Somerville High School - Radiator Yearbook (Somerville, MA)

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SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR 9 breaking eggs. I forgot to say that we sign some sort of a bill of sale of the rug to Mr. Prentiss until it’s disposed of.” Peggy and her father immediately left the store and hastened to the bank triumphantly. A week later the rug came and Peggy, with her letter of notification to Mr. Russel), written in advance, went out to mail it. The rug found a conspicuous place in the window, and Peggy, on her way back, stopped to look at it. Just at this moment, Peggy heard a shriek and turning about saw flames shooting out of a window in Robbins’ shirt factory not more than three blocks away. She ran to the place where the crowd was gathering, and as she looked up at the burning roof, she saw three girls. Peggy told one of the firemen, but he told her that nothing could save them, as the town had not been furnished with a fire net and it was impossible to get to the top of the build- ing. The girl thought for a moment, then with a shriek she ran to the store, dragging a young fireman with her. “Quick, the Persian rug-------- it will save them------hurry.” As there were only a few minutes left before the walls would collapse, it made it impossible to explain to the bewildered, red Armenian clerk, who was urg- ing them not to take so costly a rug. As Peggy reached the foot of the building, one of the girls was about to jump when Peggy shrieked to her. The girl could not understand, so she leaped, but was caught in the rug which had now been turned into a net. The second girl leaped and was caught, then the third, and the rug gave way in the middle. After the excitement was over, Peggy went to see just how much damage had been done to the rug. when Mr. Russell came into the store. Both Peggy and her father tried to conceal the hole, but truthful Peggy turned to Mr. Russell and said, “Mr. Russell, there has been a fire as you know, and as Hillsdale is not supplied with a fire net. I had them use this rug. Of course, it is not good to you now. but to me it means a great deal, as it saved three girls’ lives.” Mr. Hayden, surprised by the confession, tried to explain further. Mr. Russell interrupted, “You certainly are a life saver as well as an efficient business woman. I must confess to you that the rug seems more to me now than it did when I first saw it a few days ago. when I chanced to go bv here. I am the rightful owner of the Rob- bins’ factory and the town has asked me to build a fire escape for over a year, but I kept putting it off. If you had not used that rug. I should have been put in a prison, responsible for three ciris’ lives. Here, please accept my check for $3,350 and send the rug to my home in New York just as it is.” Hn ©ointon Cbangefc GlaDvs JE. Beefier, I ERE. at last, we are to have a va- cation ! No more school for a week, and that means no more home lessons. Wish I never had to go to school anyway. It’s all foolishness learning ancient his- tory. and all such crazy stuff. I believe I’ll say I’m sick and not go to school any more.” Clara sat looking out the window, filled with thoughts of her dislike for school. Someone rapped on the door and she snapped out. “Oh, come in.” The door opened and a tall girl of sixteen entered. “Well. Clara, are you glad or sorry to have a vacation? I can’t say truthfully that I am glad school is closed, although I am tired.” “Well. Edith, perhaps you arc not glad, but I can say with the utmost truth that I wish every school building in Christendom would be burnt and that we would all be so old when they got them rebuilt, that they couldn’t make us go anv more. “You never need worry when reports come out. because you are always sure you will never find even a ‘C’ on your card, while the only thing I ever get a ‘B’ in is algebra, and that is easier than anything else,” replied Clara. “Well, how do you look at school? Will you please tell me how you feel when you get up in the morning, and think of school?” “When I get up in the morning, I always think of the horrid old prison I have got to be penned up in all day and recite horrid old good-for-nothing lessons. I don’t think any one really cares for school, do you. Edith? Tell me. honestly now. don’t you look at school just the same as I do?” “No. Clara.” replied Edith, “I never think of school as a prison, or lessons as good for noth- ing. When I wake up in the morning, I al- ways feel very happy, to think that I am not crippled, or sick, so that I can not go to school. Ever since I was a wee little girl in the pri- mary grades. I always have thought of school as something to love and as almost sacred. School has always seemed to me like some big-game in which every person, at some time, takes his or her part. Each grade, each division, and

