Soldan High School - Scrip Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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Barbara, he pleaded, do you think that a trifling incident like that is sufficient cause for breaking an engagement? No, but there are other incidents which I feel it would be useless to enumerate, and other stronger ties. which demand consideration. Bacon's face was flushed, he hesitated a moment, arose, affected a grim smile, and said: Then, it is time for me to leave. Sometimes I have tried to conceive of something really hard-a man's proposition- which a young man might have to face. This is one, I'm sure. This infernal and awful war with all its pangs of misery has, after all, its gentle side. g Following him to the door, she bade him a cold farewell. Good- night, Mr. Bacon, and good success ! I am not thinking of success just now, he said, half to himself. Good-night, Barb-Miss Thomas. Three months elapsed and Bacon was a first-class English private in a training camp in France. He had immediately joined the army after that memorable evening, and he had assumed a passive, subservient outlook upon life. Promotion was offered to him, but he had rejected itg a private was his sole ambition. The next day Private Bacon was conducted to the guardhouse. He found himself seated on a small bench with another victim, back against back, stooping over with their elbows on their knees, faces on their palms, as if plunged in deep deliberation. In fact, they were thinking of nothing. Then, simultaneously, both abandoned their pensive posi- tions, turned around, and faced each other. Bacon finally generated enough energy to ask his co-offender what had brought him there. Me ?,' he asked, nothing, nothing. Then you're here for the same crime that I'm here! said Bacon with an ironic grin that had become characteristic of him. I did absolutely nothing, came back the other. I was on sentry duty last night, and you know what a miserable night it was. Well, you know what we are commanded to say when a party comes up to enter the camp: for them to halt and one of them to come up and be recognized, while the others mark time. And you know how strict the oilicers are about us carrying out orders implicitly. Well, last night about ten o'c1ock I heard two people coming. I said, 'Who goes there ?' 'Captain of Co. D and wife!' he said. I said, 'Captain of Co. D, advance and be recognized, and wife mark time !' You poor loon ! said Bacon, as he was moved to a real smile for the first time in a month. At least that's a pretty good excuse for sticking you in here. They have docked me for less than that ! I sure would like to hear it! It's impossible, said the other, con- Hndently. We'll see. Last night I was engaged in the same business as you. About midnight I heard some kind of noise and I hollered out, 'Who goes there?' 'Officer of the dayl' he answered. 'OH-icer of the day,' said 20

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Q' 'J 'I-17 .Q 15:-1,326 1 -A g et 5s . g, , ff l, ,-iils-1-.tg -- 4133 'I'm so glad, Jimmie. But that is not what I wanted to talk to you about. What in the world are you driving at, Bobby? Speak! commanded the bewildered Bacon. Jimmie, she said quietly, I must tell you that our engagement is at an end. Recent events have led me to believe that father is quite right-about you-about Americans. What's wrong? he demanded, stunned. Wrong? Everything! Father has always allowed me full freedom, as you know, perhaps it has been unfortunate. He always was opposed to our engagement, but he would not stand in my way. And mother has her own favorites. Still, I have stubbornly persisted in my ways. Somehow, Jimmie, your frank, open manners, your-well-what you Americans aptly call pluck, nerve-somehow these traits had a peculiar fascination for me. Unfortunately, though, you have proved yourself unworthy of the love of an English girl. It's strange, he replied, that I've been good enough until now. And just at a time when-but, no, Barbara, you can't turn me away like this. You can at least give me a concrete and definite reason for it, besides your father's prejudice. Prejudice! she retorted, all the prejudice in the world would not make me change my mind. Until last night my father's objections, to me, too, were prejudice. But when prejudice proves to be well founded, then it ceases to be such, and in my father's case, it becomes sagacious admonition. Imagine me walking into the opera last night with my parents and seeing my fiance gayly engaged in the entertainment of another one of his 'friends' ! That was Dorothy Coverdale, he answered calmly, we used to go to school together in Denver, and she has just come to London. I do not understand you in the least, Barbara. Oh, yes, one of your old friends! she snapped. Think of my humiliation when father saw it. Think of the things he had to say to me. What could he say? 'Look, Bab, there is the man you propose to marry! Why, yes, that young American likes you quite as well as he loves his other friends! I tell you, Bab, these Americans do not take life seriously. They are mutable, fickle, inconsistent. When James Bacon is not calling on you, he is visiting somebody else, and it will be the same after he has married you.' At last the terrible truth struck me and-- I can't believe it! Bacon thundered. It is ridiculous, absurd. Barbara, I tell you it is nothing less than petty jealousy! James, she said sternly, you are certainly mistaken. Keeping company with several women at the same time may be correct etiquette with American young men, but in England it is intolerable and out of the question. Holding a small ring on the palm of her hand, she added: We will speak no more on the subject, Mr. Bacon! 19

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l ,Is gi.-v - -.4-f-L,-.st-:Ji:.fT.A. ..:Y,-,-gi.,-1,'?, W - riff? 9 , KFL . ss -fi 34 L, '5'-..ig .s1f,fr, .W- I, 'what in the deuce are you doing out here at night? Advance and be recognized? I recognized him all right! It was Lieutenant Cunning- ham, and he dispatched me hither this morning ! On a dark night a couple of months later a party for laying wire entanglements was preparing to go into No man's Land to reinforce the impedimenta, as Julius Caesar used to say. One of the six that were going to make the perilous and hazardous undertaking was Bacon. By this time he had been thoroughly hardened, he had forced himself to become a disciple of fatalism-he reveled in any obstacles and reverses which fate might choose to hurl against him. Besides, Bacon had all the qualities of a real man, minus ambition. The barbed wire squad jumped over the trenches and they were soon at the place of their destination. They quickly got down to work, and for the first hour much was accomplished, then a strange tap! tap ! was heard. Bacon stopped pounding for a minute Che was the post driverj. At first it was thought that the sound was merely the echo of Bacon's sledge-harnmer. But the echoes went on long after Bacon's pounding was stopped. Soon it dawned on them that it was some Germans, not far away, engaged in the self-same work! Huh! said one of the men. I hope those Huns don't begin shooting. I wouldn't be surprisedf' added another. It would be just like them, boys, whispered the sergeant, but we've got to Finish this job. On with the work! said the grim and dauntless American, as he raised the ponderous hammer and took a full swing at his post. But he struck too hard, and the handle broke in such a way as to render the hammer useless. Well, said Bacon sardonically, I've done it! And this is the only one we brought with us. Gentlemen, we shall proceed no further in this business. I move we adjourn ! Sir, reprimanded the sergeant, parliamentary procedure will not help to tangle up the enemy. Give me that broken handle! Meanwhile you had better have a seat before one of those Prussian gentlemen on the other side chooses you, admonished another. That reminds me, said Bacon, not taking the least heed to his fellow-soldier's suggestiong those fellows have quit hammering, too. Maybe they don't need their sledge. Shall I go over and ask Fritz if he can spare us one? Private Bacon! retorted the sergeant, that will be enough fool- ishness from youg lie down and wait for orders ! In accordance with his superior's commands, Bacon stretched out his body on the ground 3 using his elbow for support, he rested his head on the palm of his left hand, while he laid his right on the length of his upper side. just then a volley of missles was rapidly making its way 21