SKOPEO CHRONICLES  #27

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

This is a little late, but we would also like to say happy birthday to our president. Three cheers for Mr. Versiaan, the best president our society has known!

The month of February holds several special days, which we will now review. First, there is Valentine’s Day, also, Viola Penelope Primrose Higgleworth’s birthday, which happens to fall on the fourteenth. Not to mention Margie Isaude Shallot’s birthday, which falls on the sixteenth of the month and Rosemary Carastapasta’s birthday, falling on the twenty- first.

EVENT OF THE WEEK

Please observe the recent surgical procedure performed on the earlobes of one of our beloved members in honor of her 11^th birthday.  Simply elegant!

                        A.H.

Thank you to A.H. for finishing reading aloud Anne Of Green Gables to the society members before March. Goodness knows what we would have done if she had not fulfilled her duty!

…and by the way, did you know who came up with the saying “goodness knows”? 

President Theodore Roosevelt! (to combat inappropriate language)

EVERYONE’S HELPFUL HINTS

-Will C.V. please remember to wash his face at night

- Just to drop a note: Will SOMEBODY fill the drinking water tank when it needs it? Thank you T.S. for trying to fill it when others forget.

-Will M. A. and T.S. remember to not constantly disturb the peace of the household with the noise of plastic cannon balls shattering the enemy on wood floors in artillery practice. (If it cannot be stopped,

this daily abominable practice can take place on not-so-loud carpets.)                   

DID YOU KNOW?

            Did you know that most scientists think dinosaurs became extinct because of a huge meteorite but they have not found the crater?

                        -T.S.

ADVERTISEMENTS

The new movie “THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE” is highly recommended. (Not for children under nine.)

…And a special tip…If you would like to hear the soundtrack for Narnia free, then just ask your parent to log onto her Yahoo chat account and pick the Narnia environment.  Then collapse the window and you can listen to it while you type the stories for our newspaper!

(This idea came from C.V. but A.H. had the foresight to include it in this paper for your listening pleasure.)

SPECIAL FEATURES

Happy Birthday Wishes For This Special Month!

I would like to wish Margie Shallot a happy birthday. A member of our sister society, the W.Lions, I am very grateful for her friendship and encouragement and I just want to take the time to tell her so! Happy 14^th!

                                    R.C.

            I would also like to wish Viola Primrose a happy birthday and confirm it with a poem that I have composed in her honor. Happy 6^th, Viola!

            “To Viola, On Her 6^th Birthday”

            Viola, when I remember you,

Chubby baby, scarcely two,

I think how sweet a thing you were

Ladylike in all your ways

Sweet and girlish at your play

And I giggled at your baby slur.

And many and many

Are the times I’ve laughed,

Charmed with your precious prattle,

For I saw you before

You were old enough

To shake a baby rattle.

Now, I can’t believe you’re six

My, what a grown-up lady!

            I love the girl that you are now,

            But I’ll never forget the baby.

                                    R.C

Letters to the Paper

            Alright, the letters column may be your favorite this week because we have an interesting contribution. On special request, or, rather, demand, our mystery member has decided, of his OWN FREE WILL, (as no one can force Mister Conrey to do anything), to give up his identity. And now we will have our last letter from Mr. Conrey! Do I see any tears? Oh, you ungrateful wretches!

Dear Skopeo Society

            This is your friend, Mr. Conrey who has been with the society for a full year now!

My true identity is Rosemary Carastapasta! Some of you are surprised. Some of you are probably not. Well, it’s been nice being with you and I have enjoyed secretly answering letters and forging my handwriting to change it and make it hard to read and impossible to connect to any of the society members. I hope that I have added some spice to the meetings,

                                    Your friend,

            Jonathan Conrey for the last time

Dear Rosemary Carastapasta,

            We have truly enjoyed your ‘non de plume’ identity this year.  We regret that Mr. Conrey is leaving, but we look forward to more exciting entries from  the tip of your quill.

            Sincerely,

            A.H.

Feature Story

The Sugar Creek Gang’s Mystery of the Stolen Safe       Chapter 12

This chapter will end the story. But do not cry because… well I can’t tell you. Sorry it took so long.

Well we were definitely not going to stay there sitting with our mouths wide open like a bunch of bewildered ruffian boys till we died so we decided to go to the police station and see what happened to the men and the robber and everything. As there was no other brave and sensible thing to do, we did it. The police declared that they, Circus’s and my dad, had come to the police station left for the forest and asked them, the police to tell us if they saw us that we were to meet them at the big hollow oak. We left for the tree at the edge of the river at once. When we arrived, there was no one their so we called to order a very un-orderly meeting in which we got all the mysteries of the night straight. I am not going to relate word for word that meeting as their was too many people talking at once and it would take a long time. In the end we had everything matched up. There seemed to be two robbers as the man who fired the shots at one side of the forest could not possibly have come to our tent, especially without being seen, before us. The man who we heard had obviously was supposed to meet the other robber at Carnet’s Hotel with the safe which he seemed to have dropped at the river bank. We found the safe and when he had figured out that he had dropped it, he came back to look for it twice. On the second time he accidentally made it clear that the schoolhouse door being locked at the beginning of my story was a sign. The sign must have meant to meet at the hotel with the safe. Here we got a bit confused over what the signs meant. Then there was the sign of the gunshot, which, as our tent was hidden in the bushes he gave away… and there our information stopped. At that moment the dads appeared and said that the robber in the woods had escaped but when the news of the words Carnett’s hotel was given five police were sent to the place and they had arrested both men. The money was missing. Just at that moment a car swerved up and Dragonfly’s dad shouted out, “Hey, Theodore! Dan! Come here! The police captured the robber last night!” They ran over to talk about it and shouted out that we could go home now before we could say anything. Go home? Think of that!

