THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE

Christmas 1960

SNOW by Elizabeth Shad (3B)

It is after dark, and the streets are all quiet,
Snow falls slowly and silently.
Out of the shadows walks a cat,
Treading among the freshly lying snow.
He stops to listen:
Was that a rat? No.
Onward he goes on his endless journey.

THE FORTUNE TELLER by R. James (2S)

The day dawned bright and clear in the little village of Tidewater. It was Friday the 13th, the day of Bimbo's Fair.

John, my friend, and I were going to that fair in an hour's time so had our best clothes on and our hair brushed.

At nine o'clock sharp we set off down the only village street towards the fair, which was set on a hill half a mile away. It took us twenty minutes to get to it and by that time the music was in full swing.

Plenty of people were there and we had to push our way through crowds to see anything.

The fair itself was quite large with coloured flags streaming from the tops of white tents. There were blue and yellow stands with dirty men behind them dressed in rags and with shaggy beards.

At first we visited the tent of Sebastian the Strong Man. He wore a leopard skin coloured pair of swimming trunks and was heaving his muscular body over a large weight. Getting fed up with his straining antics we entered the next tent, which had a large placard over its door which read:

Visit Pozzo - the Fat Lady!

THE FATTEST LADY ON EARTH

Pay Here

All we saw was a huge, bloated human in a ghastly red dress bouncing about on a makeshift stage.

Next we visited the dodgems; then the coconut shy, rifle range and Bingo. At last, we found ourselves weary and poor, outside the fortune teller's.

It was a large tent, in the middle of the fairground. It seemed to be the largest tent in the fair, and the gayest. So with our last shillings we decided to go in. Inside we saw a small round table with a white cloth over it. All around the tent hung curtains, decorated with moons, stars and planets.

We sat down in two chairs at one end of the table. We did not have to wait long; there was a swishing sound as a curtain was pulled back: a woman entered.

Madame Trelliane was a thin woman: her face was long and her eyes sunken, with high cheek bones; she looked like a half-caste. Her hair was black and wiry and hung down to her neck; it was parted in the middle and was tied in two plaits. Her bony frame was covered in a flowing red robe which trailed behind her. In her long hands she carried a small glass bowl.

After we told her we wanted our fortunes told she eyed the bowl for a picture. "You are going to have a horrible experience," she said in a crackly voice. "You are going to meet a dark stranger, things won't go well for you, he has a knife!" Her voice was now working up into a screech. I couldn't help laughing.

"You will meet him on your way home."

She put out her hand, "Money please", she said.

I handed her three shillings and walked out. There my friend and I burst out in laughter. With that we walked home, to our tea.

AMBUSHED by Veronica Huffer (5C)

Penelope hurried along the deserted, street that bore the grand name of "Kingseaton Green High Street". Actually it wasn't much different from the other small roads in Kingseaton Green, the village that was Penelope's home, but every village has to have a High Street even if it does consist solely of three shops and a school, which was all Kingseaton Green High Street had to offer.

As she hurried home after a lengthy shopping expedition in Hildene, a large town near the village, she ticked off in her mind the things she had to do before the "Snow Party" that her two older brothers Christopher and Roland had organised.

Snow and Christmas together were all very well and Penny had to admit that she liked them but they did cause a lot of extra work for her, the eldest daughter of the Reverend David Conrad.

Her father was the Vicar of the Kingseaton Green Church and the family weren't seeing much of him just then because of the organising he was doing for the Midnight Mass that he held every Christmas Eve.

As Penny walked towards the Vicarage, her thoughts far away, a small wire-haired terrier known as Rough-Chops hurled itself upon her from nowhere in particular and made a great fuss of her. She pushed him down, laughing, and waved a fur-gloved hand to a small face that was pressed against the drawing room window. The small face disappeared and a moment later an angelic looking boy of about ten came running down the drive towards her. This was Simon, her youngest brother.

"Hello, Simon, where are Chris and Roly?"

"Oh, they're setting up their barbecue in the field at the back. Dad says he thinks it's going to snow again and Chris says he hopes it doesn't because if it does it'll put his fire out. He's having trouble now because of the dog. Every time he gets the fire going, the dog kicks the snow with his back legs and it lands on the fire and puts it out again."

Penny laughed and carried the newly bought parcels and the post-delivered parcels up the stairs and into a spare bedroom. When she got downstairs again she found Louise, her thirteen-year-old sister, had already prepared tea. Half way through the meal there was a knock at the door. Louise answered it and brought back a dozen or more youngsters of varying ages. Roland got up, "Oh good, you've come early. Let's go and get the forts made, the party starts at eight thirty and it's a quarter to eight now."

He, Chris and Simon went off in the direction of the field at the back of the house, followed by their guests. Penny turned to Louise, "Forts?" she said in a puzzled voice.

