Wells High School - Crimson and Gray Yearbook (Southbridge, MA)

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THE CRIMSON AND GRAY savage beasts. The bloody dagger came into play again with deadly surety of winning. The inevitable would have happened, but with over confidence, the ruffian stepped back to the very edge of the footing. He slipped slightly, trembled on the brink, and with a shriek dropped down to the very fate to which he had treacherously flung the others. Steve picked up the weapon and sadly quitted the valley. The chief boss paused — and the silence seemed oppressive. The shadow, appeared to be gathering to rush, to strike, and to blot out. I raised the blade, and as I handled it the last crimson ray of the setting sun tinged it with color; but soon the streak of bloody color changed to purest silver and then to the dusk of ended day even as in our story. K. Taylor ' 24. THE FIRST ESSENTIAL It was the first day of school, and already the main room of Madame Dufrey ' s select school was filled with the noisy babble of young girls. Madame Dufrey, who had just been advising the teachers on various sub- jects, was just leaving the room when a large handsome car was seen to stop at the en- trance of the school. The new arrival proved to be an extremely fashionably dressed woman with a very haughty air. She went into the room fol- lowed by two young girls, one who looked about sixteen, and the other, a year her ju- nior. The younger and plainer of the girls was unmistakably a poor relation, for her face bore the meek, humble look of a depen- dent, while the haughty black eyes of the other marked her as the lady ' s daughter. At Madame Dufrey ' s inquiry, the lady gave her name as Mrs. Browning, wife of the Honorable Mr. Browning of Riverside, N. Y. I have come, she said, apparently speak- ing to Madame Dufrey, but looking straight at the window, to place my daughter Coral in your charge. She is to study the higher branches of education, such as music, French, Italian and dancing; I do not wish her to waste her time over such ordinary studies as geography, spelling, arithmetic and gram- mar. Those will do very well for Betty, and she threw a look of disdain at the poor relation, whose eyes were bent upon the carpet. She is the child of my husband ' s sister, and it had been decided that she become a teacher, so it is my wish that you be very thorough with her in all those stupid th ings which Coral is not to study. Madame Dufrey bowed, and Mrs. Brown- ing continued, Last year, the girls were studying at Sunnybrook Seminary, and if you ' ll believe it, the principal insisted on placing Coral in the spelling class, because she made a few mistakes in her first com- position. I dare say it was more Betty ' s fault than hers, because Coral admitted to me later that it was one of Betty ' s that she had found and copied. Naturally I would not consent to having Coral placed in the spelling class, so I took her away. It was my intention to have Betty finish her edu- cation there, but my husband, who is very peculiar wouldn ' t submit to it, so I have brought them both. Mrs. Browning then arose, and after kiss- ing Coral six or seven times and nodding to Betty, took her departure. Just beyond the immense grounds of the school and separated from them by a huge concrete wall, was a fashionable boys ' col- lege. The young ladies were strictly prohib- ited from having anything to do with the young men, but in spite of the careful watch- ings of the teachers, notes were flung across the wall while handkerchiefs were waved from the windows of the girls ' rooms. Coral had not been there long before she was well acquainted with all the young men, but it was only on one that she lavished her bright- est glances and most winsome smiles. That one was Worthing Halton, a young man who possessed great wealth. He was immediately attracted to the beauty and charm of Coral, and went boldly to Madame Dufrey and ask- ed permission to call upon her. His request was granted and during the two years he remained at college, he continued to see her. One evening when he called, he was made to wait for so long that he had made up his mind to leave, when a fair delicate looking girl, with deep blue eyes and curling auburn ha:r, entered the room. She introduced her- self as Betty Lee, cousin of Coral, who. she said, was unable to come down. Worthing looked at her with great admiration, which made her blush deeply, and would gladly have detained her, but with a polite good-evening she left him in a state of complete bewilder- ment. How strange, he said to himself, that