-         C.V.

PS.  The name of this story is The Mystery of The Stolen Safe but the part about the safe will be put in by R.C. later.

Pearls for Trinkets

Author-

Anonymous                       

Contributor-

Dr. Phillip James McGlaughlin Hartlerode

 The cheerful girl with bouncy golden curls was almost

five. Waiting with her mother at the checkout stand, she saw them: a circle

of glistening white pearls in a pink foil box. "Oh please, Mommy. Can I have

them? Please, Mommy, please?"

Quickly the mother checked the back of the little foil box and then

looked back into the pleading blue eyes of her little girl's upturned face. "A

dollar ninety-five. That's almost $2.00. If you really want them, I'll think of

some extra chores for you and in no time you money to buy them for yourself.

             As soon as Jenny got some, she emptied her penny bank and counted out 17

pennies. After dinner, she did more than her share of chores and she asked

the neighbor and asked Mrs. McJames if she could pick dandelions for ten

cents. On her birthday, Grandma gave her another new dollar

bill and at last she had enough money to buy the necklace. Jenny loved

her pearls. The made her feel dressed up and grown up. She wore them everywhere - Sunday school, kindergarten, even to bed. The only time she took them off was when she went swimming or had a bubble bath. Mother said if they got wet, they might turn her neck green.

Jenny had a very loving daddy and every night when she was ready for bed ,he

 would stop whatever he was doing and come upstairs to read her a story. one night

when he finished  the story, he asked Jenny, "Do you love me?" 

"Oh yes, Daddy. You know that I love you."

"Then, will you give me your pearls?"

"Oh, Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have Princess -the white horse from

my collection. The one with the pink tail. Remember, Daddy? The one you

gave me. She's my favorite."

"That's okay, Honey. Daddy loves you. Good night." And he brushed her cheek

with a kiss.

About a week later, after the story time, Jenny's daddy asked again, "Do you love me?"

"Daddy, you know I love you."

Then give me your pearls."

"Oh Daddy, not my pearls. But you can have my babydoll. The brand new one I  A few nights later when her daddy came in, Jenny was

sitting on her bed. As he came close, he noticed her chin was trembling

and one little tear rolled down her cheek. "What is it, Jenny? What's the matter?"

Jenny didn't say anything but lifted her little hand up to her daddy. And when she opened it, there was her little pearl necklace. With a little quiver, she finally said,

"Here, Daddy. It's for you."

With tears gathering in his own eyes Jenny's kind daddy reached out with one hand to take the dime-store necklace, and with the other hand the reached into his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet case with a strand

of genuine pearls and gave them to Jenny. He’d had them all the time. He was just waiting for her to give up the dime-store stuff so he could give her genuine treasure.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us beautiful treasure. Isn't God good? Are you holding onto things which God wants you to let go of. Are you holding on to harmful or unnecessary partners, relationships, habits and activities which you have come so attached to that it seems impossible to let go?

Sometimes it is so hard to see what is in the other hand but do believe this one thing ....... God will never take away something without giving you something better in its place.

POET’S CORNER

Some of us have, but I write this poem for the ones of us who have not heard it.

When Mars turns white

And the moon turns red,

And the sun turns black,

And the world is dead,

And the shadows of time have finished their work,

Thus begins the end of the world.

When the Giant of Destruction

 Has squeezed out the sun,

And the last golden crown is welded and done,

And the blood of the stars cries out from the depths,

“Remember what has been said.”

            -C.V.

When I look upon the mountains,

When I look into the sea, everything else has vanished, and the world is just a dream.

            -C.V.

It’s a wonderful creation when your dreams begin to sprout,

And the road that’s goin’ downwards changes course and turns about.

And that your hopes are all suceedin’ in your mind there is no doubt,

It’s a wonderful creation when your dreams begin to sprout.

It’s a different creation when your hopes are goin’ down,

And the jolly road to heaven changes course and turns around,

And your hopes that are a bloomin’ reach a different kinda ground,

It’s a different creation when your hopes are goin’ down.

But in spite of your creation, be they good or be they bad,

Keep yer’ head up jolly comrade, why you looking down so sad,

Don’t git worried, don’t git foolish, Be a hero, there’s my lad,

In spite of your creation, be it good or be it bad.                             C.V.

For the good of the society, I, Rosemary Carastapasta, am including a series of useful Morals: Just a few truths that everyone will learn one day.

Morals

            Every day is short

            Every night is long

            Every note of music in life

            Belongs to the never-ending song

            Every moment of love is precious

            Every second of joy, an hour

            Every drop in the bucket

            Helps to build the tower

            Every beautiful thing is rare

            Every sorrow is one of many

       Every proof of love that you ever  

       receive,

            You’ll regard as the best of any.