EDITORIAL
It is with heartfelt regret that we take up our pen to announce that
this will be the last number of Our Magazine. We have edited ten numbers
of it and it has been successful beyond our expectations. It has to be
discontinued by reason of circumstances over which we have no control
and not because we have lost interest in it. Everybody has done his or
her best for Our Magazine. Prince Edward Island expected everyone to do
his and her duty and everyone did it.
Mr. Dan King conducted the etiquette department in a way worthy of the
Family Guide itself. He is especially entitled to commendation because
he laboured under the disadvantage of having to furnish most of the
questions as well as the answers. Miss Felicity King has edited our
helpful household department very ably, and Miss Cecily King’s fashion
notes were always up to date. The personal column was well looked after
by Miss Sara Stanley and the story page has been a marked success under
the able management of Mr. Peter Craig, to whose original story in
this issue, “The Battle of the Partridge Eggs,” we would call especial
attention. The Exciting Adventure series has also been very popular.
And now, in closing, we bid farewell to our staff and thank them one and
all for their help and co-operation in the past year. We have enjoyed
our work and we trust that they have too. We wish them all happiness
and success in years to come, and we hope that the recollection of
Our Magazine will not be held least dear among the memories of their
childhood.
(SOBS FROM THE GIRLS): “INDEED IT WON’T!”
OBITUARY
On October eighteenth, Patrick Grayfur departed for that bourne whence
no traveller returns. He was only a cat, but he had been our faithful
friend for a long time and we aren’t ashamed to be sorry for him. There
are lots of people who are not as friendly and gentlemanly as Paddy was,
and he was a great mouser. We buried all that was mortal of poor Pat in
the orchard and we are never going to forget him. We have resolved
that whenever the date of his death comes round we’ll bow our heads and
pronounce his name at the hour of his funeral. If we are anywhere where
we can’t say the name out loud we’ll whisper it.
“Farewell, dearest Paddy, in all the years that are to be We’ll cherish
your memory faithfully.”[1]
MY MOST EXCITING ADVENTURE
My most exciting adventure was the day I fell off Uncle Roger’s loft two
years ago. I wasn’t excited until it was all over because I hadn’t time
to be. The Story Girl and I were looking for eggs in the loft. It was
filled with wheat straw nearly to the roof and it was an awful distance
from us to the floor. And wheat straw is so slippery. I made a little
spring and the straw slipped from under my feet and there I was going
head first down from the loft. It seemed to me I was an awful long time
falling, but the Story Girl says I couldn’t have been more than three
seconds. But I know that I thought five thoughts and there seemed to be
quite a long time between them. The first thing I thought was, what has
happened, because I really didn’t know at first, it was so sudden. Then
after a spell I thought the answer, I am falling off the loft. And then
I thought, what will happen to me when I strike the floor, and after
another little spell I thought, I’ll be killed. And then I thought,
well, I don’t care. I really wasn’t a bit frightened. I just was quite
willing to be killed. If there hadn’t been a big pile of chaff on the
barn floor these words would never have been written. But there was and
I fell on it and wasn’t a bit hurt, only my hair and mouth and eyes
and ears got all full of chaff. The strange part is that I wasn’t a bit
frightened when I thought I was going to be killed, but after all the
danger was over I was awfully frightened and trembled so the Story Girl
had to help me into the house.
FELICITY KING.
THE BATTLE OF THE PARTRIDGE EGGS
Once upon a time there lived about half a mile from a forrest a farmer
and his wife and his sons and daughters and a granddaughter. The farmer
and his wife loved this little girl very much but she caused them great
trouble by running away into the woods and they often spent haf days
looking for her. One day she wondered further into the forrest than
usual and she begun to be hungry. Then night closed in. She asked a fox
where she could get something to eat. The fox told her he knew where
there was a partridges nest and a bluejays nest full of eggs. So he led
her to the nests and she took five eggs out of each. When the birds came
home they missed the eggs and flew into a rage. The bluejay put on his
topcoat and was going to the partridge for law when he met the partridge
coming to him. They lit up a fire and commenced sining their deeds when
they heard a tremendous howl close behind them. They jumped up and put
out the fire and were immejutly attacked by five great wolves. The next
day the little girl was rambelling through the woods when they saw her
and took her prisoner. After she had confessed that she had stole the
eggs they told her to raise an army. They would have to fight over the
nests of eggs and whoever one would have the eggs. So the partridge
raised a great army of all kinds of birds except robins and the little
girl got all the robins and foxes and bees and wasps. And best of all
the little girl had a gun and plenty of ammunishun. The leader of her
army was a wolf. The result of the battle was that all the birds were
killed except the partridge and the bluejay and they were taken prisoner
and starved to death.
