Stadium High School - Tahoma Yearbook (Tacoma, WA)

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I6 THE TAHOMA as she placed the bundle under her bed. The rest of the day Cale went about her work with a mind so removed from the ordinary duties of life that she boiled the potatoes in the teakettle, and fried the meat in the baking pan. It was still raining that night, as Roger trudged wearily back from the station. His path was scarcely more than a cow trail, and at almost every step he encountered the wet, water-laden bushes. They flew back into his face, knocked off 'his hat. and now and again sent little streams of water trickling clown under his coat collar. Finally, he threw himself down on a log, under the sheltering boughs of a great fir tree. Lordy, he muttered to .himself, as he felt the chill of his wet garments, Lordy, if this is what they call getting back to nature, I don't want to get any further back. Suddenly he sniffed. An odor of burning spuds came strongly from the direction of the cabin. Yep, he groaned, Burnt spuds, sour bread, and a bunch of flowers, that's a dickens of a supper for a hungry man. Roger wasn't a quitter either, but as he smelled the unsavory mess, he did long from the bottom of his heart for the fleshpots of Egypt. After all, a man's appe- tite fills a pretty large place in his life. Blamed if I wouldn't like to dig out of this, he continued, moodily. But since I suggested coming here, I won't suggest going back. I suppose she's enjoying all this, anyway. Women like her will put up with an awful lot of hardship for a little romance. Guess the only way out is to blow up the whole concern. Suddenly he started. That notion had given him an inspiration. If he couldn't blow it up, why not burn it down! It would be easy enough to kindle the fire without his wife's knowledge, and then it would seem that fate had decided affairs for them. Roger had it all planned out before leaving the log, and it was with many a chuckle, and a deal of inner satisfaction, that he cov- ered the remainder of the distance to the cabin. At the supper table, he masticated the burnt spuds with such unusual good grace and made himself so agreeable, that Gale half repented her wicked pur- pose. Poor fellow, she thought, he does enjoy himself so-it's a shame to spoil it for him. She even tossed up a penny to decide whether or not to carry out her intent. U 'Heads it's a go, tails not so,' H she repeated to lier- self. It came tails, But Gale, woman-like decided upon the contrary. Gee Willikins, listen to that wind! You'll need an extra pile of wood tomorrow. Roger chuckled a little later as he cut a big pile of kindling in front of the door. Cale thought she might save him the trouble, but wisely held her peace. I guess this is a rather risky proposition, he remarked casually, as he

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THE TAHOMA 'I5 not to, worry, as the fragrance of roses was doubtless easier to digest than ham and eggs. Summer quickly drifted into Autumn, and, with the dropping of the leaves, came the heavy fall rains, which necessarily confined Gale within the narrow limits of the cabin. Somehow, when the sunbeams ceased to come in through the windows the rough walls lost their romantic charm, and it seemed that the heart of the cabin was gone. The wind whistled through the chinks in the logs, and the leaky shingles began to announce themselves by sending countless little streams of water to the floor below. At first Roger attempted to remedy these defects, but after one unfortunate occasion, when his foot glanced off the wet shingles and he reached the ground before recollecting that he had left the roof, he let well enough alone, and his wife saved the furniture by catching the water in her cooking utensils. One morning as Gale watched her husband plod off through the rain, on his daily two mile hike to the station, she sat down and thought it all over. Of Uourse, it was nice to be independent, she stuck to that point with a woman's persistenceg but, after all, washing greasy dishes, and scrubbing splintery floors, wasn't the most joyous occupation in the world, especially if one had to do it every day. She looked at the pile of breakfast dishes, which seemed to con- front her defiantly. Seized with sudden wrath, she snatched up the greasiest platter and shattered it into a thousand pieces against the opposite wall. There -take that, you-you horrid- The remainder of the sentence was drowned in a flood of tears. I don't want to be a quitter, she Hnally sobbed, but l'cl like for once to eat off dishes someone else had to wash. Suddenly a live coal flew out of the grate and fell upon the splintery floor. The next moment it flared up brighter, as the fire was getting a hold on the rough board beneath it. Gale watched the process in fascinated idle- ness. Then she clapped her hands excitedly. Oh, I wish it would burn!'f she cried, I wish the whole cabin would burn down, then we'd have to go back without Roger ever knowing I was a quitterf' But even as she spoke, an tiny rivulet broke through a new place in the roof, and fell with tantalizing exactness on the blazing coal. It simmered a minute, looked as though it might recover, then steadily died down. Gale could have cried again from disap- pointment, when a bright idea struck her. Sure! Why not? If the cabin can burn so easily, why not help matters along, and let Roger believe it an accidentif' Cale possessed a logical little brain, and she planned it all out with systematic thoughtfulness. lf I set fire to it when he's home, he can't have the ghost of a suspicion how it happened, she reasoned. I'm going todo it tonight when he's asleep. When it gets to burning good, I'll wake him up in time to save the things. Carefully she prepared a bundle of kindling and soaked it in kerosene. It makes me feel like a bandit, she giggled excitedly,

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THE TAI-IOMA I7 filld the stove before retiring for the night. The chimney is so awfully rick- ety, but we'll freeze out without any fire. Gale started a trifle guiltily, and then quickly blew out the light to hide a smile. It was going to be so easy to deceive her husband! For a long time she lay staring into the darkness, wondering when it would be safe to execute her plan. Outside, the rain had ceased to fall, but the wind still blew dis- xnally round the cabin, and everything was wrapped in inky blackness. Gale shuddered as she thought of venturing out alone. Minute by minute she put off making the start, till at length the wind sounded a long way off, and finally formed a background for her dreams. It was some two hours later that Gale woke with a start, with a con- fused idea in her head that the cabin was on fire and that the door had just crashed in. She sat up in bed and rubbed her eyes till she had safely sorted out what was dream and what was real. It was still blowing outside, and she couldn't see the faintest outline of her fingers when she held them up before her. But with a sudden impulse she slipped out of bed, and reaching under it for her kindling, felt round for the door. 'Tm going to do it before I have time to get scared, she promised herselfg but, nevertheless, her heart beat double-quick time as she stumbled off the porch and found herself enveloped in darkness. Gale had often heard of the voices of the night, but never before had she realized what that phrase might mean. She listened now, with an emotion between fascination and terror, to the wind come sweeping through the surrounding forest, swaying the gigantic timbers till they creaked and groaned, or moving with stealthy rustle through the tangled underbrush. It would be easy to believe in spirits on a night like this, she thought to herself, as she slipped around the cabin to the chimney side. Kneeling down where she believed the chimney to be, she arranged her kindling with painful exactness-smallest shavings on top, after the manner of women. Feeling about for a dry place, she was about to strike a match, when not six feet away another match flared up, illuminating the familiar features of-her husband! Roger! she gasped, for the first time in her life pronouncing that name in an accent of fear. He raised the match, so as to include her in the circle of light. Gale! what are you doing here? . I-I was just admiring the moon. Gale uttered the first wild idea that entered her brain. Moon-where in the CL- is the moon? Roger looked blankly up into the inky sky. It's--never mind where 'tis. You had no right to spy on me this way! And Gale burst into a flood of hysterical tears. I-spy on you? Roger was so astonished at this turn of affairs that