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

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I4 THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT Next morning her chum, Helen, called on her way to school. mediately began to in a natural voice. XK'hy, exclaimed Mary, He always screeches at me so, but you seem to have made friends with him. livery time you come in. he 'll talk nice to you. l've just tried to make him talk to me, but he only makes horrihle noises. You get angry with him, Mary, said llelen. 'l'hat's why. maybe. Have you your theme written yet? l have. l.et's swap to read them. To her surprise Mary began to cry. XYhy, Xlary, what's the matter? To her Mary told the whole story, hut without trying to excuse herself. lnstead she said. I woke up early this morning and lay thinking. There are lots of things to write up now, but l left my Latin for the tirst two periods. lf it wasn't for that l could wi'ite one then. l'nt so sorry, Mary, Helen tried to l'oll, the parrot, im- say Good morning soothe her. l 'ni su1'e you 'll never do it again. Come. dry your tears: it 's time for school. .Ns they left the house they could hear the parrot sputtering. ,Xt noon Rlary came rushing up to Helen. U Helen. she cried. you know we don't have lfnglish until afternoon so l left lily theme honle, on the table. .Xnd what do you think? That dear parrot that I talked so innch about this morning, got out of his cage and tore my theme all to pieces. l told Bliss Henderson and she said l could have until to-morrow. lsn't that line? Now I can write up an original one. l've a dandy all thought out. And l'll never do that again if I live forever. S. ll. ill., ':7. TEACHING A LESSON H lxNt NY l can get along with him. l'm very sure. said Ruth llridges. Nobody could get along with him! chorused the three Kliss llridges, in uni- son. lfncle john, the personage of whom they spoke. was a crabbed, ill-tempered. little old man, who lived in an old fash- ioned town in the Rockies. He had money to leave, hut his nieces believed it would he easier to go to Cali- fornia and dig a fortune. than to remain and earn one hy making themselves accept- able' to an old man who was just an old grouch. Helen lflridges had tried it First. She was a soft-voiced, slender girl. with a com- plexion as fair as a lilv. No one can help Mrs. Bridges, as she good-by. lint in three weeks frightened out of her wits. He scolds all the l couldn't stay there richest lady of the land. Martha llridges went next: but Martha, although a fine slender girl, with a will of her own. returned in less than a week. l 'd rather wash dishes in a boarding house, said she, than be L'ncle john's loving Helen. said kissed her daughter Helen returned half time, said Helen. if it made me the heiress. livelyn llridges, undiscouraged by her sisters' failures, departed for Hrownvillc-. lint she returned in three days. lt's scold. snarl, snarl. scold. from morning 'till night! said livelyn. Oh you can't imagine what a terrihle old grouch Uncle john is! llere Ruth, the' youngest, tallest and prettiest of the four girls spoke np: l 'll go. she said. You don't know what you 'rc up against. said Helen. He 'd wear out a stone in a day, said Martha. He's a terrihle grouchf' said Evelyn. l 'll try anyway, said Ruth hrightly. So she packed her trunk and went to lirownville. lt was dusk. when she walked up the walk to the house. Uncle john stood on the steps. So you are Ruth, said he. Yes, l aiu Ruth, said the girl. as she gave him a hearty kiss. You're late, said Uncle john. I am late. said Ruth. That terrihle old stage: l thought l'd never get here. It was just jog. jog, all the way. lt's a hot day, growled Uncle john. l'm nearly baked. sighed Ruth.

