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

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THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 9 reproduce. She knew that it would require colors to picture what sl1e really saw and these she did not and could not have. How she wanted them Y How she longed to sketch the splendor that her eyes could see! As with sad. dreamy eyes this child artist gazed afar out in the hazy distance she was brought hack to reality hy the snapping of a twig. Looking up with startled eyes she saw standing near her a man. He was young and very handsome, dressed in sport clothes and carried a gun, apparently hunt- ing. Frightened, Sylvia sprang to her feet ready for instant Hight. Spellhound by the wild heauty of this woodland child, and alarmed lest she should run from him, the stranger stood very still, smiling at her. Reassured, Sylvia looked again at his clean, pleasant countenance and was no longer afraid. The hunter spoke, hegged her not to he frightened as nothing could induce him to harm her. As Sylvia timidly drew nearer to him, Malcom Godfrey, ffor that was his namej told her how he happened to he there. Gaining confidence Sylvia re- seated herself and in response to his re- quest. introduced herself. There was not much to tell until, for some unknown rea- son she found herself telling him her dreams and her desires. Young Godfrey was inter- ested. especially in her love of drawing and he asked permission to return there the next day with paints and a real outfit. He wanted to help her to realize her dreams and he told her that it might he very possi- hle for her to earn money hy painting. Temptation overcame all else and Sylvia agreed to meet him there the following afternoon. On returning home the girl said nothing of her adventure to her parents. The next day Sylvia was at the meeting place long hefore the appointed time. At last he came and Sylvia's delight in the paints was unhounded. Godfrey showed his eager student how to mix and use them and then remained very still while she tried her first real picture. lireathlessly she worked and Malcom was forgotten. After a long time Sylvia seemed to have completed her work and Malcom asked eagerly to see it. Amazement covered his face as he regarded the sketch. It was a very simple scene that she had drawn, and the work was crude, hut in the heauty of it Malcom realized that here indeed was tal- ent. He asked to take her painting with him and leaving her the paints he went away promising to come hack in a day or two. Malcom was true to his word hut this time he hrought a lovely lady and a college professor with him. They talked a long time with Sylvia and at last she fully real- ized that a wonderful thing was ahout to happen in her interest. She was to have a chance to go away to a hig school and hest of all to develop her new found talent as an artist. Taking her new friends with her Sylvia went down to the shack which for sixteen years had heen her only home. Much argument was used hut finally her father was induced to let her go. Thus Sylvia left her mountains to go into the world and have all her dreams realized. .In later years she often returned to her mountains and the little shack, now with plenty of money, for life had indeed been good to her. Not for one moment did she forget those whom she had never seemed to helong to and yet who had given her her he- loved hills, which still remained so dear. Neither was Malcom and his kind deed for- gotten. Wiith childlike love Sylvia rever- enced him as a young God, until as she grew up, hoth found real love and she he- came his wife. Helen- Gtlftfcflllffll, '25, THE THEFT T was too good an evening to remain in- doors. Alice decided to take a walk around the grounds of her home. She lived in a stately old mansion. a mile from the bustle and confusion of New York Citv. Her father and mother had gone to the hall