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THE CRIMSON AND GRAY life-long enemy, Buck Henderson, came up, stumbling and stammering. The following conversation took place. ' ' Gee, Margie, you didn ' t think you could fool me, did you ? Why I ' d known you any- where. I thought that dumbell, Charlie Johnston, would try to hang around you all evening, so I hurried up to ask you for eight or nine dances and your company at supper. Wouldn ' t you like to go over to the park and sit on a bench until the dancing starts? Chnrlie, laughing inside, merely nodded his head and they left the hall. As soon as they were seated in the park, Buck slipped his tirm around the dainty shoulders of ' Mar- gie and begged her to remove her mask, which she firmly refused to do. After fif- teen or twenty minutes, during which Buck grew quite sentimental, they returned to the hall where dancing was in full swing. Charlie ' s slippers were pinching his eight D feet until he could hardly keep the tears back, but he had firmly resolved to get even with Buck Henderson for once in his life, so they danced. Luckily Charlie ' s face was over Buck ' s shoulder, for if Buck had seen Char- lie ' s distorted countenance he would have easily realized his mistake. During the encore of a dance, the chair- man of the entertainment committee an- nounced that owing to the fact that it was Hallowe ' en, no one was to unmask until mid- night. This announcement satisfied Charlie perfectly, for it gave him an opportunity to have more fun at Buck ' s expense. At last, refreshment time arrived and Charlie sank thankfully on the stairs with Buck. Now Buck had been complimentary enough before eating, but after ice cream and cake he became an expert. Oh! What fun Charlie had listening to Buck rave about her little pink ears! Just as the ' Orchestra started to play Home Sweet Home, and the dancers pre- pared to unmask, Margie pretended to be faint, so they left for home. Instead of stopping at his own gate, Char- lie walked down the street and stopped be- fore Margie ' s house. Buck was becoming quite impatient for Margie to remove her mask so, when he least expected it, Charlie snatched the mask from his face and gathering up the skirts of his ancestors ran down the street. When he reached, his doorsteps, he turned to bid the startled Buck a laughing goodnight. There is no more to tell except that Buck never forgot that party and never called Charlie a dumbell again. L. Williams ' 24. A MEMORY OF THE PAST A slender blade of silver crowned with pearl rattled from a big brawny hand into the rough pine table between us. My gaze leaped from the fine surface of the weapon to find a sudden grimness in the sun beaten face of our chief boss. He appeared to be lost in thought for a moment, then leaned forward and broke into a story of the woods, a story told with a simple eloquence which brushed aside the obscure mist of forgotten struggles and thwarted ambitions. We seemed to be watching as if in actual life the figure of a young lad again striding up the valley to the cabin door of the chief boss. He applied with engaging cheerfulness for a job in the construction gang. He ap- peared to be an Italian of high intelligence and physical fitness. The only name he gave was Steve and just Steve he became to all of his fellow workmen. A deep affec- tion developed between Steve and one of the younger men. The two were at work on the big dam being constructed across the valley tie friendship was often apparent. Work had progressed rapidly except for a few de- lays caused by disagreements between the workers and the foremen. The ring leaders were illiterate foreigners whose brains were soaked in alcohol and disillusionment, and they were intent on making trouble. Con- ditions led to irritations among the workmen and between the workers and the foremen. Petty quarrels and errors in construction seemed to be the white caps of a threatening torm. Steve and his group of friends op- posed the drunken actions of the trouble makers. One day, apparently by accident and ill fortune, a section of staging crashed down carrying a group of loyal workers to destruc- tion. There was a whirling mass of debris, an endless drop and then oblivion for those concerned. In the confusion and horror of the scene a hand flashed back and a streak of silver blended with the gray of a man ' s back, and sank to the hilt. A moment later Steve ' s friend disapeared over the staging to ioin the dead below. With a spring Steve was upon the mur- derer and revenge fought with drunken fury on the very brink of destruction. Back and forth and up and down they struggled like

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THE CRIMSON AND GRAY Coral had never told him she had a cousin there. When he saw Coral next, his first inquiry- was for her cousin. She is a perfect book- worm and manhater, was the answer. These two words produced on Worthing a far dif- ferent effect from what Coral had intended and he often thought of the deep blue eyes of Betty. The annual examinations at Madame Du- frey ' s were drawing near, and it had always been the custom to offer a prize for the best examination. As Coral was to graduate, both she and Betty had entered their names on the list. Betty was much surprised to see Coral ' s name, because composition writ- ing was one of the things in which Coral did not excel. She was doubly surprised to come upon Coral suddenly one day, apparent- ly deep in thought, and filling one sheet after another. At last she finished it and came to Betty with the request that she go over it and correct all mistakes in spelling. Betty did not refuse, for this was not the first time Coral had come to her with the same request, and upon reading it she won- dered at Coral ' s new achievement. If she had any suspicions she did not make them known, however, but handed her cousin ' s composition in with her own. The examinations were over and Coral, who had known just what questions would be asked of her, answered with such accu- racy that her mother had been very proud of her when she heard on all sides the praises of her daughter. Now all that remained was graduation, and the great auditorium was filled. Worthing, who had arrived very early, had been fortunate in obtaining a front seat. He had graduated the week before and was leaving that night for Europe. Coral was first on the program and she seemed very beautiful to Worthing, as she came forward in a simple white dress to sing and play. After that came the reading of the compositions. Betty was called upon first, and in a very sweet voice she read her es- say, which when finished, was greeted with such cheering and clapping that there seemed little doubt of her obtaining the prize. Coral, at her own request, was last. Her composi- tion bore the title The Future and Present Life. When she ended a burst of applause filled the large hall, while her name was on every lip as she left the room, proudly bear- ing the prize. Worthing was obliged to leave at nine o ' clock so he was not present at the scene which followed. A little, bent, gray-haired woman arose, just as Coral again entered the room, and making her way to the stage, said in a shrill voice, I am a woman who loves justice and therefore will not hold my peace. That young lady has no right to the prize, for that same piece appeared in one of the daily papers, two years ago, and if any one doubts my word I can produce that article for it is one that I have always kept. At this, the old lady went out and returned a few minutes later with the same article. Co- ral was obliged to hand over the prize to Bet- ty, and mortified beyond all imagining left the room, followed by her mother. Three months later, in a hotel in London, Worthing sat awaiting the mail. As yet he had received no letter from Coral and did not know about her disgrace. The mortifica- tion which she had endured had brought on a fever, and she had taken to her bed, waited on by Betty. At Coral ' s request Betty had written Worthing a long letter as she her- self could write only a little. He opened and read the one written by Betty first. Then he turned to the second. It was a sickly, sen- timental affair which had been partly copied from an old letter writer, containing uch nonsense as the silvery starlite the pearl- ing rill and the golden moonlite, wh ch being spelled in such a manner filled him ,;r th disgust. Almost every other word was mis- spelled, and Worthing ' s thoughts of the writer were not very complimentary. It was a long time before he answered it and the coolness of that letter filled Coral with such anger that she tossed it into the fire, and so the correspondence ceased. A year had gone by and now it was Betty ' s turn to graduate. Among those present at the graduation was Worthing. To him, she seemed the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen and he did not wait long to tell her so. Before the evening was over, they were engaged. On a fine October morning, they were mar- ried, but needless to say, Coral did not at- tend the wedding. To Europe, they returned to live in the lovely Southern home that Worthing had prepared. I. Lindblad ' 24. HIS LETTER It happened on one of those glorious Nev- ember days when every one is pleased with everyone else and there is just enough rivalry