Timmins High and Vocational School - Porcupine Quill Yearbook (Timmins, Ontario Canada)

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43 'ifli-i4 The PORCUPINE QUILL Preaching-and Practising Paddy Ryan opened his eyes and rolled over in his bunk. He was the foreman of a lum- ber gang which has recently began clearing the dense forest -along the west shore of the Mattagami River, about twenty miles from the town of Timmins. It really wasn't Paddy's duty to see that the men were roused early in the morning and given a substan- tial breakfast: but he did it as a mother goes about getting her children off to school. He wasn't one of those bosses who stand around beating their hands together and giving or- ders to the men. Paddy reached for the clock, and seeing that it was almost five o'c1ock, he jumped out of bed and kindled a roaring fire in the big on, ye lazy lads! he camp stove. Come shouted, out with all of He spoke with a marked Irish twang. but nobody liked him the less for it. One by one the men arose and donned their mackinaw outfits and high elk boots. Nobody tried to get the better of Paddy. For one reason they knew that it would not be well for them to try it, and for another they felt nothing but respect for the big Irishman. After a hearty breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup, bacon and eggs, coffee, and bread and butter the men set out for the work which they loved. They loved the clear,frosty mornings and -the bright, sunny afternoons. They loved to hear the ring of their fellow workers' axes as they cut into the -trees. The tracks of mink, weasel and rabbit across the snow were a familiar sight. The northern forest with its many hardships was home to them. Sure and it's a hard day ye'l1 be having ahead of yiz, Paddy remarked. Ye'll be watching yirsilves as thim big trees is dan- gerous to fell, my lads, he added. Only too well did the men know that sometimes it was hard to tell which way a tree would fall and that men were hurt and sometimes killed when a tree fell in a different di1'ection from that expected. All morning they sawed and chopped. And then, just as they were about to leave for dinner, they heard a cry of pain. The voice was unmistakably Paddy's! Saws and axes were dropped as if they were redhot coals and everyone ran to the rescue of the man whom they had learned to respect and to love. In a few moments they found him almost cov- ered with snow. his right leg pinned under a huge spruce tree. His face was distorted with pain. In a few minutes the men, working rapidly and carefully had removed the log. and were carrying him back to the cabin. There they breathed sighs of relief when they foimd that although Paddys leg was badly bruised and his ankle sprained no bones were broken. VVhen they had doctored him and laid him on the bed he managed to laugh, Sure and isn't that just like Paddy Ryan? Here I was tillin' you fellers to be careful, and 'twas myself as was the careless one. CATH.ER,INE O'NEILL ws'-, --'- A ' '- ' '- - .lem-v' ,W . s. .-1 -a S JK s 5 Y V ' - 1,53 '.f.4'.' I -gi., -..-Me... . vi - A ' -av.. ornv-'fr ' ' -Muwnda-,,,,-g,,vw --'N , , I mwqeq. A ,mal nav.. Nwqvvliwi .caan--'ht' wx ' i, The Mattaagami In Flo0d

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4-4 .i.l The PORCUPINE QUILL Our Salad Days It is the anecdote that best defines the personality. -Ludwig The child is father of the man. -Wordsworth. The following true accounts of dark deeds done in early childhood were written by the perpetrators thereof-all students of the Middle School. Amateur psycho-analysts are invited to study the data submitted and -to report their findings,-CStafE Editors noteb Very young children usually like meddling with handles and buttons on automobiles which they should not touch. I can Well remember meddling with the controls of an old 1919 model Ford. We were sitting in the front seat of the car -my cousin and myself-and I was pretend- ing that I was taking her for a ride. While we were in the car our parents were on the talking. I began making a noise veranda with my mouth, as must children do, to pre- tend the car was going. I had often watched my father drive the car and when he started it he always let a lever down on the left hand side of the steering wheel. fI'o make the ride more real I decided to let the lever down. It was the em-ergency brake. After some fiddling around I managed to get it down and I sat up to drive the car. To my surprise the car began to move, and go down the hill. My cousin, who was a little older, tried to stop it by pushing on the foot brake but she could not. Our parents came running out of the house to try and catch the car by running after it, but it had too much of a start. We went down the hill and ran into a clump of small tag-alders which stopped us. When my father got hold of me after the car was brought back to the house, he gave me what children usually get for being naughty. BY ? ak sie Ik Before I reached the age of three I was nick- named Bouncer due to my habit of bounc- ing up and down whenever I found myself on a chesterfield, chair or bed. But one day I was suddenly cured of this annoying habit. The credit goes to the scrubwoman who came in every so often to give the house a thorough going over. As usual I toddled after her from room to room, sitting on a chair, bouncing up and down, and singing in the language which only my twin brother and I understood. But fate was against me this day, for I quite unex- pectedly found myself in fthe old woman's scrub pail, which by this time was undeniably black, as she had reached the last room. I heard dimly the surprised scream and then I was yanked out, dripping wet. As soon as I could get 'over my fright I imme- diately let out shriek after shriek, which re- sulted in my twin brother appearing on the scene, putting his chubby little arms around me and crying with me. 5 ? as qi When I think of my past I often wonder if 'there was ever a child half as bad as I. My childhood was one catastrophe after another, In the first place I hated girls as badly as I hated to wear shoes and stockings. In 'the summer time I would not Wear shoes and stockings, and a good many spankings I got for being so stubborng but I did get my own way. I often got into trouble for eating a portion of sand with perfectly good water, which I thought a great delicacy. Our pets were not cats or dogs, but Tommy fthe boy I played Withl and I had a troop of frogs and toads. We kept them in an old stove and played with them every day. WHO ? fr ff if When I was very young I was obliged to go to bed early. The worst part of my life was always being told to go to bed just when I was beginning to enjoy myself. I would go upstairs and feel very sorry for myself as I heard the gay laughter below. I knew that games were being played, and promised my- self that when I grew up I would stay up all night just to show them! Another thing that took all the joy out of life was being seen and not heard. Whenever there was any company at the lrofuse I was expected to sit straight, not to play, and above all, to speak only if I were spoken to!' AUTHOR ?