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8 THIE MUSSUL UNSQUIT 'Min .222 C A FLOWER AMONG WEEDS OT far from a little town, a lonely shack hid itself among the foothills away from the grasp of civilization. Here lived a man and wife with a family of five children. They were very poor and barely earned sufficient bread and clothing and other necessities of life by selling farm products. The father was indolent and provided for his household only what might be absolutely necessary to keep them alive. The poor worn mother plodded daily on, caring as best she could for her children and bowing meekly under her husband's cruelty. Four of the children were too young to give life a serious thought and spent their childhood fighting with each other, for that marked the limit of their knowledge of conduct. However, there existed one beautiful exception in this wretched group, that of a young girl. A girl who seemed a living part of the wild beauty-steeped hills wherein she dwelled. They called her Sylvia, though it wasn't her given name, for always this daughter reminded them of enchanted woods and silvery moonlight, the luminous stars that looked down upon them at night and all the beauty about them. Little these people thought of beauty but they had sensed from the first that Sylvia was not one of them, that she was far. far above them, and, be- at ro cause of this they were in turn awed and angered. As for Sylvia herself, life was both sweet and sad. Her sensitive nature realized and loved the magnificence of all natural life by which she was surrounded. The continual quarreling among the rest of her family and the poverty in their home made her very sad. Sylvia had been sent to the village school for a few years where she had learned to read and write and had firmly implanted in her a desire to learn. Then her father would no longer earn money enough to send her and would not let her go any more. So, with a broken heart this child of the woods was forced to turn her back on civil- ization and turn for consolation to her only friends the trees. the blue sky and the fiowers. Still Sylvia could not choke back that longing to know more, to see more of the great world from which she was shut out. But she had no money, no one who cared, and without these things life seemed hopeless. Sylvia had one pastime from which she received her only real enjoyment. She loved to make pencil sketches of her mountains and sky and the surrounding all. One day in Autumn Sylvia was sitting at the foot of a fir tree on the summit of a high peak. Before her stretched a view that she had, somehow, never felt able to

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10 THE MUSSUL UNSQUIT that evening, but for some unaccountable reason, Alice had wanted to remain at home. As she stood admiring some beautiful flowers in the garden, Alice heard a light step behind her. She turned around and saw a man holding a hat in his hand. I beg your pardon, Miss, he said, for disturb- ing you, but I am a salesman, representing a publishing company. Here he held out a book to her. She looked at it and kept thinking it strange that he should call in the evening. Alice said that she didn't care for the book. The man, or rather youth, had hesitated, but, different from most agents, had not offered to continue the sales-talk. Instead he conversed with her a few minutes then departed. Alice was not usually nervous but this evening-probably it was because she was alone. As she had been talking to the stranger Alice thought that she had de- tected a shadow in the further part of the grounds. It wasn't anything, she kept telling herself, but somehow, sh-e could not convince her conscience and so she went into the house. As she went by her father's office she glanced in. The safe was open and their compartment of money and jewels gone! Alice suddenly felt weak, but finally reached the telephone. Police Headquarters, she said to the operator. When the Chief of Police an- swered she requested him to come to her house at once. He and several officers arrived in about fifteen minutes. Alice briefly stated the facts of the case. Did you see anyone on the grounds or prowling around? he inquired. N-no, she answered. Somehow she could not tell about the young salesman. Why, he probably wasn't only twenty, or maybe a little older, and anyhow he would- n't have done anything like stealing. Sure? the Chief asked. Yes. It was Hrmer this time. For several weeks the police searched but were not able to find any trace of the robber or robbers. One day Alice was going down-street and she met the salesman. Er-hullo, he greeted her. How-do-you-do, she answered. But suddenly a thought seized her. Did you see anyone prowling around the grounds that night you called? asked Alice. No, he said. She passed on. Alice was getting dis- the jewels and found. As her couraged now. Maybe money never would be family were by no means rich, they would have to move to less pretentious quarters until her father might have a higher salary. The jewels had been handed down from ancestors. One morning a few days later her father remarked at breakfast, If that money and those jewels aren't found soon we will have to leave this place. The day before packing, Eloise, the maid, 'brought a card in bearing the name, john Harrison. Who was that? She knew no one by that name. Bring him in, Eloise, she directed. Whom should she see but the salesman! I have come to return these thing, Miss Chalmers. Here he handed to Alice, to her utmost astonishment, the stolen money and jewels. I know you will think me nothing but a common thief, but, honestly, I did not want to act the part in the job I -did. The man that really did it knew that I owed some money. He offered to pay it if I'd talk to you until he could perform the robbery. I could see no harm in that then, but I do now. Afterwards I paid my debt and got the things away from that man. I couldn't ask you to forgive me after the way I've acted. But I do, she said, holding out her hand. Six months later the gleaming headlines