St Anthony High School - Tattler Yearbook (St Anthony, ID)

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THE TATTLER Page Five ploys from five to twenty men while cutting and shocking the grain and the threshers from twenty to forty men during threshing time. It was at this beautiful and busy time that Shorty, a little French Canadian, came to our farm and asked for a job. Shorty was indeed a shorty, but had he been measured by his soul he would un- doubtedly have been larger than even Bill, the biggest man on the farm. He was a decided mystery from the first, never taking part in the Sunday and aftersupper sports of the other boys. Instead, he either went to his room or amused the children with stories of the Peace River country or Old Quebec. He seldom talked at the table when the other men did their gossiping but occa- sionally he would interpose some sarcas- tic remark when the talk drifted to “Near and Dear relatives.” One day after harvest, as the boys were sitting around the fire waiting for supper one of them suddenly became bold and asked him why he spoke so sarcastically. He did not answer them because supper was just announced. After supper, however, he told us his story— how he had become a wanderer, and why, and we ceased to wonder that he was so silent and strange. His father and his mother’s brother had worked in a bank together. The brother was a “sport” and it was the old story of misapplied use of entrusted funds but it was Shorty’s father who was convicted and sent to prison for “not more than ten years.” His good behavior won him his freedom in five years. “When he came home,” Shorty con- tinued, “Mother’s brother was still liv- ing with us. One night he came home drunk and insulted my mother and then taunted my father with being a jail bird. Father would have killed him but for mother who pleaded so piteous- ly for her only brother’s life. My uncle left that night but father soon died of the disgrace and in the winter when all the earth was white, mother follow- ed him, dying of a broken heart. Then and there I vowed I would find the beast who had caused all this suffering and kill him as my father would have done.” “Boys, I’ve met him twice since, but it was always the face of the little moth- er pleading for his life as it did that night years ago, that saved him, but some day I’ll meet him again and when I do !” He did not finish the sen- tence but we all knew what he would have said and we also knew he meant it. He rose abruptly and went to his room without his customary good-night and for a time the rest of us sat in pro- found silence and then we each said good night and went to bed to dream of our “little mother” or some one equally dear. Shorty stayed with us all winter but when spring came, that morning of the year when all the earth is made clean and pure by the smell of freshly turned sod, and the foothills are a soft, beautiful green, he came for his “time.” Daddy paid him and after bidding us all good- bye he started for town. As he reached a small knoll he stopped, and stood black against the gorgeous red that gradually faded to a delicate pink in the fleecy cloud of the sunset. He turned and waved his hand to us and then con- tinued slowly down the hill and out of sight. The last we heard of him he was in one of the great logging camps in British Columbia and apparently the

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Page Four THE TATTLER student must be home at five o’clock in winter and six in summer. The student is not allowed to go to the theater with- out the permission of the principal. Un- just inspectors and teachers often spy out the very thoughts of the students and attribute to them wrong meanings. Moreover, they prohibit them from forming and expressing their opinions freely. But I must not pass without mention the pride and ambition of a German student formed in spite of such unfavor- able conditions, perhaps even because of them. His earnestness ard thirst for an education conceals one great thought— one great idea; to help anoth- er. This fills the heart of every student. The one who has had a chance to grasp something worth while, think for him- self, feels an obligation to walk per- haps several miles to help out less for- tunate students. Days of hard work, days of trial, come constantly to my mind when I think of my school life in Germany. One sad picture follows another, and on- ly a few single events shine out among those recollections as bright stars on a stormy night. Among these one kind face of a woman who had studied at a foreign university and had been broad- ened by foreign ideas, comes constantly to my mind; and closely associated with her and as dear to me are those memor- able nights when she gathered a small group of seven or eight around the li- brary table. With wide open eyes we followed anxiously every word of her reading as though it were from God himself. The reading over, this woman used to leave us to ourselves to argue until tired over things which we really did not understand. These are my best school memories. It seems to me that never again shall I spend such evenings or enjoy such morning prayers with bowed head and closed eyes. But I thank that happy chance which brought me out of the mist and horrors from the people who are striving toward the light, into this bright ard sunny place, America. Here under the guid- ance of kind teachers, I am encouraged to think and reason for myself. I am no longer a member of that little secret community which shivers for fear of having somebody hear a bold remark. Instead, I may express all my emotions openly, cry them out! And there are no objections, only kind criticism. That is almost inconceivable for a German; but Americans, you who have long en- joyed this freedom so precious ought to reverence it, love it, and be proud of it, for what more than freedom and self- thinking develop good character! -L. B. ’18. i i 1 1 qr ALL, in Canada, is the most C | beautiful part of th e year with its mellow, hazy days, wonder- ful sunsets and waving grain fields that stretch like a wonderful golden sea for miles and miles, against a back- ground of purple foot hills. The traveler’s first thought is that the grain fields are unbroken but as he comes nearer to them he sees the great swaths cut by the binder and men shock- ing the bundles to dry ready for thresh- ing. The typical Canadian rancher em-

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Page Six THE TATTLER face of the little mother was still safe- guarding him. And so it was that Shorty came to us in the twilight of the year and left us in the morning, but all of us who heard his story that night were made better for it. -K. R. T7 Si ' titors’ pi ensure (Trip e Senior class will ever remember their trip to Steele’s ranch on Sand Creek. From the time we were invited - two weeks before — we had looked forward to the time we were to leave for the coun- try. Day after day we had watched the sky, the almanac and all forcasts. How- ever, all signs seemed to be favorable for good weather and we were all hope- ful. But lo, when April 16th dawned and it was raining our spirits fell. When school called we looked doubt- fully at one another, but Elda said: “Never mind, we’ll go rain or shine.” And go we did. It was about three thirty when we left town. The roads were fine and we made good time. Mae and Lew rode horseback half of the way and Ella and the writer rode the other half of the way. The way seemed long and we were tired but on our arrival we re- ceived such a warm welcome from Mr. and Mrs. Steele that we were able to do full justice to the delicious supper pre- pared for us. That night we girls made the house ring with our songs. Occa- sionally we could hear Miss Smith say, “For land’s sakes, girls, it is half past two; do go to sleep.” Miss Spence was by that time in the land of dreams and we could hear her gentle snores. Just as we would all settle down to go to sleep “All aboard,” Erma would say, and Mae would answer, “toot-toot.” Despite the fact that we were awake so late, we were out at six in the morn- ing and were off for a ride or a walk be- fore breakfast. After breakfast the morning was spent in riding and it was then that the excitement occurred as Miss Smith was thrown from her horse. We were all very much frightened and sympathized with her but she has ceased to limp. We feel that she has now fully recovered. In the afternoon we rode over to Pine Creek, a small stream which flows through a deep pine and hemlock- covered canyon. That night the boys kept each other awake the whole night and Sunday were so sleepy that they could hardly keep their eyes open, though of course they would not admit it. Sunday morning many of the squirrels lost their lives. It was reported that at least two hundred were killed. Mae and Esther claim that they alone killed nearly one hundred and thirty-five, counting those that were so frightened that they died after running into their holes. We bade the Steeles good-bye that afternoon at about three o’clock and had a jolly ride home, arriving about six p. m. We surely had a good time and the hospitality of Mrs. Steele will long be remembered by the class of 1915.— L.J. T5.