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

Page 16 text:

10 THE CRIMSON AND GRAY started to tell her how sweet she was, and begged Betty to remove her mask. They finally returned to the hall, and the dance was in full swing. During all this time, Bob ' s slippers were pinching his feet so much that he could hardly keep the tears back, but Dick did not notice it. After the supper, the president of the Senior class announced that they would not remove their masks until 12 o ' clock. During the evening, Dick had been quite compli- mentary, but before the end he had become quite an expert at it, and Bob could hardly keep his face straight listening to all his lov- ing expressions. Just before the last dance, Bob pretended that he was faint; so they left the hall, and on their way home, Dick became very impa- tient because Betty - wouldn ' t take her mask off. When they got in front of Bob ' s house Bob stopped short and snatched the mask from his face, and gathering up his skirts, ran to the door, then he turned and bade Dick a laughing goodnight. Dick never forgot that party, and how badly he had been fooled, and from that time he never called Bob a dumb- bell. Stella Lavallee, ' 26. HOW WE WON THE GAME Overhead the skies are blue, Underfoot, ' tis wet with dew, Nature feels a thrill of gladness, As the spring comes on anew. ' Tis the season when our school Again goes forth to meet the fray. Once again our spirit wakens ; The spirit that shall win the day. To the field the crowd is thronging ; Not a moment ' s delay, Flags are flying, shouts are ringing, For the Crimson and the Gray. Silence, till the pitcher ' s ready! Up to bat are all our men. Swift and straight the ball flies over, Swifter it comes back again. Breathless, eager faces all are turned Towards the waiting fielder there ! Suddenly the cheers are deafening; The umpire ' s Safe! rings through the air. But boys ! the other team is game, They won ' t give up without a fight ! So do your best to hold them back, We ' re sure to come out right ! Two men on base and one to go ! All depends on this last hit! So do your best to bring them home, And you ' ll have done your bit. With determined chin and firm set jaw He meets the ball as in it comes ; It flies as ball ne ' er flew before And brings us in the winning runs. We ' ve won the game, but more than that, We know we ' ve won it fair and square ; We did our best, we came out right ; Our school has one more victory there ! Reva Rabinowitz, ' 26. MY TRIP TO MEXICO Grace and I were on a sight seeing trip through the South. We had arrived as far south as El Paso, Texas, and had been there for three days. It seemed as though we had seen every- thing of interest in the city ; and we had just seen a car with a sign Mexico on it, so we thought we would try the experience of go- ing over the border. We took the car, and were riding along through the country, admiring the scenery. Grace was cautiously studying our different fellow passengers. She finally said to me, I ' m mighty glad that there are two of us on this trip. I asked, Why? She pointed to a man who was sitting a few seats in front of us, and said, I wouldn ' t want to be held up by him. ' The man under discussion certainly was fierce looking. He wore a dirty, bright colored shirt, such as Mexicans wear in the movies, a soiled red bandana around his neck, and had a wide brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes. Across the aisle sat one as bad looking.

Page 15 text:

THE CRIMSON AND GRAY can go anywhere you want to, and I ' ll drown myself. 0 James, please save me! cried the frightened girl. Her appeal, however, had no effect on either of the two men in the row boat, or the boy who was afraid to get his suit wet. Put your foot in! He did it this time, with the help of the two robbers. Soon he was in the water up to his arm pits. Mar- garet was crying and James was begging to be allowed to get back into his canoe. When the water was over his head, the two men jumped into the water, pulled him out and set him afloat in the old row boat. After he had disappeared, the two boys took off their costumes, turned to Margaret saying, You will have to do one of two things, either give up that sissy and be a sport again, or we ' ll leave you on this island all night long. I ' ll give him up. I have better times with you two boys. Come on, let ' s race to the wharf. I bet I can beat you using the side stroke. Claire Beauregard, ' 26. PLUCK Some battles are won by strategy, Others are won by luck. But the battle of life Through calm or through strife, Is most often won by pluck. Have pluck when you rise in the morning, Have pluck the whole day through. Have pluck along the way, When things against you sway, And success will come to you. Hermon Goodell, ' 26. A HALLOWE ' EN PARTY The Seniors were to give a party the last of October, which, they decided, would be a Hallowe ' en Party. At assembly, on the Mon- day morning of the same week in which the party was to be held, the principal of the school announced that there would be a mas- querade party in the auditorium the follow- ing Friday night, which happened to be Hal- lowe ' en night. The main topic of conversation for the rest of the week was what each one was to wear. It could easily be seen that their minds were not on mathematics or French. For once the boys decided that they would forget their bashfulness and be good sport? and dress up in costumes as well as the girls. During the few days that remained before the great event, Bob Brown thought and thought, but in vain, as to what kind of a costume he was to wear. At last he decided that he would ask his mother to help him de- cide. Mrs. Brown consented to help him, but would not tell him what her plans were. The day before the party she looked over some old-fashioned dresses that she had, and fin- ally found one which she thought would suit the purpose. A little later she called Bob in to see his costume. Quite excited, he ran into the house from football with the boys. As soon as he saw the silk and ruffles, he became very grave, and could not hide his disappoint- ment. His first words were, Gee, mother, I can ' t go dressed as a girl. But after his mother had explained all her plans to him, he became interested in attending the party, in his mother ' s once upon a time party dress. Bob would never forget the night of that party. He certainly had a hard time getting into the dress. In order to do so, he had to hold his breath while his mother hooked it. Can you imagine Bob trying to squeeze his feet, which were not considered very small, into his mother ' s slippers? Finally, having adjusted powdered wig and mask to suit his mother, he started out for school. The streets which he had to go through were dark, so no one could tell whether he was a girl or not. When he arrived at school he took his mother ' s cape off, and after seeing that his nose was properly powdered, and his hair well arranged, he went up stairs to the auditorium. Bob anticipated a good time be- cause of a well planned scheme. He had been seated but a few minutes when Dick Carlson came up and sat beside him. The following conversation took place. Oh, Betty, but you ' re wonderful tonight. You didn ' t think you could kid me, did you? Say, I could recognize you miles away. I came over to you the minute I saw you come in, in order to ask you for the supper dance, and for five or six other dances, before that dumb-bell Bob Brown came and took you away. Wouldn ' t you like to go for a walk until the dance starts? Dick asked very gently. Bob was laughing so inside that he could only nod yes. After they got out, Dick

