Shields High School - Patriot Yearbook (Seymour, IN)

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grown by its master, who would be only too glad to give it as a Christmas gift to a little lame boy. Oh ! Happy thought ! She had found a plan. She decided to use that fifty cents to pay for an advertisement in the paper for a hobby horse. She remem- bered that Mr. O ' Donnel had once said, It pays to advertise. That night after much deliberation, Zandra put her advertisement together. After it was finished, it looked something like this: Poor little lame boy would like a second-hand hobby horse. If you have any to give, please leave it at 1420 Small Street in the alley, back of the house. She hoped Mr. and Mrs. ' Donnel would not read the ad in the paper and that they would have company Christmas Eve, so the coast would be clear. Her wish came true, for company carried the O ' Donnels to the movies and Zandra was left to herself. Presently she heard the whirr of a car, and looking out of the pantry window, she saw the glaring headlights of the car piercing the darkness. The auto stopped, a man got out and set a hobby horse under the specified maple tree. Zandra leaped with joy, and ran down the alley to see the horse safely placed in the Gorgan ' s back yard. As she tripped gayly back to her home, she saw beneath the maple tree another horse. She listened as she heard the merry voices of carol singers, coming down the alley. Don ' t they sound happy, she said to herself, and won ' t D enny be the very picture of happiness when he sees two ' harses ' instead of one. Here ' s the horsey you wanted, one of them cried, coming nearer. Thank you, said Zandra, but you must have wanted it awful bad yourself. Her heart moved with kindness at their liberality. ' ' Not like we wanted the little lame boy to have it, ' ' he answered moving on. Altogether there were eight donations. Some were certainly objects for the tender ministrations of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but would have appealed to the heart of any boy. In spite of the fact that it was a holiday and the O ' Donnels had a late breakfast, Zandra was delighted to find that the Gorgans, too, had arisen late. To be able to behold the joy on Deniry ' s face when he first beheld the chargers was itself Christmas present enough for Zandra. When she saw Mrs. Gorgan, she was just turning unbelievingly from the window. Holy Mither of Moses! she ejaculated. Harses, gasped Denny. I wished for one and I prayed for one, and now I got more.

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MARY VIRGINIA BROWN. AD it not been for little Denny Gorgan, Zandra Ma- horney, who lived next door to him, might have con- sidered her lot a hard one. Zandra was, as she her- self explained, A perfect orphan, with not even so much as a grandmother, ' ' while Denny had a drunken father, a step-mother, a step-brother, and oceans and oceans of other steps in his family. She was sorry for him and would often tell him stories to take his mind away from conditions around him. She would tell him how little boys who had been good all the year would write a letter to Santa Claus, telling him what they wanted most, and how he would usually bring it. As that was last Fourth of July, Zandra (she was called that because her mistress thought that Alexandria was not a fitting name for a kitchen maid) thought that surely by Christmas poor little lame Denny would forget all about it ; but he did not. He had asked for a horse and when Zandra asked him if two handkerchiefs would not do, he drew his sleeve across his upturned nose and replied, I don ' t nade ' em and I want a harse. Poor Zandra ! What could she do ! She had only fifty cents to her name, and that she had seen Mr. Gorgan drop from his dirty handkerchief, when he had told Father Cassidy how sick he had been. He had been so sick, he said, that he had been seein ' things. First it was fleas, then it was bumble bees, and last it was eats, ad- mitted Mr. Gorgan. You see, ' things ' get larger and larger and more dangerous, said Father Cassidy, If you don ' t stop drinking pretty soon, your days are numbered. Then the two men had walked on, leaving the fifty cent piece in the grass. Right then and there Zandra decided that Denny should have a Christmas gift purchased with his own father ' s money. But how could a harse, a rocking harse big enough for Denny, be purchased for fifty cents! She might go to a second-hand store and perchance find something there that would answer the purpose of a horse, or she might purchase one on the installment plan, but when would she, a mere kitchen maid ever pay the remainder ! Then one morning, as she was hanging up clothes, she happened to think that hobby horses were things not easily broken, but more easily outgrown. Around in the neighborhood there might be a hobby horse that had been out-

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You prayed too hard, replied Mrs. Gorgan. Mr. Gorgan, who had spent the evening before in town, came slowly into the room. He gave one look at the window, fell back, and made a dash for the door. Where on earth are you going, now? asked his wife. To Father Cassidy, to make a pledge, he answered. Things keep a ' gitten ' bigger and bigger and now I ' m seein ' unicorns. rHE RIflbW5 G MATHILDE KESSLER, ' 22. IVE me the welcomin ' han ' , Ah — Melicans, welcome me — do! I come far away to this Ian ' To begin life afresh, life anew. Don ' laugh at ma funny ole face! I know these clothes — they all queah, But — gie me the welcomin ' hand, Instead of that laugh, and a jeer! Ah come heah to work an ' to live, In this Ian ' of ma long-ago dreams, So — gie me the welcomin ' hand, A regula ' smile full o ' beams. Ah, Melicans surely are happy, Now— make me a happy one, too ; Oh — gie me the welcomin ' hand, Oh, Melicans ! welcome me — do !