Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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Lament of the Fifth Form Clock (A True Story) I am very badly treated ' Cau.se I cannot tell the time, I ' ve nothing else to do all day And so I ' ll write this rhyme. My face is ah disfigured, And my back is very sore ; I liv e a very boring life Behind the cupboard door. I used to have a smiling face As clean and smooth as satin. I sat upon the teacher ' s desk And cheered the girls at Latin. I could say all Milton ' s poems I knew theorem thirty-two Was attentive to the lessons And interested too. Was careful not to tell a lie. Was never fast, nor slow. I really cannot understand Why they should treat me so ! But they often tipped me over, And they dropped me on the floor ! I have never known such treatment In all my life before. First of all they broke my works. And then they cracked my face; For a clock who ' s been so faithful It ' s a terrible disgrace! [31]

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I think that we are a pair or something. I turned to see that another running-shoe exactly Hke me had spoken. This at least was a relief, to know what I was. A very tall man then appeared and packed me and my twin into a box and put us on a shelf. Then followed months of darkness shut up in a stuffy box. I rarely spoke to my twin because there was nothing to talk about as we had only seen light for about an hour. From time to time I could hear someone say, Let me see, white, and we would be whisked down, but then a discouraged, Oh, six and a half — and we would be put back in our place. Sometimes we could catch interesting little bits of conversation and then life did nto seem quite so dull for a time, and once the lid to our box was left off for half an hour and we had a lovely time. It gave us something to talk about for several days. One day our box was removed from the shelf and we were taken out and brought over to a bench and tiied on a girl who was very tall and had huge feet. Many exciting adventures followed but I really like running best, particularly on a court (I have learned quite a lot of slang). Then one dreadful day came. I was in the cloak room on the radiator, my mistress had forgotten to put me beside my twin in her cubby-hole, when a girl came along that I had hear d someone call a sixth-former. She had on a triangular pin with a P on it. I think it stood for Pound or something because she said, I have to take this to pound. Then I was picked up and placed in a large cupboard with a terrible mixture of books, belts shoes and all kinds of running-shoes. I wasn ' t a bit bored because I soon made friends with the other shoes and they told me all about themselves. One time my owner came and after rummaging through the shoes she picked me up and looked inside of me and whispered to another girl (not a pound ) This isn ' t marked, I think I will leave it here. No more detentions for me. About Christmas time (I know because I heard one girl ask another what she wanted for Christmas) I was picked up with our clique (for black ones and me) and sent to a place with 0-R-P-H-A-N-A-G-E- written across the door in large letters. After being taken into the house I was picked up and quickly cast aside again with Begore, an odd one. I am no longer white but a kind of dirty gray and I am telHng my sad tale from the depths of a garbage can. It was not all sad but I didn ' t think that I would end here and hope that my history will be a lesson to girls, to have pity on us running-shoes. Celeste Belnap, Form III. b [30]

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But the Fifth don ' t think it matters, They don ' t care about my pain ! And I know if I were on the desk They ' d knock me off again. So, here I am, behind the door, Upon the cupboard shelf And I find it very lonely In the dark, all by myself. So, if you ' ve any money left To spend upon repairs. Don ' t forget the broken clock In the class-room just up stairs. . A. Clock. — V. a. The Capsize of a Paper Boat A paper boat from port set out. With a crew both brave and stout ; Of paper too. The captain he remained aloft, Surveyed the troubled waters oft, A tempest blew. The second day the thunder crashed, And forked blue lightning brightly flashed Across the sky. Great sheets of rain in torrents fell. And caused the dashing waves to swell Like mountains high : They overwhelmed the paper boat And very soon she ceased to float And then went down, While her courageous paper crew Stood proudly up as sailors do Prepared to drown. And on the bank of the little stream, A youthful sailor wept to view His faulty paper boat capsize, The captain and his gallant crew All go down before his eyes. Elizabeth Tooke. — FormV. a. [32]