Wells River High School - Chatterbox Yearbook (Wells River, VT)

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8 THE CHATTEFJBOX with money he was supposed to save, and would have bought eight more, if the money had held out. After getting our provisions and baggage together, we started for Mt. Mansfield. The day was warm, and each one of us had something to carry, for we had with us two pounds of beefsteak and four loaves of bread. We hiked until we arrived at Bingham Falls, one of the pret- tiest places I believe I ever saw, and you can’t imagine how cool and refreshing it was after traveling in the hot sun nearly all day. To tell the truth, we were pretty well ’‘tuckered out.” There at the foot of a twenty-toot fall and beside a stream of water that wound around in all manner of shapes and turns, and clear as a crystal, we cooked our dinner. Then we all felt so much better we looked the place over, and again started for Mt. Mans- field with four miles to go. We arrived at Barnes Camp, at five-thirty (about half way up Mt. Mansfield). There we left our luggage and went up in Smugglers Notch and explored a while. There were caves of all sorts and description. One espe- cially interesting thing was the elephant’s trunk. That being so much of a change after hiking all day, we actu- ally ran down to camp. We made our supper of beefsteak and bread and but- ter, and as we were all very tired, went to bed early. “Tarzan” got excited two or three times, but we calmed him down. We were up bright and early the next morning, ate our breakfast, washed our dishes in a nearby brook, and started for the top. The sign board said three miles and one-half, but before we got there it seemed six. At Taft Lodge we asked what he had for cold drinks and he said. “Plenty of cold water in the spring around the cor- ner.” We got to the top about one o’clock. We cooked our dinner and went to the tip top house, where “Tar-

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THE CHATTERBOX 7 Morrisville about five-thirty, and I guess we all did our share in eating, especially Ernest Mayhew, who between mouthfuls of what we called ham and eggs, declared, “That’s good beefsteak.” After coming out of the restaurant, we were enter- tained by “Socrates the Second,” who told us the lay of the land, the population, and good character of the people of Morrisville. We all concluded that if they all lived to be as old as he and stayed there as long it must be a pretty frisky population. By the way, he was about ninety-nine. Well, we hit the road for Stowe, which was about eight miles away. We hiked to within about two and one-half miles of it, and then climbed over and waded a brook on the bank of which we pitched our camp. “Tar- zan” of course looked after the fire, as he said it came natural to him. After a few necessary tasks we all re- tired for the night, so we supposed, but we were mis- taken, for about twelve o’clock we were awakened by someone talking and sure enough, up in a nearby tree there was “Tarzan,” practicing, I guess, for the open-air exercises he was going to give us in the morning. We had a little trouble in getting him down to civilization, until he was told he would have to walk two and one-half miles before breakfast, and then he at once came down and crawled under the blankets. Whether he went to sleep or not I don’t know, but he woke us up in the morn- ing. As the nights were cold we slept with most of our clothes on, so it did not take us long to get dressed. Then “Tarzan” gave us his open-air exercises, a vivid descrip- tion of killing animals of the jungle with the naked hands. s we were all very hungry it did not take us long to reach Stowe, where we had our breakfast. While we were waiting for Mr. French to buy the provisions for the hike to Mt. Mansfield, “Gibby” Perry bought eight pears

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THE CHATTERBOX 9 zan” attracted much attention. From there you could see most all of Lake Champlain, and the country for miles around. We hiked about seven miles through the woods to the Mt. Mansfield Trout Club, and just behind the Trout Club reservations we camped for the night. We made our supper of roast beef, tomato soup, bread and butter. We were up early the next morning because we want- ed to catch the trolley to Waterbury. I said trolley; it seemed more like a boat. It was a ride of about ten miles. We stopped at Waterbury to wait for the train for Montpelier. Of course, “Bing” was up to his tricks again, riding on a pass from Waterbury to Montpelier, which was marked Montpelier to Wells River. We ate supper at Miller’s Inn. You can imagine how we looked, as we shuffled in there, after hiking all day. Plainfield was about ten miles away. We hiked half- way and camped for the night. The next morning we got up and hiked an hour before breakfast, which helped us to work up an appetite, for our four cans of beans and the coffee. Then the word was, “On to Plainfield.” We arrived there about eleven-thirty, to wait for the ‘mud and water” home which sure did look good to us. for all its starts and jolts. We admired the up-to-date way of putting people on the train at South Ryegate; there is more snap to the conductors than there is to the train. When the group got off at Wells River, we were the same happy bunch only a bit the worse for wear. —L. Willis CURING THE CUT-UP “Al” Hicks was a natural born cut-up. He would think it a great joke to walk up to you and smack you be- tween your shoulder blades with enough force to make