Page 17 text:

THE CRIMSON AND GRAY 11 After Grace had pointed out these charac- ters to me, the scenery wasn ' t quite as inter- esting. These two men kept turning around and looked strangely at us. Hope they have to get off before we do, said I to Grace. Oh, they ' ll probably go further into Mex- ico than we shall. Suppose we get off at the next little village we come to. Never fear; I seconded the motion readily. Would we never arrive there? Cold shivers kept run- ning up and down my spine and the two men continued to turn and gaze at us. At last we saw a group of houses, clustered together, in the distance. Here ' s where we say ' good-bye ' to those strangers, said I to Grace. We got ready to leave the car, when the conductor informed us that we would have to stay on till we came to the end of the line. Grace was getting rather frightened. Gee, they ' ll have to get off at the same place. Well, let ' s stay on the car and go back with it, I said. The two men got off the car and left, and we planned to stay on, to wait for it to re- turn. Then we noticed that the conductor was making a move to leave too. So I said, How long will we have to wait here before we can go back to the States ? Four hours, Ma ' m, he replied. Four hours to sit in a street car! That was ter- rible. Come, Grace, let ' s get out for a walk. Those men have gone ; they can ' t harm us. You don ' t know where they ' ve gone to, and besides, there might be a whole tribe of them, said Grace. Well, I ' m sure there ought to be some- body around here who would help us out if anything should happen. So we got out and started walking, looking at the stone huts with their unkempt yards. We kept wan- dering farther and farther away from the houses, up a cool looking road. It was very warm that day and finally Grace said, I ' m about parched. Do you suppose we could get a drink of water around here anywhere? We passed one house, as it didn ' t look very clean ; and we were about to try the next one, when we saw a little farther down the road, another, with a nice white-washed door, that looked really clean, so we ventured up to it. Grace said, You knock, so I gave a timid little knock. A large, dark Mexican woman came to the door. May we have a drink of water? I asked, trying to keep my voice from trembling. Come in, me get you a drink. No, we ' ll wait out here, we said. No come in, no drink. Grace said, I don ' t want to go in, but I do want a drink. Come, we ' re two of us and we ' ll stand near the door, said I bravely. When we came into the room, the woman went into the next room. We could hear men ' s voices talking loudly to her in Spanish. Oh, dear, oh, dear, whimpered Grace. I began looking around the room. It was bare of furniture except for one chair, and on that there was a dirty, bright colored shirt covered with what appeared to be fresh blood stain. Near by, on the floor, laid yards and yards of heavy rope. I looked through the door, where the lady had gone, and saw none other than one of the men who had been on the car with us. Let ' s go; never mind the drink of water, said I to Grace. My teeth were chattering, and my heart was beginning to sink. Yes, and let ' s make it speedy, said Grace- And turned to go out. But there in the door- way stood the other man who had been on the car. Grace let out one scream and I started for the opposite door, but that was blocked by the other man. My heart had sunk indeed, and so had I, for I found myself on the floor hugging my pillow, thinking it was Grace. And, then and there I swore, no more pickles and apple pie before bed time Alfreda D. Norman, ' 26.