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Wynnum High and Intermediate School Page 63

The Happiest Days of Your Life
School-days are in the opinion of musty old professors who cannot
even remember the date, let alone their own distant school-days, the
happiest days of our lives.
And who are we to disagree with them ? For are we not those
fortunates whose luck it is to sit for five joyous hours a day in the
happy atmosphere of the school-room ?
Here we enter the fascinating kingdom of learning in which the
monarch, in the form of our dearly beloved teacher, presides over his
happy subjects, aided by those highly efficient ministers-cane, lines and
detention.
It is a realm in which we find such interesting things as mathematics
and geometrical figures; where we explore the joys of English literature;
and follow with keen interest the adventures of such exciting characters
as Henry VIII. and Mary, Queen of Scots.
Somewhere in the day’s timetable, a small space is set aside for the
pursuit of Physical Training, in which the lucky student is required to
jog around a four hundred and forty yards oval in shorts or sports
tunics, with the hemline four inches above the knees and the
temperature four degrees below zero. Also under the heading of
Physical Training comes the flinging of oneself at a wooden structure
called a horse, and the performance by the joyful pupil of various
contortions in the restricted area of one small, small mat.
The course of the day is marked by the frequent ringing of bells.
which twice a day drag the reluctant student from the intrigue of lesson
books, and claim his attention by such ordinary, boring things as food
and football.
Then at three o’clock the good old bell peals forth once more,
heralding the passing from the joys of the school-room, to still yet
anther joy—that of homework. So the lucky pupil settles down to solid
hours of study, into which only the musical sounds of pen on paper
intrude.
Having discovered the joys of learning, let us pause in our pursuit
of knowledge, and consider the building in which we partake of all the
fun. The building is of stone and concrete, composed of school-rooms
and corridors (in which we must neither speak nor run unless we possess
a liking for those monsters in pocketed blazers going by the name of
“prefects”). Then there is the office in which we have held many a
cosy chat with that fatherly gentle-man, the Principal. Also, there are
porches, where the slightest sound brings the massive form of a school
master on the scene, with his ministers-lines and detentions, and highly
polished banisters, upon which one must not slide.
This palace, set aside for the education of the blissfully ignorant.
is where the fortunate student spends “the happiest days of his life".
JOCELYN FLEMING, Form IB.

The Stagecoach
The days of the stagecoach are over,
Yet everyone likes to recall
The rattle of wheels on the cobbles
And jingle of bits in the stall.
The high-stepping horses in harness,
The men with their old-fashioned ways,
The stagecoach all polished and varnished,
For those were the good old days.
T. HOLLOWAY,
Form 2C.