Salem High School - Clarion Annual Yearbook (Salem, OR)

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THE CLARION For The Honor of The Classof l07 AVA SHIRLEY, i07. iSecond Prize Storyl. RET dropped his geometry and buried his head in his arms. Pshaw! What a fool he was, he, the iiclodhopper, the iiRubef even to think of it! But how the Professor,s words rang in his ears. The President would give a hundred-dollar check to the University man who would win out in the mile race, and this in addition to the medal already up for the Victor. A hundred dollars! What wouldnlt it do for him! A hundred dollars, and he need not quit the work here, where he knew he would succeed, and go back to the drudgery of the farm. A hundred dollars. He rose from his chair and going over to a small mirror on the wall, he pushed back the mat of hair from his forehead with a heavy, dark hand. How they would laugh,,he though bitterly, when Professor Elliot read in chapel that Bret Willard would go in training for the track team. He could almost hear their jeers now, when first the iiclodhopper should appear on the field. Then a change came over him. His eyes lost their look of wistful patience and his face settled to an expression of bull- dog determination. He squared his great shoulders angrily. wLet them laugh? to the reflection in the mirror, iiLet them, but 1,11 go in for the mile race-and Iill go in to win. Bret was undoubtedly iicountriiiedf, No one, not even his friends, had he been fortunate enough to possess any, could have denied that. True, he had improved greatly since his entrance to school a year before. His coat sleeves no longer exposed his big, toil hardened hands and red, rough wrists. He always wore collars now, too, and ties, but there were still the drooping shoulders, the mat of unkempt hair, and the awkward shambling feet he could never conveniently place. $ 916 :1: :1: $ $ $ The boys had been training under Laughlin for a month and the change was a marked one. Bret was there, but no longer the country guy of a month before. When Professor Elliot had read Bret,s name among the names of those who would go in training there had been a titter from the girls, side of the chapel, and an illy concealed laugh from the boys. When he had lined up with the men on that never-to-be-forgotten first day, the ripple of mirth that started, burst into a roar, when some one shouted from the gym steps, iiSay, Rube, youire 11013 following a plow now, remember. Two of the men did not laugh. Bret and the trainer Who saw and understood the patient pain in the boys eyes. Walking up

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28 THE CLARION to him Laughlin passed his hand over Bretis arms and chest and striking him sharply between the shoulders he exclalmed, Stralghten up man, and you,ll do! Then the boys understood that Bret had the trainer on his side, and so on the field and in the gym at least, their persecutlon 0f him ended. Then as time went on, and under the imaglc of the tralner the boys shoulders straightened up, his body, the surplus. flesh gone, lost its awkward angles, and the muscles stood out. llke whip cords on his magnificent arms, the others began to respect hlm for what he was, the best man in training, and treated him accordingly. Bret, in tune, forgot, or at least forgave, all the past injuries and wrote buoyantly to the old father and mother at home of his successes. Then, in accordance with the loving teaching of the little mother, he knelt by his bedside and in the language of a child thanked God for his good fortune. But one day there came trouble for Bret in the form of a new man up for the mile race. Miles Smith, smiling, effdmiinate, and polite to a fault, carried an element of discord into the track work, from the hour he made his appearance at the University. In the gym he was quick as a cat and when, the second day after his arrival, he and Bret went twice around the track, Bret knew that he had an opponent at home, and that the hundred dollars was much farther from him than it had been before Smithis arrival. Smith, on the other hand, understood the situation thor- oughly, and he began under a cloak of smiles and smooth phrases a series of petty insults and annoyances to Bret, that only a small mind could conjure. :1: 9k 3k 3: 9k $ 93 It was an ideal day for the meet. The sun shone and the birds sang and the wind that blew up from the lake was cool and fresh and good to feel. Bret was talking to Beth Morgan and explaining something to her about the disc throwing which was in progress, when Smith, omitting any apology, slipped his arm through Bretis, saying, tiCome on, Willard, you,re wanted at the gym? Since Miles Smith entered the University he had assumed an air of proprietorship over Beth Morgan, that Bret found exceedingly galling. Not that he ever dreamed of interfering, for he deemed Beth as far above him as the angels themselves, but every one knew how he cared for her, and his face flamed a dull red under his companions look and words. Beth understood all, and as the two men turned to leave her, she snatched ' a bow of University colors from her penant and pressing them into Bretis hand said, itFor the honor of the old University and our class of i07 ! Good luck to youlii The first half mile had not been hard, though Bret, though the men from the Opposing school had been easily distanced and all the home men .l in aw 1h .fn 03319.! l l ,4, Jsfl'l 'f 5' :JAI . y hr 3;! 933wth - 3:: ;;Q o 4333 rm ! 5 mark :1 3 kn : ?gfl Ht 'xfofolld im' ,sz hr IL. 5'2 mm 3 93' lint mm a: tafwr :1 11:11 at: :3: am?! EWI! 1.! 11m m: tuftrr Int 12;: 9.: mm um :t' W? l i