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

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10 THE CRIMSON AND GRAY the Huns, then he and Brown charged them. The grenade had disabled two guns and killed three soldiers but the remaining ma- chine gun killed Brown instantly and Hadjet felt a hot, searing pain in his arm and another in his shoulder. He shot a man with his rifle and stabbed another with his bayonet and then came to grips with a huge man. He struck wildly out with his closed fist, and he felt a solid thud which told him he had connected somewhere on the big man, then jerking his revolver fi-om his belt, he fired at two Huns and killed them. He felt a pain in his back and turning, hit a man with the barrel of his gun, breaking his jaw. He fired at a man and clowned him. The remaining men crying, Kamerad Kamerad! and thinking that the devil in- carnate was after them, threw down their arms. Hadjet forcing them ahead of him made them carry Sergeant Duffy back to the trenches. Imagine the surprise of Captain O ' Neil, who had given them up for dead, when he saw Hadjet with five Germans in front of him and the Germans carrying Sergeant Duffy. He ordered some soldiers to take the pri- soners away and then said, Private Had- jet, you have , but just then Hadjet dropped to the ground and the Captain cried, Why, he is hurt ! Take him to the hospital quickly! A man picked up Had jet ' s gun which had fallen to the ground and was looking at it, when of a sudden he cried, This gun is empty. Hadjet had marched his prisoners back at the point of an EMPTY gun. When Hadjet had recovered from his ill- ness, he learned that he had been wounded in seven places some of them being serious ones, and he also leai ' ned that the men who would have shouted with joy if he had been killed before, had been coming to the hospi- tal every day and inquiring how he was while one man had threatened to shoot the surgeon if Hadjet died and in so doing had expressed the opinion of the whole regiment. One day the surgeon said that he had a visitor and General Pershing came in. He f-poke a few words of praise and then pinned the War Cross on his chest and left. The day he left the hospital to join the regiment he was agreeably surprised. He walked out of the door and there in front of him was the whole regiment and they burst out cheering when they saw him, but they could not get him to make a speech or talk about his brave act. SIR NOLBODY HOLMES While I was visiting Sir Roger at his es- tate he introduced me to a most unusual character. This man was a country squire like Sir Roger but was very eccentric. He in- vited us to visit him in the next county on the next day. That night I asked Sir Roger about this man whom I saw was a most un- usual make, because among the many troubles the poor man had, he was cross- eyed, bow-legged and spoke in a high pitched voice that showed he had been an excitable character. Sir Roger said Sir Nolbody Holmes was supposed by most of the country folks to be a half-wit and they all made fun of him behind his back. He said that the towns-people near Sir Nolbody ' s estate taught their dogs to jump between their legs until the dogs got so that whenever anyone fixed their legs so that the dogs could jump through, they did so without being told. This, said Sir Roger, was very disconcerting to Sir Nolbody, who could not help but have his legs in such a position and whenever he went to town he always had the dogs jumping through his legs, which he did not in the least favor. When we arrived at his estate the next day, I at once noticed the thoroughness with which everything was done. The gardens were among the finest that I ever saw, the stables were clean and the horses were all thoroughbreds. I at once saw that Sir Nol- body Holmes was not a half-wit, but was, as are many men, very eccentric. As time passed on, I began to appreciate more and more his struggle with nature against the handicap with which he had Been born. On the way back to Sir Roger ' s that night, after a very enjoyable day, I thought to my- self, as Sir Roger prattled meaninglessly,

