Scarborough High School - Four Corners Yearbook (Scarborough, ME)

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14 THE FOUR CORXERS was a continuous roar and the flashes of lightning were blinding. Suddenly there was a ferritic crash and the sound of splintering wood. Ellen heard the screams of the children as parts of the building fell and burst into flames. Every¬ body rushed for the door and the passage was soon blocked with terrified children. Xo one knew how it happened, but everyone listened as a commanding voice, with n foreign accent, said, “bine up ! ' ? The children felt themselves being pushed into line and then they marched out. As Ellen watched the last one. the girl with the brown curls, go by her into the open, there was a crocking and. before she could move, a large piece of burning wood came crashing down, and Ellen was pinned beneath it. When she awoke, she saw her teacher standing beside her with a large hunch of roses in her arms. ‘■Oh. dev is pretty 1” Ellen murmured. Her teacher smiled down at her. “The ■children sent you these. she said. “They were so ashamed when you were taken to the hospital from the fire that they haven ' t felt right since. Every day they have in¬ quired about you and asked when they will be able to see yon. You were so brave at the tire that it has taught them a lesson that they will not forget soon ' “You rink dev vill like meT Ellen queried. “Why, they all like you now, Ellen, and they are so sorry for the way thev treated you. Will you forgive them ' f The happy tears rolled down Ellens checks. “Course, i’ll forgive deni ! ’ she an¬ swered. “I so glad I eonie to dis America!” A. E. F., ’33. THE SPELL OF THE CARIBEES A moon like a great red lantern hung motionless in the purple sky as tin gray yacht. Coral, slid through the still Hahn mu wa t ors. By the lee rail stood two figures side by side. A voice, that of a girl, rose soft and low like a sigh on the tropical night. “Oh. Daddy! It ' s so lovely, so gorgeous! I hadn ' t dreamed it was like this! Another voice answered. It was that of a man. “Because yon were young then and were used to such dreary surroundings ' “Daddy, why is it this Mack ' Del- monte has so much power over yon? lie seems to have you right under his fingers. “Anlell. dear girl, lest you should for¬ get. yon must take all of these splendid nights and enjoy them, for we know not what is to come. With these words lie left her. Anlell had already entered the land of thought. She recalled the little island be¬ tween Hairi and Cuba. She recalled her childhood there. Martin Drummond, her father, had been .lack Dclmonte ' s partner in those days. Together they owned the pineapple plantation that nearly covered the island. Even then, Del monte had been the more important partner, though much younger, and with every passing year her father ' s interest waned. Anlell also re¬ called the time when her father had re¬ linquished the captaincy of the yacht in favor of Del monte. Then, when she was fourteen years of age. she was sent away to school in Massa¬ chusetts. What had happened afterwards at the island Ardell had no way of know¬ ing. But now she would soon know, for she wa is going hack there, after four years of fashionable school that had seen her blossom from a tow-headed girl into a brown-haired young woman.

