Westbrook High School - Blue and White Yearbook (Westbrook, ME)

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Westbrook High School in W the world-The Baron Robernertsky Cnot said in a boasting mannerj. These are only a few of my true experiences. I could run on for hours telling story after story but I'm afraid that most of them would be as dull and uninteresting as the ones just told and so I say as parting advice, Keep a strong constitution and a clear brain and you will some day attain as great success as I. R. K., '36. THE LOCKET The Germans had renewed the attack. Every detonation of the cannons which were now but ten miles away made each pane of glass in Chateau Fourcon vibrate almost to the breaking point. The roads were dense with troops being rushed to the front and ambulances hastily piloting their way to a wing of the Chateau which had been improvised as a temporary hospital. Irene stood at the gate, seemingly immune to all that was going on before her eyes but eager to see someone. Suddenly .her eyes detected the old post- man slowly limping his way towards the Chateau. In no time Irene had met the mail carrier and made him search among his letters for one bring- ing news of Raymond which she had expected for three long weeks. Raymond had been an orphan for as long as he could remember. The pastor of Bertierville had taken charge of his education and seen to it that an old family offered him a good home. Chateau Fourcon was the pride of Bertierville and Irene de Jasmin, the daughter of Count de Jasmin, was its most loved figure. Irene had met Raymond on one of her frequent visits to the young man's spiritual father. A beautiful friendship had resulted, a friendship which soon had the old people talking of the possible marriage of their beautiful chatelaine. But war had broken and Raymond was called for military service. He had been gone for seven months already. To Irene these seven months seemed seven eternities and her one consolation was the monthly letter from Raymond. It had been a promise which Raymond had made on the eve of his enlistment when both had met to say goodbye. Irene had slipped a locket around her lover's neck as a souvenir for those terrible days to come. 'Twas a beautiful golden case with the names of Raymond and Irene carved on the face of it. Inside were enclosed a few hairs which had been cut from one of Irene's curls when she was a child. Now, no word had been received for seven weeks. Every day Irene met the postman, but never even a note. The anxietv was almost un- bearable: was he dead, wounded, imprisoned? lk lk Ik lk lk The Germans were repelled and the Red Cross units searched the battlefields for the wounded. A Roche youngster was found with three bullet wounds through his chest but still alive. Ile was brought to the Chateau, where the French soldiers were cared for. I-Iis condition was of the most serious and a private chamber was prepared for him. Irene, who now worked with the other nurses to take care of the ever-increasing number of wounded boys, assisted the doctor in the deli- cate operation of removing the three bullets. The Roche soldier was young. must have been about Ravmond's age. He was of the same build. too. The bov will need a special nurse all through the night, Miss Irene, mumbled the doctor as he felt the patient's pulse. His condition gives him a fifty-fifty chance to live. I have a prescription here which he must be given at every hour. I'll send a girl from the village as soon as I get there. No, no, doctor, I'll take care of him tonight and see that he has his medicine at every hour. I assure you it won't be any trouble. Thus speak- ing, Irene sat near the bed, prepared to give her best care to an enemy. Water, water! Please give me a few drops of water. My throat is burning, moaned the German as soon as the doctor had left the room. Irene moistened his lips and his throat with a little water and the wounded soldier managed to smile a trifle. You thought I was still unconscious, he con- tinued in a weak voice, but clearly audible because he spoke so slowly. I heard you offer your help to care for me. I thank you. I have but a few moments to live and there is so much I must say. No, don't silence me. I must talk. I must tell you