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8 SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR t bc Persian IRitg iKleu 3. Itomenfta, 191(5 8 L L“5 ,.ELL. Peg?” H Yy j Oh. Daddy. Mr. Russell wants to D lSbii sec the big one. He doesn’t know a thing about rugs, but he picked this out of the set 1 showed him.” Peggy’s eyes, to her father’s surprise, were dancing. However, he did not see anything in that statement to bring her joy. “I told you not to take that photograph, daughter.” He spoke slowly and dispiritedly. ”1 thought that would be his choice if lie wanted any. and we haven’t fourteen hundred dollars in the bank to put up for it.” “Never mind about the money. Daddy dear.” With this assertion. Peggy ran across the office to her father, rumpled his hair and gave him an encouraging squeeze. “If Mr. Russell wants that Persian rug. he will have it. I told him he could have it. but I also told him that we couldn’t get it here without at least a guaran- tee of expense, and lie gave me his check for fifty dollars immediately. About how much money could you get on a ‘return order’?” “We have four hundred odd in Hie bank. Peg, that’s all. And Basso Brothers have all our notes that they will take. We’ll just have to let the chance go by.” “We will just do nothing of the sort. Daddy.” Peggy Hayden was emphatic. “You know that poor Tom needs that trip this summer, and the profit on that rug would--------oh. it would do lots of pleasant things. I’m going out now to get the other thousand dollars.” “But. daughter, you------” But Peggy had gone. Her father sighed and shook his head. When Mr. Hayden’s fortune had been swept away in a panic, he had been brave enough to begin business over again, and held his head high even at the sign “Hay- den Daughter. Rugs and Antiques.” which had caused so much comment upon its quaint- ness. Mr. Hayden had been forced into the business of rug-collecting to support his in- valid son, who. the doctor said, must go abroad in the summer. In spite of the good man’s fears. Hayden Daughter succeeded— how much because of Peggy’s energy, no one, perhaps, but Peggy herself knew. “But then,” she confided to her crippled brother, “what’s the use of having half a col- lege education if you can’t make good? Rugs and antiques are all father knows, and I know more about them than anything else, and that isn’t much.” Peggy demonstrated that, if she didn’t know much about rugs and antiques, she could learn. One essential reason for Hayden Daughter’s prosperity was that Peggy never could wait to have people come to the store, but if they ever asked to see a certain article and promised that they would buy it some day. the young sales- woman would send letter after letter to their home, thus making the customers remember their promises, and procuring sales. Buyers knew that when the firm guaranteed a rug or bronze carving, the article was of value and worth buying, and Peggy guarded this reputa- tion as her greatest and most valuable stock in trade. Now came the opportunity which Mr. Russell saw only as a calamity. Peggy had. in her own words, “tackled” Mr. Russell, whom she coveted as a customer, and succeeded in get- ting him to “bite” on a photograph of a beau- tifully colored and designed Persian rug. It was a huge, antique pedigree, priced at $2,250. Basso Brothers wanted to sell it at wholesale for $1,100 and ship it from New York on a “return-if-unsold” agreement. “And where is she going to get the thousand dollars----” Poor Mr. Hayden shook his white head, and drearily went to a drawer to pore over a bank book. “It is all fixed. Daddy,” she cried, some time later, as she rushed into the room. “Now come over to the bank, and we'll send the draft; and the rug will come, and Mr. Russell will buy it, and Dmi shall have his trip, and you can keep that silk Mecca you want so badly, and I’ll have a new dress, and-------” Peggy stopped short for want of breath and Mr. Hayden stood looking at his daughter as though some ghost had shadowed his path. “Daughter, what are you talking about? Where did you get the money?” “Win. Dad! Where would I get it? From the bank, of course. I went to Mr. Prentiss, the president, showed him the check from Mr. Russell, told him what I wanted the money for. and showed him the photo of the rug. Me said it was very unusual, but he said he’d sign the note for the second name himself. I--------” “Peg. I can’t believe it. Why, it isn’t good business. And Mr. Prentiss of all people. Peg-----” “Don’t look at me like that. It’s really so. You haven’t forgotten that I roomed with Molly. Mr. Prentiss’ daughter, at Wellesley, have you? There is more than one way to make an omelet, if they all do start with