"Of course you don't know about that, do you? Well Chris and Roly have turned the Snow Party into a Snow Fight Party. They're going to divide us up into two teams and we're each going to have our own snow forts with our own flags on top. The other team have got to guard their own flag and get ours as well, and we've got to try and do the same."

"Oh. But aren't some of us a bit old for that? Especially Chris and Roly and myself and our friends" Penny asked.

"No, not really, Never mind about the clearing up. We can just get those odd parcels wrapped up before all the others arrive and the party really starts."

At about half-past eight the rest of the guests began to arrive so the girls finished off their parcel wrapping and went and joined in the fun.

Penny was on Roland's side with at least a dozen other teenagers and also younger children. The snow was soft and powdery and the youngsters' clothes were liberally sprinkled with It.

Each of the teams guarded their forts and flags and no matter how their opposers tried to attack the hard snow forts they were stopped.

Chris and Roly halted the party at about half-past ten and suggested that supper ought to be the next thing on the list. Penny agreed and everybody ploughed their way towards the rough barbecue that the two boys had set up earlier. There was chicken, sausages, and tomatoes and bacon rolls on sticks and plates of little toasted savouries, plus a large bowl of hot punch. There were also potatoes baked in their jackets and roasted chestnuts. The young people did the spread justice and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The church clock struck the quarter hour and Tony Hunter, the doctor's son, reminded everybody that they hadn't really finished their snow fight. Penny said she thought that they had better get on with it, as it was a quarter-past eleven and they had to be at the church by twelve.

The younger ones ran to the forts and started bombarding everyone with snowballs. The others entered into the spirit of the thing and the fight was in full swing once more. Penny, however, had taken Roland and Tony on one side.

"Look, you two keep anyone from noticing my absence from the fort - and get them onto someone else, and I'll crawl round the bushes and behind their fort and get their flag."

"It's guarded by your sweet little brother though," said Tony, "and look what he did to me when I tried to get it." He ran his finger round his soaking wet collar, obviously the result of a well-aimed snowball from Simon.

"Oh well, I'll chuck one down his neck and catch him off his guard," decided Penny. The boys said she could try and after hitching up her tartan trews she set off - crawling across the snow on her tummy, towards the bushes.

Over at the other fort, Simon watched her quietly and curiously and, wondered what she was up to. He suddenly realised and beckoned to Louise. She came across, "Look," said Simon, pointing at Penny, who was still slowly making hor way across the snow. Louise laughed and said, "I bet she's going to go behind the bushes and then round and up to here. Well, we'll surprise her. We'll go behind the bushes, too, only we'll get there first and ambush her. Okay?" Simon agreed and Louise ran off and grabbed some of the boys who were busy making a giant snowball, to roll over the side of their fort onto the advancing Tony and Roland who were going towards the fort from the front to cover up for Penny. Louise outlined her plan and then started to slither across to the bushes very cautiously, they followed and settled themselves behind the prickly twigs as comfortably as they could.

Meanwhile Penny was working herself up into a frenzy of agony and excitement. She was sure so far that no one had seen her. She pushed a dripping strand of hair out of her eyes and crawled carefully on. She had just rounded the bushes when a voice yelled, "Charge!" and four young bodies flung themselves upon her. The two forces immediately went to rescue and help their respective comrades, a minor ambush having been staged by Simon and Christopher upon Tony and Roland. As Tony and Roland had rounded the corner of the fort, Simon had pelted them with snow and Chris had jumped on them and between them they had forced them back. Everybody threw snow at everybody else, regardless of what side they were on. Tony, who had had enough of Simon one way and another, waited until all the others were engaged in the fight, then he quietly detached himself from the melée and hared across the snow to the opposing fort. Quick as a flash he scrambled up the side and grabbed the flag. At precisely that moment the bells began, to ring. The clock on the church struck a quarter to twelve.

The youngsters gave a cheer and Tony was carried back to the Vicarage on his team's shoulders.

They quickly tidied themselves and then ran all the way to the church through the snow-covered streets. The trees, their boughs heavy with snow, glistened and the stars twinkled in the velvety blue sky. The moon was riding high in the sky and it illuminated the church spire. Indeed, the whole village looked beautiful under its mantle of crisp, white snow and moonlight. As the young people and the other villagers entered the church, the choir began to sing "The First Noel" and the snow began to fall again. The voices of the choir boys echoed joyfully through the church, high up and into the heavens. The large gilt hands on the church clock showed a minute past twelve. It was Christmas Day and the village was filled with a merry festive air.

"Peace on earth and goodwill towards all men" the Angel had said long, long ago and the happy villagers and the Vicarage children heartily endorsed the Angels' wise words.

Christmas was with them again.

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