The Green caldron - University Library

March, 1958 13
UP
The Tower
James Hockenhull
Rhetoric loi. Theme 6
THROUGH THE GREY AUTUMN MIST A GREAT SQUARE
shaft of weathered stone looms black against the dreary sky. Tall and
straight it stands, though it bears the burden of many decades, while, on
the wet sidewalks below, thousands of students hurry by, hunched and stooped
by a mere fraction of the tower's age. Thousands of young people rush on,
scarcely noticing the proud monument of the past, scarcely heeding its plain-
tive message. But its message is there. It can be heard through the swirling
mist, through the driving rain. It can be heard over the clamor of the crowd
at midday and it can be heard calling through the silence of night. For the
message is time. Time is the cry through the fog. Time ! Time is flying ! Time
Another hour of life has passed ! Time !
A
child is born ! Time ! An
elder dies
Time is the most urgent message in the world.
But to the grey crowd below, the carillon voice means another class is over,
only fifteen more minutes to study, a half-hour till dinner. So on they rush,
living from minute to minute. Few ever look up to the four conical turrets and
the great tiled pyramid that crowd the shaft. Few peer into the gaping ports
of the tower to catch a glimpse of the ropes and pulleys that actuate the bells.
But the tower stands, a proud prophet of the god of time, in spite of the ennui
of its listeners. And, though hundreds of future generations come and go, the
great stone shaft will still loom up through the mists of the years, black
against the sky.
They Needed Affection
Virginia Vida
Rhetoric loi, Theme 5
DURING THE TIME I SERVED AS A GIRL SCOUT CAMP
counselor last summer, I became acquainted with the twenty-seven
fifth and sixth graders who attended camp, but I became especially
intrigued in observing how a certain few displayed their need for affection as
a means of finding security.
On the far extreme of insecurity was Janie, a thin, unattractive girl whose
pleading smile could not help but cause one to pity her. She was very slow-
thinking, was inclined to forget most of what was said to her, and would ask
the same questions repeatedly. The head counselor defined the girl as "dull."
!