The Weber Literary Journal Fancies By Madeline Reeder WHEN "decent folk put out their bedroom candles" and I am alone, and when the wind creeps along the side of the house and then madly rushes around the corners, howling like a demon, I love to sit before the fire and watch the flames eargerly lick the green pine logs, and dream. Then, when the room is softly scented with the odor of the burning pine, and when my eyes have wearied of the dancing, brilliant orange and red and blue of the flames, I like to draw the screen before the fire and watch the strange pageant of pale violet shadows the flames paint upon the screen. Tonight the artist has dipped his brush in colors and painted the night sky velvet blue and sprinkled it over with silver. The moon is hung like a Chinese lantern, round and orange. It is a night for love, passion and murder. A man crouches low behind a smooth black wall covered with clinging orange trumpet flowers. In the eerie light the orange moon casts, a slender rapier flashes like a silver needle. What is the man waiting for? The capricious artist sweeps the scene away with a long stroke of the brush and begins again. This time it is an English meadow; and by the sweet, fresh, scent of the purple and white clover, and the lilting melody of the brown thrush as he sways in the apple tree, one knows it is May. The hawthorns and the orchard tree are white and silvery pink with blossoms and beneath them in the long sweet grass, a girl is drying her hair. Her face is like the apple blossoms, delicate and flower-gay. With slender hands she deftly shakes the water from her brown curls. Then again the artist sweeps away the picture as though impatient to attain perfection. Everything is black, the artist has lost all his color. I awake with a start to find that the fire is black, that the wind is still howling. Slowly I climb the stairs and reluctantly, with the rest of the "decent folks, put out my bedroom candle" and my fancies. 38 Students of Weber PATRONIZE OUR ADVERTISERS They Help Us MORBY'S DISTINCTIVE SHOES For School or Dress HONEST SHOES AT HONEST PRICES at Morby's 2641 Washington Avenue "Meet Me Bareheaded" Norman Sims Hatter Twenty-fifth Street :: at Washington Avenue BREAD and MILK You Taste the Milk in Wishart's Better Bread Insist on Better Bread WISHART'S BAKERY 2258 Grant Ave. 39