Sonora Union High School - Green and Gold Yearbook (Sonora, CA)

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-iii GREEN AND GOLD il-.l did not spend them. He let them accumulate and stored them away with the picture, and whenever he would remove the soiled old flag from his pos- sessions to look at them, he would grin and say quite significantly- It serves him right! One day he received a long, sobhy letter from the lady in the picture. She wasn't the Lady of Sandleton at all, but the daughter of the Earl of Saintsbury. At least it was some satisfaction to know that she was somebody after all. But the letter contained some very startling news for Dennis. Since you have shown. your wonderful bravery, the lady wrote, you have grown immensely in father's opinion. At last he has consented to have our marriage ceremony performed, and as soon as possible. We will he in London in about a week, and then may the long planned affair take place. You have been so anxious about it, I know you will accept this news joyfully. One week-seven days. Dennis could not believe it. What would become of him when they found out that he was not Sidney Carlton at all? Then one day passed,-it was only six more now. Then five. After that, another letter came. Father had arranged for it all. Saintsbury, wife, daughter and Uncle Lester-all would be at the hospital the following Wednesday, and with them a minister- Dennis laid the letter down. He had played the game well, so far, but how much longer could he do it? Old Lester Sidney wouldn't know his real nephew from Adam, by sight, but certainly the lady would. What would she say? Well, he would get ready for them and prepare for the worst. Suppressed excitement was visible among the attendants when they heard that a wedding was to take place in the first ward on the Wednesday following, and they made quite a hero out of poor, blushing Dennis. But the thrill got even him, for his little pile of two-pound notes went to buy him a new suit of clothes to be worn on his wedding day. On Sunday, Dennis was permitted to sit up, with the promise that he could be up on Wednesday. On Monday he had a slight relapse, but soon recovered. On Tuesday, another train-load of wounded soldiers from the front were brought to the hospitals, and some of them were brought to the one where Dennis was, and some were even placed in the same ward that he was in. He did not relish this sight, once so familiar to his eyes, but he was too wrapped up in wedding preparations to be much annoyed. After Tuesday came Wednesday. Dennis, all spruced up, sat in a large cushioned chair by a front window, waiting for the awful moment which would bring him his bride. And then he thought of Carlton. Whnt would ne think of it all? But then, as Dennis argued, it serves him right. A handsome motor drove up in front of the hospital, and the occupants alighted. There were two men, a matronly woman in gray, and a young woman in pink. She was to be the bride. They disappeared through the --Page 22- 1 4

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-2--? GREEN AND GOLD -- which came was a real surprise box, for it contained a small box of glace fruit, some sewing materials, with clippings from several papers as well as some poems exalting King George and denouncing the Kaiser. And right in the middle of the box was the biggest surprise of all. It was a large picture of a tall woman seated in a painted garden, a fluffy parasol in her hand, and wearing a large white hat, Into the area of the woman's hat melted the lightly shaded hair, and into the hair, the outlines of the face blended. lt wasn't a very clear picture, Dennis thought, but it was worth having. He showed it to his comrades, telling them it was his fiancee, the Lady of Sandletonf' although where Dennis got the name, nobody has ever found out. But he kept the Lady of Sandleton wrapped up in one of his many British flags, where she was quite well preserved for a time. Soon, however, the troops received a call to the front, and they ser. ont. none too merrily, Dennis in their midst. With Dennis went the Lady of Sandleton. Dennis' first taste of liic in the trenches was not what he had imagined it would be. It was far worse. It was hard enough living when the autumn sun softened the terrors of warfare by making outdoor living comfortableg but when winter rains poured in on the miserable men, with their piercing torrents, which filled the trenches for several inches with muddy water-then, life was intolerable! More so was it to Lady Sandletonl' wrapped up as she was in the small British flag. With the coming of the rains the whole complexion of the picture was changed from a warm sepia to a vivid streaked red. But Dennis still kept the likeness and he still admired it, and when- ever he looked at the poor, disiigured Lady he would think of his poor master, and his wasted love. But always he consoled himself with the thought- It serves him right. Dennis never got one glimpse of the enemy that almost killed him. For days he worked in the batteries, firing and receiving or answering charges. He had almost become used to seeing some of his comrades fall to the ground whenever a shell exploded. Then the valet fell victim to the German guns, and was very severely wounded by some flying bits of steel, to the presence of which he had grown almost hardened. He did not re- member the trip back from the firing lines in a big white motor ambulance nor his being sent back to England to one of the hospitals for more seriously wounded soldiers. When finally he realized that he was back in the mother country, he was iniinitely glad, and hoped that he might be crippled for life, that he would not have to go back again and fight, The hospital he was in was one of a number of military institutions conducted by charitable societies which were established since' the beginning of the war. Lady Sandleton was with him, and he treasured the picture dearly as a memento of the trenches, and he never let it out of his possession. It was not long before Lester Sidney had word that his nephew was in a hospital in England. Then Dennis received letters every day from thc old gentleman, and in many of them were enclosed two-pound notes, to buy him some little luxury he would not athrwise have had. But Dennis -Page 21-

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- --- GREEN AND GOLD -- - doorway and poor, Dennis' heart kept beating harder and harder, like an Indian tom-tom or a Chinese drum. Then a door at the end of the room opened, and the party led by an assistant stepped in. For a moment Dennis thought he was going to faint. Then all his peculiar feelings left him, for he saw the bride. She was tall and slender, almost too much so, and her thin red arms were only half hidden by the long gloves she wore. Her face was very red, in the places the powder wouldn't stick, and she had distinctly sharp features. Her hair was a decided straw color, and rather coarse looking. The prospective bride-groom's first impression was not a very favorable one. He noticed how the coloring of her hair and her complexion clashed with her pale pink dress. As she came nearer, walking between the long rows of beds, each with its sickly burden, her long arms seemed to grow more livid, and then he caught sight of her broad lips and upturned nose. He looked at her face for a moment It was atrocious! How could he ever live through the ceremony! But then she stopped. An unstifled sob, affected in tone, passed her lips and she knelt stiffly beside a low cot and raised o. man's outstretched hand to her lips. Then she allowed him to kiss her on the cheek. The party stood by gazing at the scene between sniffles and smiles, all but the attendant, who seemed very much surprised. However, he left them immediately. The girl in pink raised her head from where it had been near the man's, and Dennis could see that her het had slid to a dangerous angle over one ear. He could not imagine what it all meant, and just as he was wondering if this could be some brother of hers, he heard the girl say: Sidney, my dear boy. Sidney! From his seat by the window, Dennis could see his master borne out of the hospital to the waiting motor. He saw the girl and Carlton take their places in the car and drive away. The rest of the party followed in another machine. Dennis watched the quickly diminishing cars until they were quite out of sight. Then he sighed deeply and smiled a relieved smile-n very relieved smile. It serves him right, he said. S1iUTi'7' .z filly ELL: ' -Page 23-