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THE CRIMSON AND GRAY of his water and set out. Slower and slower over the shining sands the weary- camel plodded. Towards dawn with a sigh the wornout beast sank to its knees, to rise no more. When the sun had once more sunk be- yond the desert ' s edge the Lone One plodded through the clinging sands. With- out wa ' ter, without food, the old man stag- gered up and down the drifting sands, hampered by the long cloak and clinging, shifting sands. Gathering new strength to climb each diT e v ith the thought that over the top of this one he would find relief. Up and down, on and on he staggered, growing even weaker. Darkness was giving way to the grey light preceding dawn when at last the weary old man reached a dune higher than all others. Surely beyond this there would be aid and his seamed face bright- ened at the thought. Up and up he dragged himself until he reached the top. Beyond lay — not an oasis — a towering dune still higher than that on which he stood. With a groan of despair and disappointment the helpless old man raised his arms to the eastern sky and then — he fell with a cry, sliding, roll- ing to the bottom of the dune. In the little oasis of M all was confusion and content as the inhabitants hastened to make the best of the cool morning hours. A white man, presumably English, emerged from a tent, gazed spec- ulatively about the little village, and slowly sauntered toward the oasis ' edge. Climbing the towering dune which mark- ed the edge of the oasis he purposed to watch the sun rise. Above the desert ' s rim the sun rose in a blaze of color. Its early beams revealed the man standing on the dune above the village, revealed also the body lying at the foot of the sand hill. With an exclamation the Englishman half ran, half slid, down the mound to the recumbent figure. Gently he grasped the body and turned it over. One glance at the aged face and the empty canteen tightly grasped in the stiffened hand told the story. Softly the Englishman rose and with bared head murmured So near to the precious water which you lacked. How in- explicable is the way of the desert. Dorothy M. Lanphear, ' 31 THE FIGHT The rat-tat-tat-a-tat-tat of a machine gun broke upon the still night; an answering machine gun opened farther down the line and then the staccato barks of rifles opened. The noise swelled in volume; a whistling scream from overhead, then a thunderous roar broke out all up and down the line — the cannons had started in — it would be a night of fight. Division 5 — was ordered out to reconnoit- er for a counter-attack. Captain O ' Neil or- dered Sergeant Duffy to take five picked men and go in front as scouts. The sergeant took John Hadjet, Fred Brown, Jack Dil- Tngs, Tom Kingley and George Fleming. John Hadjet, the first man chosen, was taken because of his great bravery. Although admitted that he was brave, nobody liked him because of his conceit and his boasting, for he was always boasting and was so con- ceited that he thought that he was a better man than General Pershing himself. It would not be so bad in his boasting but HE was always the hero; to hear him talk one would th ' nk that he had won all the wars that had ever been fought all by himself. The men went forward on their dangeronw errand. Every now and then a flare would go up and they would drop to the ground as if they had been shot through the heart. All of a sudden they stumbled upon a large machine gun nest, most likely the one that had opened up hostilities that night. There were three machine guns in it with three men to a gun and another man, pre- sumably, an officer, in charge of it all. One man saw Hadjet and with a shout, turned his machine gun on him, another grabbed a rifle. The first hail of bullets got Dillings and Fleming, wounded Sergeant Duffy; then the man with a rifle got King- ley. That was when Hadjet and Brown went to work. Hadjet jerked the safety pin from a hand-grenade and with a curse threw it at

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THE CRIMSON AND GRAY 11 what a different place the world would be if everybody worked like Sir Nolbody Holmes. Buckley DISHES As every man is said to have a bogey dog- ging his footsteps, so every girl has one — dishes. To the average person this may not seem to be so bad — but anyone who has ever done dishes can understand it. Again, to the average person, dishes would seem to be easy to do, but to one who has done them, they certainly aren ' t easy. When girls are about four or five years old, and all their friends have gone back to Fchool, they find themselves without any- thing to do. At this time they decide, for lack of anything better to do, to help their mother do the dishes. About this time they earn the nsme Mama ' s little helper. But the novelty of doing dishes soon wears off, and they stop being Mama ' s little helper, then about four or five years pass, full years — when the little girl starts to school, and acquires new friends, and during these years she doesn ' t have to do dishes, — and is blissfully happy. But then comes a time when mother says that little sister must learn to do things for herself — and so begins an extensive training in the gentle art of dish washing. At first, the novelty of dish washing charms the little victim and she goes about her work with great vim and vigor. This sort of thing con- tinues for about a week, and then, as before, the novelty wears off and dishes become just plain drudgery. Of course, as the little girl ' s mind devel- ops, she begins to understand that if she can only think up an excuse which will sound fairly reasonable, she may be able to get out of the dishes for at least one night. Conse- quently she racks her small brain for a plausi ble excuse, and occasionally she has a brain wave which enables her to spend one even- ing without hearing the call to duty. She uses one excuse as long as she can and then discards it, and does her dishes do- cilely until the next brain-wave comes along. Gradually, howlever, these brain- waves become fewer and farther be- tween and the dish-washer becomes des- perate — wfth that desperation which prompts men to become criminals Occasionally, too, she will go and hide, dur- ing dish time, forgetting the consequences of this act. Why should she run from a task which she knows she will eventually have to do is a problem that the psychologists should study. Looking at it with a strictly unpre- judiced mind, it seems to me that the thing she should have done, was to have followed the line of least resistance, do the dishes and let it go at that. Certainly by this time, the girl is quite an expert — and it wouldn ' t take very much time to do the dishes, for to be an expert at dish- washing is quite an accomplishment, be- cause, to become an expert in this most com- monplace of household art, practice is re- quired — and lots of it. There are times when the dish-washer feels like bouncing all the dishes off a rock. And then there are other times, when she gets a very, very brilliant idea, and says very sweetly to her mother, Mother, don ' t you think it would be an awfully good thing if we used paper plates. Of course. Mother promptly crushes this young hopeful. But the idea recurs again and again, and the young dish-washer is crushed again and again. Gradually the dish-washer become re- signed to her task, and can juggle her plates with ease, and still have time to wonder how in the world she ' s going to find time to do that stack of homework, which has been as- signed to her. Rita Earls ' 31 A LETTER FROM A HIGH SCHOOL MOUSE. Red High School, Waterville, N. J. March 22, 1929 My Dear Joshua Whiskers : I happened to get some paper from the teacher ' s desk, and some ink and a pen from a student ' s desk and here I am writing you a letter from a corner of the Red High School. My other friends have gone to a ban- quet (a girl had left some unusually delici- ous cookies in her lunch box ' ) I must tell