Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1912-06-07
VACATION TIME.
Vacation time.

Oh you know what it means, you
confirmed money-grabber. you staid
man of business, who has long since
forgotten your school days, and whose
sons and daughters now take the
place you used to occupy in the
stuffy school room on the hill But
there is one thing you haven't for
gotten, the memory of which will re-
main with you until your eyes are
closed on this gay old world and you
are gathered to your fathers in the
silent city.
That's vacation time. The glad,
glorious, rose bordered. smiling vaca-
ton time, when the cares and wor-
ries of the school room were laid
aside and you breathed again the
pure, fresh air of the flowery fields,
and heard once more the pleasant
murmur of the placid brook After
a long nine months of hard study
and of hard work, with now and
then a brief respite at the holidays,
or the spring vacation, you rushed
forth into the santing sunshine of
that bright day in June, and realized
that for three long months you were
free. Free to do as you liked, go
where you wanted to, and stay as
long as you willed, unhampered by
the daily lesson grind up there in
that workhouse on the hill.
For three long delicious months
Of
not hear the narrowing clamor of
that horrible brass bell that seemed
to say come here" come here"
twice daily for five days each week
and had been saying it with persist
ent regularity for nine long months.
Oh, but those were joyful days.
Bright, careless days that those of us
who have reached lifes meridian
will never know again. But, while
Time may bring the silver glow to
the one time sunny locks, and the
many years trace the wrinkles on
brow and cheek, it can never efface
the sweet memories of vacation time.
Didn't the fields look inviting, and
didn't the blue waters of the lake
smile and beckoh TO you to come and
partake of the pleasures they offered?
Didn't the green of the woods, and
the song of the birds, and the cloud
shadows chasing each other over the
fields of waving grain. just simply
reach out and grab a fellow and how |
he did long to get away from the !
grind, and just lie out there in the !
bloom and the sweet smelling clover |
and conjure up pictures in the feecy |
clouds. That's the way you always |
felt about IL, i'm the school room,
didn't you? OF course, school wasn't |
so bad In the chilly and lowering
days of winter. when the murmur of |
the brook was hushed, and the song
birds had flown to sunny lands, and
all the world lay wrapped i'm a white
mantle. You could go to school then.
with good spirits. only then you had
to get up in the morning before il
was light, and how you did shiver
and how your teeth chartered as you
jumped into your clothes up there
In the bedroom near the roof.
But. when spring came and the
soft wind breathed upon the dirty
snow drifts and they melted away in
a night; when the smiling sun bath
I'd the warm earth in its light and
he green came back to the fields.
md the daisies and the dandelions
nodded to you in the pasture. then
he spring beckoned to yOu with
loft insistent entreaty. that a boy
'imply couldn't resist. even il a boy {
20. which he didn't
Came at last vacation time. Hur-
ah! I
Back into the corner or onto the I
helf went that battered geography. {
hat well thumbed ''speller," that I
Ough old 'rithmetic. Nothing fur
her doing with them for some time
ow. Not for quite a spell. I guess. O
here's too much on hand for a boy v
o fool with dun school books. n
here's a BAN game on this afternoon / :
l Billy Perkinses back lot when the Z
ids from East Milton are comm I
yer 20 play us a game Then. to- 2
borrow, Nate Davis and me are .
DIN fishin' and we're goin' 20 dig q
le worms tonight There's an aw- 4
II lot Of 'em hack OF our barn. G
ato's goin' to sleep with me SOS we q
n set an early start. a
SO Il went every day. The long 81
ours OF daylight didn't seem long al
Tough % accomplish all that you '-
anted 20 do. and when az last you D
luctantly orawied up stairs and into q
a, you feil asleep lulled by the twit- q
rinEs of Mrs Robin 20 her onsprinE 81