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THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 13 Stretched a point! After what we've been through with them before? They 'll smooth that over. But we're big enough to fight and by thunder Farley, we will fight! Eh? blinked the old man. I say we 'll fight. Open the sluiceway, Dan. just then a shout made Kern turn his head up the river. An exclamation escaped his lips. Down through the foam came a plunging raft. There came a crash in the bushes behind him, and another man, hatless, coatless and breathless came running to them. Dynamite! lie gasped, Dynamite! In the name of life, save him! It's dyna- mite! At a glance one could see that the man was no riverman. Stop it, he shrieked, Stop it! He 'll be killed! It's dynamite! He stopped and the river boss shook him, saying, Speak up, man! What is it? ' The raft! Dynamite! He 'll be killed! That was enough. Kern was speeding for the shore. Farley swung on the men be- low. Off the logs, boys! he shouted. Off the logs! just before the dam the water was quieter than up above, and it was in this stretch that the raft was moving. Toward it. to stop it, Kern was now swimming. The details of the affair the boy did not know, but enough and too much he guessed at. They had intended to blow up his logs. They had sent down a dynamite raft such as was sometimes used for blasting out boulders when the current was too swift to get at them any other way. They were usually guided by ropes. but this one was free. and the person on it was fated to go up with the explosion. The men had reached the shore and were watching the boy. Sometimes it seemed that he would reach it in time, and at other times they thought that he would 11ot. Kern, now very near the raft, feared that he could not overtake the raft in time to save the logs, but with one more spurt he reached the raft and threw himself flat across it. He wrenched the wire clear from the dynamite. The day was saved by the disconnecting of that little wire. The man from the woods, now surrounded by the men from the river, broke down and confessed openly. He had seen the dyna- mite raft constructed, and afloat. He had seen the electric current adjusted to await the impact of the standing logs below. Only one man had been instructed to do this work. He had been setting the charge when the swift water had caught him, and bore him away. In making his desperate leap to reach the shore his foot caught in the logs, and he was unable to free it on his downstream flight. VVell, said Kern, VVhat do you think? This thing has been going on for a long time, You have seen it now with your own eyes, not as it looks from a city desk. I think, Rodman, answered the man, that it ought to be stopped. And stopped it was. R. i'l1UCD. S.. '27. DECEITFULNESS U DEAR, thought pretty Mary Dun- stan, as she pushed back her red- dish, bobbed hair, it 's to-morrow that we have to pass in the themes, and I haven't mine written. What shall I do? I can 't think of a thing to write. Now Mary usually had good themes and naturally got good rank, but now her imagination seemed to have gone back on her. Neither could she think of a true story to write up. She was a junior, very ambitious, a good scholar and disliked deceitfulness, but as she sat thinking about her to-morrow's English lesson, a thought came to her about a story in an old newspaper that her aunt had sent from California. Surely, she said to herself, no one has ever seen a paper like that. The blood surging to her ashamed look- ing face, she hunted for the- paper. Still more self-consciously she copied it, changed the characters' names and to a certain ex- tent, the plot. There, after it was finished, I 'm sure no one will know that story. And, trying to excuse herself, 'II couldn't think of a thing to write about.

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'I' I-I IC M USS Uncle jolm gave her the keys, just as he had given them to her sisters before. I expect you to take charge of every- thing, said he, the servants are miser- able - Servants are mere frauds nowadays! interrupted Ruth. Nothing goes right about the place. Nothing ever goes right. she ventured. Uncle jolm eyed her keenly. This niece's attitude was altogether different from that of the other three sisters. At breakfast the next morning L'ncle john began to scold as usual. Ifggs again, said he. This makes four times this week. I detest eggs. said Ruth. as she pushed aside her plate and rang the bell sharply. Nancy, the cook, a stout good-humored Irish woman made her appearance. Nancy. said Miss llridges. If you send up any more eggs for a month you 'll be discharged. do you hear? But, my dear. I am rather fond of eggs. put in the little old man. One can't eat eggs all the time, said Ruth. Here, Nancy, this coffee- isn't tit to drink! and the toast is burned! and you have forgotten the butter. Let these errors be corrected at once. Nancy departed hurriedly for the kitchen. My Dear. said Uncle jolm. Nancy is a very old servant and- I don't care if she is a hundred. sai-'I Ruth: she must do better in the future. Uncle jolm began to be frightened. He had kept Nancy, Alice and jacob for ten years. XYas it possible that he had scolded them for ten years, only to have this young girl outscold him now? They are mortal, pleaded Uncle john, Let them do their duty then. snapped Ruth. Uncle john atc the rest of his breakfast in silence. Alice, the house maid, was finishing dusting the library when he enter- ed it. Not through yet? growled Uncle john. the frown returning to his brow. 'A Alice, said Miss Bridges, if this hap- pens again I shall be forced to do without your services! Look at that clock! Does UL UNSQUIT I5 my Uncle pay you for lying in bed half the day? See that you 're finished before this to-morrow. Alice is really a good girl, began Uncle jolm, If- Dear uncle, pleaded Ruth, permit me to be judge of such matters. been too slack with everything. You have v. Old jacob. the gardener. was not exempt from his part of the turmoil. Ruth hap- pened to hear her uncle scolding the old man for the neglect of tiower beds, and she came to his aid. Do you call this gardening? she asked. Uncle jolm, I am astonished that you employ such a careless man. The showers of taunts and reproaches which she- tlung at the poor old man was enough as he observed. to make one's llesh creep, My niece is a young lady of spirit and energy, apologized Uncle jolm, when Ruth had gone back to the house. A lot like you, sir, a lot like yon! said jacob. scratching his head. Like me! said Uncle john. And he stood for nearly ten minutes, staring at the ground. At the end of the ten minutes he spoke two words, and only two: Like - me! There s no knowin' how the master changed, said Nancy in the kitchen. a week or two later. He 's as meek as a lamb and as peaceful as a kitten. Sure, it's just as the young lady told ns. said Alice, when she came down into the kitchen that first morning after the fire was lighted, and told us she was going to try an experiment. VVe wasn't to mind a word she said, 'cause it was just opposite from what she wanted us to do. Her plan has worked like a charm. It had, in truth. Uncle jolm was a differ- ent man. Ruth had relapsed into the original sunny side of her temper, and all the domestic works of the old house seemed to run as smooth as velvet. But Uncle john took all the credit. He never knew that Ruth had taugh him a lesson.