The little girl was then taken prisoner by a witch and cast into a
dunjun full of snakes where she died from their bites and people who
went through the forrest after that were taken prisoner by her ghost and
cast into the same dunjun where they died. About a year after the wood
turned into a gold castle and one morning everything had vanished except
a piece of a tree.
PETER CRAIG.
(DAN, WITH A WHISTLE:--“Well, I guess nobody can say Peter can’t write
fiction after THAT.”
SARA RAY, WIPING AWAY HER TEARS:--“It’s a very interesting story, but it
ends SO sadly.”
FELIX:--“What made you call it The Battle of the Partridge Eggs when the
bluejay had just as much to do with it?”
PETER, SHORTLY:--“Because it sounded better that way.”
FELICITY:--“Did she eat the eggs raw?”
SARA RAY:--“Poor little thing, I suppose if you’re starving you can’t be
very particular.”
CECILY, SIGHING:--“I wish you’d let her go home safe, Peter, and not put
her to such a cruel death.”
BEVERLEY:--“I don’t quite understand where the little girl got her gun
and ammunition.”
PETER, SUSPECTING THAT HE IS BEING MADE FUN OF:--“If you could write a
better story, why didn’t you? I give you the chance.”
THE STORY GIRL, WITH A PRETERNATURALLY SOLEMN FACE:--“You shouldn’t
criticize Peter’s story like that. It’s a fairy tale, you know, and
anything can happen in a fairy tale.”
FELICITY:--“There isn’t a word about fairies in it!”
CECILY:--“Besides, fairy tales always end nicely and this doesn’t.”
PETER, SULKILY:--“I wanted to punish her for running away from home.”
DAN:--“Well, I guess you did it all right.”
CECILY:--“Oh, well, it was very interesting, and that is all that is
really necessary in a story.” )
PERSONALS
Mr. Blair Stanley is visiting friends and relatives in Carlisle. He
intends returning to Europe shortly. His daughter, Miss Sara, will
accompany him.
Mr. Alan King is expected home from South America next month. His sons
will return with him to Toronto. Beverley and Felix have made hosts of
friends during their stay in Carlisle and will be much missed in social
circles.
The Mission Band of Carlisle Presbyterian Church completed their
missionary quilt last week. Miss Cecily King collected the largest sum
on her square. Congratulations, Cecily.
Mr. Peter Craig will be residing in Markdale after October and will
attend school there this winter. Peter is a good fellow and we all wish
him success and prosperity.
Apple picking is almost ended. There was an unusually heavy crop this
year. Potatoes, not so good.
HOUSEHOLD DEPARTMENT
Apple pies are the order of the day.
Eggs are a very good price now. Uncle Roger says it isn’t fair to have
to pay as much for a dozen little eggs as a dozen big ones, but they go
just as far.
FELICITY KING.
ETIQUETTE DEPARTMENT
F-l-t-y. Is it considered good form to eat peppermints in church? Ans.;
No, not if a witch gives them to you.
No, F-l-x, we would not call Treasure Island or the Pilgrim’s Progress
dime novels.
Yes, P-t-r, when you call on a young lady and her mother offers you a
slice of bread and jam it is quite polite for you to accept it.
DAN KING.
FASHION NOTES
Necklaces of roseberries are very much worn now.
It is considered smart to wear your school hat tilted over your left
eye.
Bangs are coming in. Em Frewen has them. She went to Summerside for a
visit and came back with them. All the girls in school are going to bang
their hair as soon as their mothers will let them. But I do not intend
to bang mine.
CECILY KING.
(SARA RAY, DESPAIRINGLY:--“I know ma will never let ME have bangs.”)
FUNNY PARAGRAPHS
D-n. What are details? C-l-y. I am not sure, but I think they are things
that are left over.
(CECILY, WONDERINGLY:--“I don’t see why that was put among the
funny paragraphs. Shouldn’t it have gone in the General Information
department?”)
Old Mr. McIntyre’s son on the Markdale Road had been very sick for
several years and somebody was sympathizing with him because his son was
going to die. “Oh,” Mr. McIntyre said, quite easy, “he might as weel be
awa’. He’s only retarding buzziness.”
FELIX KING.
GENERAL INFORMATION BUREAU
P-t-r. What kind of people live in uninhabited places?
Ans.: Cannibals, likely.
FELIX KING.
[Footnote 1: The obituary was written by Mr. Felix King, but the two
lines of poetry were composed by Miss Sara Ray.]