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L A LESSON IN CITIZENSHIP Ellon bad just conic over from Holland. Sho was very anxious to get acquainted with flic American children and to see wonderful America, about which she had heard so much. It was a bright morning in September when little Ellen started out for her first- day in an American school. How happy she was! How she had dreamed of it in Holland and imagined how nice the girls would be to her! What a good time she thought she would have 1 As she came into the schoolyard, she saw all the girls, with their pretty colored dresses, talking and laughing together. As she drew near, they stopped and stared at her. She went past them into the school¬ room. The teacher came to her and told her she could listen to the lessons today until she understood what she wanted to take besides English. Then she told her she could go out and play with the other girls until school started. So Ellen went out.happily and walked towards a group of girls. As she drew near, the girls pretended not to see her and walked away whispering among them¬ selves. She heard one of thorn say, as she passed, “See what funny shoes she wears. We don’t want her with us. She would be sure to disgrace us.” Ellen felt a big lump in her throat. She turned away from the girls and started for 1 lie schoolroom. Oh, how she wished she was hack in dear old Holland, where every¬ one was always kind to strangers! How glad siie would be when school was over! Then she heard the bell ring and saw all the children flocking into the school- house, so she followed the rest, and when she was inside the teacher showed her a seat beside a pretty girl with brown curls. She was so pretty that Ellen smiled at her. When she saw Ellen looking at her, she turned her head the other way and whis¬ pered something to the girl on the other side, who giggled. Ellen felt the lump in her throat again and this time her eye¬ lashes were wet, but she tried to hide them. The forenoon passed and noon came. Ellen tried to eat some of the lunch which her mother had put up so carefully for her, but the food seemed to stick in her throat. Finally the afternoon bell rang and Ellen listened carefully to the lessons. Suddenly she looked out of the window and was surprised to see that the sky was black in the west with thunder heads and the wind was whistling through the trees. She turned her attention to the lesson again, but she could not keep her mind on it. The thunder rumbled in the distance. Then it came nearer and the rain fell in torrents. The thunder increased until it

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THE FOUR CORNERS 15 The moment she had stopped on the Coral to sail home, she met a tall, dark, manly, young fellow 1 y the name of Hilly Wright. She liked him very much and her falher did, also. Billy eared little for the captain and would hardly take orders from him. There seemed also to he a strain of dislike between the two of them. It existed to such an extent that Dclmontc would hold a mysterious little sneer while in Billy’s company. As time passed, the two became hitter enemies, hardly speaking to each other. It. happened that one day, as Ardell was coming from her cabin below, she beard her father and the captain talking in harsh tones. So she stopped on the stairs to listen. She heard the rough voice of Del monte, “Remember, Drummond, I paid her way through that school and I’ll have her, or you give me what it cost to put her through!” A faint feeling came over her. So Dclmontc had financed her way through school. If she had only known! It was too late now, however. Tier father, she knew, was penniless. Again that harsh voice. “It was her mother’s wish that she should go there. Only for me, it wouldn’t have been car¬ ried out!” Her mother! Ardell had never known her mother. She had died on the island when Ardell was hut a baby. That night Ardell didn’t sleep well. For hours she tossed, wondering, won¬ dering what tomorrow and all her tomor¬ rows would bring. She awoke with a ray of early morning sun streaming gayly through the porthole. Then, after a lazy yawn or two, she leaped out of bed and pattered to the port¬ hole. St ail ding on her toes, she peeped through it with a gasp of joy. She not only was greeted by a calm sea and a blue sky, hut hv a green fringe of shore lino. “An island, ' she murmured. “Oh, it ' s wonderful!” Then she recalled the events of the day before and her gay mood darkened, like a cloud passing over the sun. As she wandered up on the deck, she walked to the rail. A spell seemed to hover between the azure sea and sky, an enchant¬ ment, mystic and beautiful, ft was the spell of the Oaribees. Then she turned as if in a dream and saw Hilly in his overalls washing the deck. So that old captain set him to do that! Slic’d see about that! The boy saw her troubled look and said, with a pleasant smile, “I’m having a won¬ derful time, so don’t bother the 4 Cap ' by any angry words over me.” Then she told him what she had heard Dclmontc tell her father the day before. She saw a sweep of anger pass over the boy’s face. Then he said, “Don’t you worry, Miss Drummond. The crew is with me and if Dclmontc means to get fnnnv, we’ll just fix him!” The rest of the day rolled along very slowly for Ardell, although the Coral slid like a dream through the enchanted sea. At last th e long day ended in a flaming tropic sunset. Higlit fell. A million stars came out. The red moon again lmng like a lantern in the purple sky. The next morning when Ardell awoke, she knew at once that they had reached the island. As Ardell gazed out at the island’s beauty, a thousand memories of her childhood stirrnl in her. She had raced along that white-sanded beach, swam in the blue water, and climbed those palm trees! How happy she had been! But