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IO SOMERVILLE HIGH SCHOOL RADIATOR each individual play a part in it. It is really a game that you play all through life. In school each has a goal ahead of him, or her, that he wants to reach. Some place their goal higher than others. Everyone wants to stand as high in their studies as they can. School is even better than any game that there is in the world, because in school everyone must work in order to get ahead and in a game it is only l y chance that one wins. I think, Clara, if you look at school as I do, you will be sorry to hear the gong ring at one-thirty, and the only reason you will be glad of a vacation, is so you wiil get rested and be better fitted for work when you go back. Will you try my way of thinking of school, and I think by the time reports come out you will be a happier girl.” Clara played the game successfully, and when the next report came out, she was very happy, just as Edith said she would be. On her report she had all “.Vs” and “B’s” and two “D’s” made up. When she told Edith she said. “Oh. Edith, I have been playing your game and feel much differently towards school than 1 ever expected to. I think if more girls would play your game they would be much happier.” £om Male’s Determination Phillips B. TRcpes, 1917 B OM Wade lay on the lounge in his warm, cozy den, looking disconso- lately out of the window at the street before his house. He eyed the busy thoroughfare, teeming with bustling activity, with unseeing eyes, all his thoughts being centred upon a cold, inanimate, lifeless form that lay buried under the ground in the nearby cemetery. His father—his own dear father—had finally succumbed to a long and painful illness a few days before and had passed on quietly and peacefully during the night, leaving sixteen- year old Tom, his mother and baby sister Betty alone in the world. His last words, as Tom and his mother watched at his bedside on the fatal night, were: “Toni, my boy. try to bear up under this mis- fortune and don’t be discouraged. I know I’m going soon, and I want you to take my place as far as possible. Here is a letter to Mr. Picker- ing. i f Pickering Co’s big department store, my intimate friend, who will give you a place, I think, as in all probability it will be neces- sary for you to go to work.” Here a severe coughing spell set in. and for a moment’s space Mr. Wade’s emaciated frame was racked with hard, dry coughs, while his face wore the expression of one who had long been resigned to pain. “I will, father,” said Tom. with a voice that quivered with emotion, for it was evident, even to the inexperienced eyes of the boy, that his father was rapidly approaching his. end, and Tom shivered inwardly at the thought. Presently the sick man rallied and said with difficulty: “Good-bye, my lad. Remember to t-t-t-take----.” and then Mr. Wade relapsed into that deep, peaceful sleep from which there is no awakening. The misfortune mentioned by Mr. Wade hap- pened two days before his death and had the bad effect of hastening his end. It came about in this way. James Fowler, the cashier of the P-------Bank, where Mr. Wade had some five thousand dollars, his sole property, had been in the habit of taking large sums of money, at different intervals, from the bank for the pur- pose of speculating. As is usually the case, his speculations proved a total failure, and overcome with despair at the thought of fac- ing his employers under such conditions, he fled the city. T he bank failed and was able to pay only ten cents on a dollar to its depositors, leaving the Wade family barely five hundred dollars in- stead of five thousand, which would have made it possible for Tom to finish his course in the high school he had been attending successfully for two years. As it was, however, it seemed certain that Tom would have to leave school, and work for the support of his mother and sister. Do not get the impression that Tom wanted to leave school, in fact he did not like the idea in the least, but he had no alternative. He had stowed the letter given him by his father safely away in his pocket, meaning to see Mr. Pickering about it on the morrow. After a late supper, Tom retired determined to fulfill the promise made to his father, that is, to support his mother and sister, and to care for them faithfully. On the following morning Tom presented the note to Mr. Pickering, and making a good im- pression on that gentleman with his gentle- manly manners and observant ways, was of- (Continued ou m«k«