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A I The Blue fr White '6 better than a good mouse stew. I skun fa local- ismj three of them quickly and roasted them in an oven I had learned to build when I was cap- tured by the terrible head-hunting savages of East Borneo. I have never eaten a meal that tasted better because with every mouthful I took, I said to myself, Chicken, nice chicken! What wonder- ful chicken you cook, Mrs. Bloom l After getting filled, I immediately set off to the nearest settlement, a hundred and two miles away. I arrived there that evening in the best of spirits and hastened to assure my comrades that I was safe once more, but they were not worried for this was not the first time I had disappeared for days at a time. Indeed not. Why, once I was caught in a terrible blizzard fifty miles from the North Pole. I was alone with my dogs and a sledge loaded with seven hundred pounds of food and a small tent. The blizzard began to blow late in the after- noong so I decided to pitch my tent and turn in for the night. I fed my dogs fifty pounds of frozen fish and chewed on a piece of jerky, then dived into my tent for a few hours' sleep. I knew it was going to be a bad night as the thermometer was already down to seventy below zero. I was awakened suddenly as a particularly strong gust of wind fit was blowing normally at ninety-eight miles an hourj took my tent off for a little joy ride. Well, there I was, left to brave the worst night in the arctic without even a tent to rest my weary bones in. I sat up to look the situa- tion over. What? Why, where were my dogs? Ah, yes, there was one. But where were the others? I knew. They had left me. They were far from being dogs anyway. Three-quarters of their blood was wolf and nobody but me could handle them. At last their wild instincts had got the better of their human training and they had gone, loping off into the night to a far worse life than living with men. It was a terrible predica- ment, but was I daunted? No, no, a thousand times no. How could a man of my caliber fear the mere elements when he has faced dangers a hundred times worse? I immediately made a pack of provisions and took my only dog and left for the North Pole. No, I didn't turn around and start for civilization as any ordinary man would have done. At fifty miles from the goal I had set out to attain, I could not turn back. I felt certain that my sturdy con- stitution and iron will power would see me through the worst storms. And I was right. The hardships were many and the dangers encountered were enough to make an ordinary man beg for mercy. On the second day out I saw a huge polar bear fishing through the ice. Beside his hole was a seal and a pile of fish. I needed those fish and was determined to get them. I stalked carefully up behind him intending to jump on his back and choke the life out of him, but as I stole closer and closer my foot slipped on a piece of ice and the bear jumped nimbly to his feet. We stood there staring at each other, waiting for the first charge to be made. I decided to let him make the attack. After an hour of outwaiting each other. the bear made the first move. He started to lunge toward me but he didn't move a step. His feet were frozen solid to the ice, so long had we stood there without moving a muscle. I roared out a hearty laugh because now I could have the fish without getting my furs bloody. But my joy was short- lived. My own feet were stuck fast: they had sunk into the ice up to my ankles. Have you ever seen anything quite so comical? VV ell, there was only one thing to do-my shoes must come off. I could wrap some sealskin around my feet and in that way make my way to the pole. I had only a quarter-mile to go, the pole was already in sight. I could see the top of it shining in the distance like a striped barber's pole CI've always wondered who put it therej. Of course, my feet would be more or less cold, but-what's a pair of cold feet to a man like me. Vtfhen I ar- rived at the pole, I hurriedly scratched my name on it and started my journey back home. It was only a couple of thousand miles to the nearest settlement and I expected to arrive there in a week. The only trouble I had on the way home was my dog's getting frozen feet. I had to carry him most of the way. Other than that it was a comparatively uninteresting tramp. I arrived safely home in just a week and a half. There bands played to my glory and autograph seekers by the thousands sought the one and only signature of that greatest adventurer and man of

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I 'q' The Blue fu- VVhite '8 something. Three weeks ago my regiment at- tacked a detachment of your soldiers by surprise. We crept up on their barracks and fired on the sentinels. A terrific slaughter followed. Your boys knew they were done for and sold their lives dearly. One soldier, a hero he was, killed four of our men with his bayonet. A god among a score of men would not have appeared more superb. He was about to end another when I crept up behind him and plunged my bayonet through his back. He fell, my victim, without even a chance to face me. The fight lasted but a few more minutesg our mission had been accomplished. I couldn't take out of my mind that French soldier I had stabbed. I started looking for him among the bodies lying about. I found him. Irene gave him a few more drops of water: he passed his tongue over his lips. He was suffering terribly but he had to speak. I found him lying on his back, bareheaded, looking up at the heavens as if to ask help. I bent over him. His hand moved slowly, so slowly, to- wards a chain around his neck. He pointed to it. tried to say a few words. I gave him some water as you just did me. He moistened his lips and spoke. I placed my ear near his mouth to hear. He forgave me for stabbing him in the back and asked me to take the locket hanging on his chest. He made me promise to take good care of it and when war was over to see to it that a certain French girl was given the locket. Her name is carved on it. I have but a few moments to say this, so please take the locket and finish what I promised but could not accomplish. The soldier coughed, coughed hard and closed his eyes. He was unconscious once more. Irene hastily took the locket with trembling hands. She already knew. Her eyes were so blurred she could hardly see the locket now. But the words Ray- mond and Irene danced before her eyes. The murderer of her one love, without knowing it, had fulfilled his promise and was the patient of the girl whose future husband he had killed. Irene rose and supported herself by holding the side of the bed. She took the medicine bottle in her hands. The doctor said he must take this every hour or else he would surely die. She could let him sleep, no one would know. The doctor would find the soldier dead tomorrow morning and thank her for her efforts. Raymond would be avenged. She thought of the fraulein who probably was waiting for this man lying in the bed at her mercy. She wondered what a German girl would have done for Raymond had he been wounded and taken care of in Germany. The soldier opened his eyes slowly, tried to speak once more, could not. It was time for his medicine. Irene approached, gave him the prescribed dose and doctored him through the night. The next morning the doctor entered the room. The patient was asleep, resting comfortably and assured of life. The old medico turned to Irene and gasped. Irene's hair had turned white. A. F., '36, SPRING I sprang from my bed one morning At the sound of a twee twee twee, And there from my window I spied him, A bird in the old apple tree. The wind swayed the branches around him, The snowflakes were hurrying by, But in spite of the wind and the weather I knew that the Springtime was nigh. D. L., '36. WOLVES The winter of '98 was exceedingly severe in the great North country. It closed in early in the fall, hardly giving the natives a chance to prepare for winter, and it stayed late the next spring. It was the coldest winter that had been experienced for many years, and left many a grey hair on the heads of the settlers, who had to fight its deep snows and endure.its cold blasts in order to main- tain life. On the denizens of the forest, too, it fell very hard. The deer were forced to yard up earlyg and long before Christmas, when their food supply gave out, the snow was so deep they could move only with great difficulty. Many, in fact, probably two-thirds died of starvation and ex- haustion. Others of the weaker animals were slowly extinguished, also. This condition, as will readily be seen, was bad for the carnivorous animals, particularly wolves. They roamed the