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

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THE CHATTERBOX 13 thoughts of matrimony about me I’d have driven you off long ago. Do you see this?” She stepped back suddenly so that we could see as well as A1 Hicks that she was holding a short-barreled shot-gun in her hands. “I brought this out here tonight to use on you if you sprang another one of them whisker- ed wheezes on me. Do you know that they’re all I’ve been listening to the past twenty-two years. My father is the same kind of would-be humorist that you are. That’s why he ain’t got a friend in this part of the coun- try or any other. Yet you talk about my marrying you and dooming myself to a life of mental torture listening to you—”. She broke off as the mournful whistle of the nine-eleven reached her ears, fell back a step, and raised the shot-gun so that it pointed directly at Hicks’ head. “When this freight pulls up here for water,” she tells him, “one of two things is going to happen. Either you’re going to climb on the bumpers and ride out of this country and state never to return, or this gun is going off and your worthless nut with it. I’ll leave it to you to de- cide what its going to be. Now”—as the train slowed up beside ’em—“take your choice.” And A1 Hicks took it. When the freight pulled away from the water tank it took him with it, riding the beam for parts unknown. —G. L. R. ’22 THE ISLE OF MYSTERY Chapter 1 Anita Barstone stood on the steps of her home in California. The place was a large majestic looking man- sion of red brick with a wide piazza which surrounded the house. On the east side was a garden of flowers and walks led in all directions from this.

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12 THE CHATTERBOX All went well for a week, when one night he came galloping up to the ranch a full two hours ahead of time. “What’s the matter with that old Pearsall coyote,” he gasps? Is the reason he don’t have any friends or ac- quaintances because he is crazy and if he is, why didn’t you tell me about it before? Why, tonight I was trying my level best to entertain him. The fact is tonight’s the night I’ve set to ask Mehitable if she didn’t think Hicks would be a shorter and easier name to write than Pearsall. When I turned up this evenin’, I was lucky enough to get a word with her alone. I asked her to meet me at the water tank by the railroad track in an hour’s time be- cause I’d important things to speak to her about. Well, she agreed to slip away and meet me there. Ever since I’ve been callin’ on her, that old galoot, her father, has sat right into every one of our conversations. He thought he was some story teller, I guess, until two evenings ago I cut loose on him with some of my yarns like you told me to do and since then he sort of shut up and left the floor to me. I was settin’ in the parlor alone with him to- night trying to cover up Mehitable’s get-away by telling him a couple of gags when he jumps on me with his gun and a meat ax, with which he declared his intention of separating me from my life. A feller like that oughter be in jail and I’d go round up a posse now only I got to get down to the water tank as I’m twenty minutes late already.” The second he was gone we nearly fell over each other in racing for the railroad tracks to overhear his proposal to Lem Pearsall’s gal. “You want me to what?” we heard Mehitable ex- claim. “Marry me, I said,” A1 Hicks’ voice floated to us. “You’ll be happy with me. How can you help it? I’ll keep you merry as a lark all day pullin’ jokes on you like ----”. “Say,” Mehitable cut in, “is this the important thing you brought me all the way out here to tell me? If I’d supposed for a minute that you was entertaining

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14 THE CHATTERBOX Anita had been born in the mansion at Barstonville, California, and now the very thought of leaving it made her homesick. The Barstones had lived in it ever since Anita’s great grandfather had been a baby and that prob- ably gave the town its name. Miss Barstone, eighteen years of age, a girl of medium height with large gray eyes and nut brown curls, was all ready for the play. She was a senior in high school and was to take the part of Betty” in “Betty Behave.” Anita laid one hand on the granite pillar which rose far into the dark. Finally, she raised her voice, “Mother, are you com- ing?” she called. “Just a minute, dear,” answered her mother, with a voice so near like her own that one might think they were the same. Anita started to answer when she felt herself picked suddenly, roughly, off her feet and carried by someone. She tried to cry out but her mouth was covered by some- thin white. “I can’t call,” thought Anita, “I might as well listen and hear what they say, who they are.” “Well Joe, where you goin’ next?” she heard a rough voice call after someone who was trudging noiselessly along ahead. “Shh—not so loud,” whispered Joe, “You’re good at catch’.n ’em, Pete, but you’re no good at keepin’ ’em. You just follow me.” The next the girl heard was the lapping of the waves —then—all darkness. Chapter 2 When Anita’s consciousness returned to her she saw the moon shining on the water, and beside the sails of a little sailboat, the two men. Anita was still muffled but she could hear and see, and she determined to make the best possible use of her ears and eyes.