Strong High School - Mussul Unsquit Yearbook (Strong, ME)

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Dorman spoke, 16 THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT self. The men were thick-set, coarse fea- tured, with dirty clothes, and unkempt hair which hung nearly to their shoulders. Joe walked into the camp and sat down as if he belonged there. He sat there some minutes unnoticed. At length jim Russe, a red-headed, dirty-looking fellow, noticed him. jim was drunkg he had just come from the saloon -a shed where Dor- man kept liquor which he sold to his crew. Jim leered towards joe and said in a loud voice- H'llo pall Whar you frum ? joe answered the question much quieter than it had been asked. 'K Oh, I just hap- pened in, thought perhaps I might strike a job. At this Jim laughed loud and long. A job! VVal, I guess not heah! By this time quite a few of the men had gathered in the camp, some drunk, others partly under the influence of drink. It was not long, however, before Dorman appeared and Joe hired out for the winter. At first, joe was liked by all of the men but when it was found that he would not touch a drop of their liquor and must wash his hands and comb his hair before every meal, they began to jeer at him be- hind his back, yet they respected him. One night Joe lectured them on their bad habits of drinking and uncleanliness. When he had finished, they all arose, and instead of going to the saloon for a drink, they went to bed. joe was happyg he had made them understandg but the next morning he was disappointed for they drank worse than ever. That night he lectured again but to no avail. They would not change. joe worked there all winter, praying that in some way he might make the men give up their bad habits, but he could not seem to accomplish the work he sought to do. Although they knew that joe was right, that he was living a higher and better life, they could not seem to break away and fol- low in his footsteps. One night in early spring, joe left them as mysteriously as he had come. The men went on in the same old way, drinking and swearing, yet it would seem to the looker- on that the men were cleaner and that they drank less. But this might have been due to the warm spring which necessitated a shave, and to the lack of liquor, for the supply was running low. Joe had returned to his own little cabin in the clearing, but with great diliiculty. He was just able to crawl through the door- way and into bed. His condition was due to mere exhaustion and hunger. The next morning when he awoke he found that he was very ill and could not live long, so he wrote his last wish and desire on a scrap of paper. He died that night, alone in the cabin which had been his only home for so many years. The next day the lumbermen from Dor- man's camp came upon this little cabin on their way to the settlements. They knocked at the door, and as no one answered, they went in. They found Ioe's body and decided at once to give him a decent burial. So they buried him under a huge pine at the back of the cabin and set up a marker over his grave. Dorman found the paper joe had care- fully placed on the table. He read, My last wish is that Dorman will come to his senses and leave off drinking and that he will make his men do the same. In my mind, I can see a new camp, a big, white, clean one standing where Dorman's old one now stands. The men are drinking clear, cold water, and are clean in their dress and personal habits. This was all. As soon as Dorman fin- ished reading, he looked from one to another of his workmen. They seemed to understand. At length, he spoke, Pals, this heah letter has changed my whole lifeg frum now on I will not touch liquor of any kind. And, goin' to work for me, y'u same! If ye are willing, paw. Every hand was raised. another drop of Pals, if you are 've got to do the raise yore right huskily, Pals, I shore am glad. We 'll build that thar new camp what he spok' of. The next morning they went away. But

