Page 43 - 1964

INTERMEDIATE III
THE BUG
W hile I was doing my homework
one day, I was rudely interrupted by
a green, orange, and purple polka-
dotted bug.
If this chap had been an ordinary
bug, I'd have disposed of him in a
m atter of seconds and then gone on
with my work. But, as I have told
you, he w asn’t an ordinary bug. H e
walked across my paper as if it were
the floor. After him, he left little
m uddy tracks.
W eil, ordinary bug o r not, I w asn’t
going to let him get away w ith that. I
picked up my book and almost
slammed him into a pile of guck. But
no, I d id n ’t have the h eart to do that.
H e was too beautiful to be killed. So,
soft-hearted, I let him tromp over the
rest of my now muddy paper.
W hen the colorful rascal finished
his pleasant stroll, he prom ptly turned
around and headed for my gold-
plated ruler. I watched him care­
fully. W hen he reached the ruler, he
took a fair-sized chunk out of it with
his fangs.
Angered again, I searched for a
weapon to kill this m onster with. In
the meantime, he had reached my
encyclopedia. Im m ediately he began
boring a hole through it.
This was too m uch! I scooped him
up and threw him out the window,
hoping never to see him again.
As he plunged down, I saw him
spread a beautiful pair of golden
wings and off he flew, as if nothing
had happened.
Paul Zaloom you’ll always w onder w h at you did
OPENING DOORS
T here are many ways of “opening
doors,” b u t the hardest one to open is
the one of a deaf, dumb, and blind
person. Nancy Lockwood, a friend of
mine, was already deaf and dumb,
b u t she w asn’t blind, a t least not yet.
T he doctors had said th at by the time
she was thirteen, her eyes would be­
gin to become blurry and she would
need glasses, or she m ight even go
blind. Every day Nancy and I would
play together. We had m ade up a
sign language so th at we could talk
together. T hen she began to come
less and less to play, an d when I
went over to her house her m other
would say, “ I ’m sorry, b u t N ancy is
o u t,” or “ N ancy isn’t feeling too
well, some other time m aybe.”
One day I saw Nancy walking down
the street. An enormous dog was at
her side and seemed to be leading
her. I followed her, staying at her
side, doing our language, but she
m ade no response. O ver and over I
tried, b u t I cou ld n ’t seem to get
through to her. Finally, we reached
her home, her m other came out to
greet us. W hen she saw me she
looked startled and morose. As we
went inside, she told me the whole
story how Nancy became blind. “But
w hat is th a t big dog th a t keeps fol­
lowing her around?” I asked. H er
m other explained that the dog was
called a “seeing eye dog,” to help
N ancy get around. “ I ’m sorry th a t
we have been avoiding you, but I
thought th at Nancy would like to be
alone. You m ay see her now though.
I went upstairs to Nancy and found
her sitting on her bed crying. I went
to her pressing my fingers against her
arm to “talk.” Even though it would
be harder to do now, I was deter­
m ined to keep our friendship going.
Pam Crimi
THE FALLS
Sometimes I wonder w hat I do
wrong. It always seems that whenever
I go skiing I am always falling off
the T -bar. If you don’t sit on it in a
certain way you’ll end up in the m id ­
dle of everybody’s skis, an d I m ean
in the middle.
Once I was riding up the mountain
on the T-bar with my friend Terry
Schwartz. H er bindings were not on
properly; so her skis w ent flying and
we did too, into the m iddle of the
T-bar path. The conductor stopped
the T -bar and waited until we were
on the slopes. I w-ent h u n tin g for her
skis while she scream ed for help. F in ­
ally I found her skis and we started
off to the lodge to dry ourselves off
and get some nice hot cocoa.
“It must run in the family,” I
sometimes say to myself. T he first time
my father tried it, he fell off a t the
first stop, took off his skis an d w alked
up the rest of the way.
R iding a T -b ar you’ll never know
w h a t’s going to h appen next, and
w’rong if you fall off.
Nancy Fritz place. This time there were no icy
A DELIGHTFUL SURPRISE
Sometimes I wonder what I do
wrong. T ake the time I was lucky
enough to catch a frog, for example.
N aturally I wanted to see how it
looked inside. I slit it open w ith a
kitchen knife. I was delighted to see
squirmy intestines, a cold slab of
liver, and a bloody heart.
I knew my sister w anted to see the
inside of the frog, but I knew if my
m other found them, she would throw
them away. T o avoid this I would
have to hide them carefully. T h a t’s
when I had the wonderful idea of
putting the parts of the frog under
my sister’s blanket, so she would have
a surprise.
T h a t night when my sister w ent to
bed I heard her scream. She had got­
ten into bed and had felt something
cold and slimy. She pulled it out and
saw w hat it was. I thought she was
screaming with delight, but she said
it was screams of horror. She ran
39
and told my m other and father what
had happened. They became very an­
gry w ith me. T o this day I do not see
what I did wrong. Do you?
Robbie Luttrell
OBSTACLES
Do you know how m uch you gain
from the obstacles you conquer dur­
ing the course of your life? You grow
by these problems and hardships that
you overcome. One example that I
got from reading was the time that
Glenn Cunningham -overcame his
great burn. W hen he was told he
would never walk again he still
worked and struggled until he had
full use of his legs. N ot only that, but
he became one of the fastest runners
of his time. He would not let his ob­
stacle stop him completely, but in­
stead he kept working and overcame
his handicap. This tells that an ob­
stacle can stop your forward progress
in life for awhile, but anyone th at
exerts himself enough and has enough
endurance may overcome most prob­
lems of life. How m uch endurance do
you have? Are you sure you are ex­
erting yourself enough when you
have tough problems to overcome?
Richard Rawson
M Y VERSION OF SN OW
T he snow had begun in the gloam­
ing, and even though it had snowed
for only a m inute, the trees and the
ground had become white. It was a
beautiful sight with the houselights
reflected on the icy lake and the snow
m aking ripples in the w ater as it
gently floated down. Even before the
snow stopped, it m ade a wonderful
white blanket over the valley below. I
couldn’t hold myself from going o u t­
side. It had snowed before but with
icy winds and snow flying all over the
winds, and the snow floated down
gently undisturbed. As I looked to­
w ard the lights, the snow flakes going
by twinkled and shimmered. Once
outside I thought it a shame to walk
through the snow and m ark up the
w hite blanket. So I w ent inside and
d id n ’t come out until the next day.
Bobby Sesslcr