Willard Middle School - Target Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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THE TARGET a sharp pain in his side where he had pinched himself. He woke with a startled cry and found himself lying on the floor with a pin that was in his night-gown pricking his side. Then a happy thought came to him. He had a story with a point to it; he felt that the pin had a point and a good one, too. HALE PARKER. A SOUTHERN EVENING. Well suh, what ' ll you hab now, de tango? asked Sam grinning from ear to ear. It was a warm summer evening in Kentucky, and all the darkies of the plantation, were gathered in front of the house, entertaining their master. The strumming of the banjos, and the darkies jigging to the lively tunes, threw the scene back about fifty years, in the good oid days befo ' de wa Sam was his master ' s favorite, hav- ing lived with the family all his life. Old Coloned Westcott was fond of all the darkies employed on his plantation, as most of them were direct descendants of his father ' s slaves. The colonel and his little grand- daughter Dixie, sat in the moonlight on the great, wide piazza. Soon the old colonel noticed her little head nodding and as the darkies slowly drifted away to their small cabins, Dixie and the colonel wended their way up the broad staircase, to her dainty little room, where her grand- father had promised to tell her a story of the thrilling days of the war. Outside the big round moon was just coming up over the magnolia trees to shed its brilliance on the sleeping plantation. MARJORIE MOORE. 23 MY DREAM PONY. And over the Bay In twilight gray He came; prancing Tn the glancing Rays of Eventide. His mane did ride On the coming tide; His darkening eyes Were the shades and dyes Of sombre night. But — the sun leapt into the ocean stream; He disappeared in the mists of my dream! CAMILLE HAYNES. A TRIP WEST. Tell me a story, said Bob to his grandpa, tell me something excit- ing. Well, said grandpa, let me think. When I was just a little boy, my mother and father decided to go out west. We started from St. Louis in March hoping to reach California before winter. We sold our home and got a wagon and some oxen. As I loved to ride horseback my father got me a pony. We reached the fort in safety. But we had to wait three days before enough wagons came to make the journey safe. Our wagon was very comfortable. The whole wagon was fixed up like a room. One half of the wagon was a bed on which mother and I slept. Papa slept on the ground with all the other men. Other wagons were fixed differently. At last we started. It was about six o ' clock in the morning. We had our wagons numbered, number one started first and so on. Our wagon

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22 THE TARGET Next morning found the sun barely visible through clouds. We set off during a lull in the rain and in about an hour and a half we reached the Inn, after taking shelter under some trees, and an old auto top, on one side of the road. We stayed at the Inn. all that day, which was Sunday, Monday and part of Tuesday morning, when we con- cluded to return to Calistoga, by auto stage, that morning. After visit- ing my father ' s friend again, and get- ting another good meal, Ave caught the train. On the return trip the dogs , seeing the baggage door open, and within reach, jumped out. One slipped his chain, and the other was pulled in unconscious, but recovered soon. The other dog wandered back to Calis- toga where my father ' s friend found him. WILLIAM STEARNS. THE CHARGE OF THE SIGHT- SEEING BRIGADE. Half a league, half a league, Half a league onward, Plowed the old ferry-boat To San Francisco. As the sight-seers landed, Eyes wide expanded, All were of one mind: The Fair was no blunder! Onward, the sight-seeing Brigade L Were they at all dismay ' d As they beheld that view When they gazed breathless? Palaces to right of them, Palaces to left of them, Palaces in front of them And the bright Joy Zone. JOHN BENNETT. INSPIRATION! Oh dear, said Johnny after din- ner, I ' ve got to write a story with a point to it. What shall I write about? Sister is a year ahead of me at school and she wrote all the stories that I have ever heard about and so now there are none left for me. We can ' t write anything that has ever been in print before. Well, why don ' t you write about adventure, replied his sister. Oh, I have never had any adven- tures that turned out with a point to them, replied Johnny, and I ' ve nev- er heard any either. If you go to bed now you will probably remember some story to- morrow, said his mother. And so it turned out. Johnny went to bed but it seemed only a second before it was morning. The air was hazy and Johnny could not see very well. There was no breakfast, every- body was gone. Johnny put on his coat and went into the woods. After a while he met a bear. Good morning, said the bear, I am so glad to se you. I have fasted all winter and a nice little boy would taste very good. Johnnny was so surprised that he could not speak. He looked hard at the bear to see if he were not dream- ing, but no, it was a real bear! Johnny ran to the nearest tree and started to climb it. He never knew that it was so hard to climb. He just barely kept out of reach of the bear. When he got to the top he gave a big leap out, because he thought that he would rather be killed by a fall than a bear. He did not seem to fall rapidly but kind of floated. This time he was sure that he was dreaming, and so he pinched himself to wake up. Just as he did this, the ground seem- ed to fly up and hit him and he felt

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24 THE TARGET was seventh in the caravan therefore we were No. 7. Nothing happened until the twelfth day out. It was about two o ' clock in the morning when my mother awoke me and told me that India ns were about to attack us. The guard had fallen asleep and the Indians had captured him. The guard could not send out an alarm of any kind. Luckily some one got up to get a drink of water and saw an Indian crouching down behind a bush. He immediately warned the other men. And not a minute too soon. Already the Indians had surrounded us and all we could do was to fire. Our wagons drawn up into a circle served as fortifications. There was only one place where we could escape and not more than one or two peoiple could do that. Two men volunteered to try to get to the nearest fort for help. They start- ed and in spite of many dangers suc- ceeded in getting through the circle of Indians and then rode at a break- neck pace for the fort which was quite a distance away. As they Avere going up a hill they saw a bunch of Indians coming down from the other side. There were three of them and at first they were very much alarmed but they came up to them in a friendly manner and told them they were enemies of the trbe w-hich -was fighting us. Their help was asked and granted. In the meantime there had been considerable hard and brave fighting at the camp. The Indians outnum- bered the whites three to one. A shot whizzed over my head and shot a hole through my hat. We were now getting out of am- munition and had to fight more skill- fully. Firing grew- less and the In- dians seeing this came nearer. As we w-ere all interested in what was go- ing on in one place, three Indians came up and frightened us. One man started to shoot but the Indians made a sign of peace. As they came nearer we could see that they were dressed differently from the Indians we were fighting. They told us that the tribe they belonged to were go- ing to help us. Eagerly everybody looked for the C ming of help when I saw off in th-a distance a cloud of dust and hollered, ' There they come. ' Soon there was firing and our enemies, knowing the warriors, fled, and left us to resume our journey. LORAINE CLEAVLAND. HELP YOURSELF. Mother! Mother! exclaimed the baby monkey, isn ' t there anything to eat? Yes! Yes! my little dear, replied the old wise looking mother monkey, but I am not going to get it for you every time you want anything to eat. You just watch me and and learn. You often see me when lean not find any- thing to eat; I just sit quietly and look wise. Then I feel something give me a little nip; then I scratch and scratch, and before you know it I have a big, beautiful fat flea, just the right eating size. Now you try for yourself and see how it goes. But, mother, pleaded the baby monkey, I have never tried it be- fore. But just the same he did try it, and he was so delighted with the result that he tried again, and again, much to the pleasure of the mother monkey, who thought that her baby was the smartest one in the neigh- borhood. GRAFTON CARLISLE.