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THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 15 X- if- O Hllh dlll! Ei 4 -ii B--1 if f ffiiiii 'T if E THE WORK OF JOE BLAKE Representative Short Story of Local Color OE BLAKE was a backwoodsman and no mistake. He lived in a small log cabin. Cabin? No! In reality it was nothing but a hut. He passed the long win- ter days in trapping and hunting, in the summer he fished and made many trips to a distant village for the purpose of bring- ing in supplies to last him through the win- ter. The cabin was very rudely built, the logs were rough, and as they had never been peeled, strings of bark could be seen hanging down on them. It had been lo- cated in a little clearing in the deep woods. At the hack of the clearing there was a dense forest, nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. Not far from the front, a river wended its way in and out like a great snake, breaking the silence of the forest with its dull, roaring sound. joe was six feet tall, broad-shouldered, and of grand stature. When shaved and well dressed he would make as Hne a look- ing man as ever put on a dress suit. But joe seldom shaved and never dressed up. One might get the idea that he was an un- clean man, drunk nearly all of the time, but this was not so. He did not know the taste of liquor, for he drank only the pure, crystal water from Nature's spring, and he clean, although than rags. old, but he was years ago. He had lived in this little cabin for twenty-five years, was always perfectly contented and happy there, but now that he was getting older he had a desire to get away from the loneliness and be with other men. Joe had started for Dorman's lumbering camp, some miles away, with enough food to last him until he should arrive. He had been to this camp before but it was fifteen years ago, and since then the landmarks had changed. But he plodded on, some- times singing to himself, more often listen- ing to the music of the birds. After four days he reached his destina- tion. It was a rough place. The camp was little better than a hovel, although it boasted of a cook, an all-around man, thir- ty-five lodgers, and 'I Old Dorman him- always kept his clothes they were not much more Joe was forty-tive years as spry as he was twenty

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THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 17 by the next winter a new camp was stand- ing where the old one once stood. A dif- ferent crew of men worked there, the same by name but different in spirit, due to the wonderful work of Joe Blake. D. M. D., '22, THE MYSTERIOUS HAND Representative Short Story of the Super- natural N the city of Chicago there was a man by the name of G--, who owned an old, brick house on the outskirts of the city. For five years the house had been deserted by all human beings. It was said to be furnished, and that whenever anyone went in a hand beckoned him about the house, and always to the dining room where a large dinner was always on the table. One day during the month of June, 1397, a young man came to the city. At the young menls club, he heard some of the men talking about the haunted house. They said that no one ever went farther than the dining room. Al was not a believer in ghosts and told the young men that he would go to that house and would find out what the hand was. The next week A-- went to see Mr. Gi about staying at the house. They talked thus: No one has ever stayed in the house longer than half an hour since September 28, 1891 said G-. I am going to stay all night, anyway, and maybe longer, for I a1n going to find out what haunts the house. VVhy, a man was murdered in the cellar of the house and no one, that is to my knowledge, has ever been in the cellar since. It is said that the police found, when they searched the house after the murder, the murdered man's hand beside the cellar door. So whenever one goes there that hand beckons him through the housef, XXVell, I'm going to go to that house and Hnd out the mystery. I may get frightened out of the house, but I inte11d to try, anyway. All right, go ahead, but whatever hap- pens, don't ever blame me. So long, I'll see you later if nothing happens. You say the door is unlocked? Yes. Well, that may account for a lot of the mysteryg so far so good. A- reached the house and stood in the street looking at it. It was an old- fashioned, brick house covered with green vines. The large piazza that extended all around the house had been screened in once, but the screening was torn and full of holes now. In front of the house were some large maple trees. The board walk that led to the house was torn up and rot- ten. The fence about the yard had fallen down in many places and the gate was off the hinges. He walked through the yard and stepped onto the piazza. As he took hold of the door knob, the door opened a little way and a hand beckoned to him. He went in and found himself in a large hall. He heard a noise and turned around: he saw a door that was partly open and the hand was beckoning him to come. IIC went through the door into a large dining room where there was a large, steaming hot supper on the table. AL sat down and forced him- self to eat, although he was almost too frightened to do much of anything. VVhile he was eating he looked about the room. It was a large room with a high ceiling and it had only one window, which looked out toward a side street. After a time he got up from the table and went back into the hall. Another door opened a crack and the hand beckoned him in. He went in and found himself in a large parlor. There was a bright tire burn- ing in the fireplace. He sat down in a large easy chair, picked up a book and tried to read, but was 11C1'VOLlS so he got up and paced the Floor for a while. Then he turned to go and saw the hand motioning him into the hall. He followed the hand and it led him out through the hall, up the stairs, and into a large bed room. Here, also, there was a