San Diego State University - Del Sudoeste Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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the shoulders. She jerked him into place and then shook him hard. Billy was fearfully frightened that time. After a while he became used to teachers, as he had got used to long-horned steers on the prairie; but the teachers never got used to Billy. with his penchant for squirming and doing things. That first year, or I might say that first day, Iilly became known as a naughty boy; the next year he was known as a bad boy; and after that he himself knew that he was had and was proud of his badness. Many things are found and lost at the red brick school. 3illy found his reputation there that first day, but he never lost it: it clung to him in the strange adhesive way of reputations. and as he passed along his reputation went along with him as his shadow did. sometimes poking far out in advance. sometimes trailing- behind, but always with him. CHAP'IIIER 11. At thirteen Hilly was promoted to the sixth grade. He was tired of pun- ishments and corrections and had made up his mind to do better. In a few days, however, he decided that it was no use-his reputation had been pro- moted before he was. Every time the class laughed or anything unusual happened the teacher pounced on him. He gave up trying. and lapsed hack into his old troublesome ways. One day Billy was kept in at recess for sticking gum in the Italian g'irlIs hair. The teacher was very cross. IISharpen these lead pencils. she said. for punishment, and see that you dmft get any litter on the Hoorf' She opened the little white box to hand him her pearl handled knife, Hlt is gone. she said. looking; sharply at liilly. u.Do you know where it is? Hilly eyed the box. IINO, I doift know, but maybe Sam does.' ttDid you see him take it? ItNope? tIDid you see him have it ? IINope. uThen how do you know that he has it? III don't know it, but you just ask him. That afternoon Miss Maine did ask Sam, and his face grew very red as he dug down into his pocket and produced the knife. After school Miss Maine did not keep Sam, but took her vengeance out on Dilly. IVilliam, she said, Ithow does it happen that you always know where everything that is lost or stolen has goneim Just figger it out, said Billy. WYell, how did you figure out that Sam had my knife? t'Easyf said Bill. IILook at that dauh of red on the lid of the knife hox. Sam cut his finger at noon and came up here to get a rag and a piece of string out of your drawer, so I knowed that he was in hereathen when I seen this red I says to myself. ISamIS the boy with the knifef I, HVViIliam, said Miss Maine, you are a regular sleuthf A what ? asked Bill. He was used to being called names. but this was a new one. tII mean a detective. ' explained Miss Maine. IT311. said Bill, and puffed out his chest. From this time on his reputa- tion for finding things increased and went along with his reputation for hadness. and was a thing to he gloated over and bragged about. One day the boy in front of him knocked IIillyIs pencil box on the Hoor. HXVilliam. what are you doing? snapped his teacher. Not a darn thing? muttered XVilliam, under his breath. Int Miss Maine's sharp ear caught it and she washed his mouth out with soap and brush. and told him he had said a very dreadful word. 26

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win ! CHAPTERS FROM THE LIFE OF BILLY. By Alberta Filson Watson. CHAPTER I. ILLY came to sehuol two years late. It is an awful thing in llelleview School to be two minutes late; but two years late! what could Billy expect? One glance at the lirst grade teacher told him to expect nothing; his dealings with erabbetl old cow punchers and surly Pima chiefs had taught him not to expect things of people with frowns like hers. The teacher on her part looked at Billy and expected trouble. In the first place, he was two years too old for that grade; in the second place, he was as awkward and restless as a lmlg-earetl colt. llis eight years of life had been spent cracking the long blacksnakes and throwing his lariat in imitation of the cowboys at the mund-up. XYhat had he to th with schools and women? But now the ranch was gone and his father was gone, and his mother had come with him to this far-away California city to live. So here he was in the red brick school-house. He wished he were back home, on the wild eolt's back, or even in the corral with the long-lmrned steers, instead of here before this big woman with the frown; but here he was and here he had to stay. As soon as all the children were in their places, the teacher called nAtten- tion! ' Then she rapped with her pencil and looked straight at Billy. Billy. not knowing what else to do, looked straight back at the teacher. She frowned still more deeply and bore down upon him. Stooping over, she seized his hands and folded them on the edge of the desk, and planted his feet upon the floor under his desk as if she were screwing him down. That is position? she told him. Glancing around Billy saw forty pairs of hands folded on forty desk- tops, and forty pairs of feet planted under the desks in the, same screwed- down position. Forty rigid backs held forty rigid heads upright, and liilly tried to make his back stiff and his head rigid also. Thus he sat and waited. He tried very hard to listen to what the teacher was saying. but it took all of his mind to think of his hands and legs. lle hatl to think very