great wave of disap- pointment suddenly rushed over himg it was empty. Such an awful lot of trouble for a seven year old boy, and not one cook- ie in the whole jar! Ninon Ingersoll, '54 MRS. WILD DUCK MAKES A NEST Mrs. Wild Duck circled the woods one day looking for a place to build her nest. Down in the ravine where the stream flowed, there was a plea- sant spot, but Mrs. Duck had seen a fox down there. That was not a good place for a nest. Once more she circled the woods. This time she saw a large beech tree. It was very old and tall, and had a deep hole in the trunk, high above the ground. It was a little out of the ordinary for a duck to build off the ground, but why not? A nest in the beech tree would be far from the dan- ger of animals prying below. Mrs. Duck settled on the ledge of the hole in the beech tree and looked about her. She looked in at the pos- sible new home. The hole was lined with soft tree pulp. Eggs will hatch there very nicely, thought Mrs. THE TATLER 31 Duck. Still perched on the ledge, she viewed the scene below, and decided to look no farther. Mrs. Duck went about the work of building a nest. First, she gathered a few twigs together, putting them in the hole. Then she made the nest warm with downy feathers. After that, she went about the business of laying eggs. For a long time after that Mrs. Duck's neighbors rarely saw her. They forgot Mrs. Duck. Then one day Mrs. Crow fiew down through the woods calling out that something in- teresting had happened at the old beech. The wood folks looked and saw Mrs. Duck poke her head out of the hole. She had something dark and fuzzy in her beak. She dropped the dark object to the earth below, then in went her head again, and came out with another dark object. Fifteen times she repeated this operation. When the dark fuzzy objects were all dropped, Mrs. Duck perched for a moment on the edge of the nest, then she glided to the ground below. Then Mrs. Duck nudged each little black object, and quacked a sharp command. She marched off down the ravine with the fourteen baby ducks walking in a neat parade behind her. One little duck seemed rather stun- ned by his experience, and sat right where he had landed. He seemed very much alone. He was cold and hungry and his mother was gone. Mrs. Duck by this time had reached the stream at the bottom of the ra- vine. She quacked loudly to her brood, waddled to the edge of the water and then went in. Promptly her brood followed. Now Mrs. Duck led her brood across the stream. When they reached the other side, she found a place for them to climb the bank. She led them down the path to a deep thickness of leaves. Here Mrs. Duck hollowed out a soft nest and coaxed her ducklings to join her. Proudly she looked at them. They were a handsome family. But sudden-