hard about them to keep them still. All his hard little muscles were twitching and crawling under his skin. Those stout arms were used to twirling the long lasso and snapping the leaded whips; those sinewy legs were used to striding the bucking calves and running wild 0n the mesas. Never before hatl llilly been called upon to keep still, and he had to think very hard about his hands and feet. to keep them just as the teacher had put them. The very toes he thought hardest about squirmetl and cried loudest to turn up and wiggle. He fastened his mind on the most refractory leg. but the more he thuught about it the more it wanted to move. Creepy sensations began to wriggle up and down it, crawling and squirming into his very bones. lvhen he could no longer stand the itching, he seized the opportunity to stretch out his legs. while the teacher was writingr 0n the blackboard. She whirled amuml and glared at him and Billy was firmly convinced that she saw out of the back of her head. For a while he kept himself busy trying to figure out how she managed it; but after a time his eyes fell to his folded hands, and immediately thuse interlaced fiingers took a frantic notion to spread themselves. Then his arms began to burn and itch, and his elbow joint gnawed to be straightened out. The teacher was reading, and only the twp of her head was visible as i she pored over the page on her desk. Again to relieve his wretched body. Billy risked her frown. He slid away down in his seat and spread out his -legs and stretched his arms. The teachers voice stopped with a jolt, as if it had been jammed back into her mouth. The next instant she had him by 25

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. ?NWT That night after supper llilly told the boys all about it as they sat on the garbage pails iu the alley. Yep, fellers, he said, she scrubbed my mouth for saying ldarn'; but thatls just her itlea. Everybody's got funny ideas about what's bad and what ainit. Miss Maine thinks 'tlarn' is bad, and ma thinks it ain't. My ma thinks tdam, is bad, and steptlatl he thinks it ain't. Gee! tellers, don t it make you want to bust out and th somethin' fierce when an old hen sticks around sayino; 'ain't he turrible,' and ain't it awful'? Bill paused and thrust his hands into his pockets. He pulled out a bagr of Bull Durham tobacco and rolled a cigarette, while his audience looked on admiringly. ul'lere,s to Miss Maine, and her whoppin lies, he saitl, theatrically. t'I'm goiif to smoke. to show you tobacco won't make a guy tllC in a ht, like she said it would. Does she suppose w , ain't got eyes? Don't we see hun- dreds of men smokin' right along, aml not much bothered with frothing at the mouth? . tl lut you'll get a cancer on your tongue if you smoke long. said the lit- tlest boy. Then I'm going to smoke long to show you she's a liar. said Ilill. Aml with that the boys disbanded for the night. Hilly became a habitual smoker. and the more he smoked the more he wanted to smoke. until at last he smoked almost as much as he swore. I le grew to like the taste of the tobacco way down in his lungs. After a while the twinkle dial in his eyes, and his tleportment went up aml his grade marks went down. The soothing tobacco was deadeningr his activity and curbing his penchant for mischief. A number of things had been lost lately that he could not timl. aml he had failed in the arithmetic examination. llilly realized that his fame aml his powers were slipping from him, but he never thought of tobacco. Miss Maine had men- tioned none of these effects. XYhat use to tell ehiltlren of slow ordinary results? of course they believed ex'erything. and the more drastic the dose the more effective the cure. Tell them the startlingathe one in a million phe- nomenonathat was Miss Maine's way; but it had not worked out with Hilly. CHAPTER III. The first morning of school after llilly was promoted to the eighth grade he came in five minutes late, as usual. and scrutinized the new teacher. She was a big, angular womam with antagonizing corners of righteousness stick- ing out all over her. lilly scrutinized her as he came in and was sorry he had been promoted. Then he looked at the girl across the aisle and was glad. in spite of Miss Maxwell. the teacher. It was the first time he had ever really looked at a girl. and now there was nothing else that he could make himself look at. She was a slim girl with wistful blue eyes and a fuzz of light hair that made a halo around her face. lilly listened intently as Miss Maxwell called the roll. The girl answered as she called Elaine. and llilly was glad she had spoken. for it made her seem more real and less like an angel in a picture. Most of Billyis time was spent watching,r Elaine. and most of Elaine's time was spent reading story books behind her text books. or dreaming- out of the window. One day she looked up from her story and s1 might across at Billy. She had been reading about a Splelltlltl lover. aml was xx'omlering how it would seem to have one. Her eyes fell on Billy. All the other boys were shorter than she was and she couldn't even imagine them into princes 0r lovers. Fancy a lover that one would have to stoop to kiss! lilly was tall and he had wavy hair and he didn't have frecklesaso her eyes fell again on Billy. Just then Billy looked at her. and a deep scarlet Ilyetl her face: then scarlet dyed his face. totx and they both looked away. Later that same tlay lilly forgot to take his Singing-lmok ta the music 27