WRITTEN BY: 3rd and 4th Grades of St. Mark's School of Texas

EDITED BY THEIR TEACHER: Mrs. Mary Webb

ILLUSTRATED BY: George Holmes, Grade 3

* Regrets to those students whose works were too lengthy to be included.

Published by: St. Mark's Audio Visual Center 1963

I feel that I am in a strange place. I walk down the aisle in the chapel slowly. It seems to be long, long way. Then I sit in a row of seats. When the chapel is filled, a man gets up and talks. Sometimes I cannot understand. Then he tells us who our teacher is and we go to our classes. The teacher tells us what to do. That afternoon we go home. I feel that the next day will be kind of strange too. The next day I may make a friend or two; then I feel that I have accomplished a great thing. When I go home that afternoon, I feel that tomorrow is another day.

Everett Simonds Grade IV

I am glad I'm a boy because I can go hunting with my father and have five guns. I go fishing with my father and mother. I can put worms, crickets, and minnows on my hook. I get to go deer hunting and sleep in a tent. I can cook outside on a campfire. Sometimes when I am not going to school, I can go on business trips with my father. I sure am glad I'm a boy!

Henry McGee Grade III

I like being a boy because I can go to St. Mark's. I enjoy swimming, baseball, and soccer. I have a loyal, lovable dog. Some day, I want to raise dogs. I am interested in science. I am sure I will like doing a Man's work in the world.

Kevin Walker Grade III

I like being a boy because I can play all sorts of fun games and sports that girls can't do. I can go places that girls can't and do things that other people just won't, or can't, or are afraid to do. It's just that if you are a boy, you can play football or games like Bankin or Jamestown which are only for boys. Boys get more chances to do things and I like that. I just am a complete and very much a boy. And I like it.

I like being a boy because I can grow up to be a Senator, or maybe even president. I like being a boy. YES SIR!

Bobby Amundsen Grade III

I think a quiet place is a place of wonder and adventure. A few days back, I woke up at 6s00 to play golf with my brother in the back yard. My brother got cold and went inside. I sat down to rest. The air started to smell good, and the sun got brighter, and I felt wonderful. My brother came out again and we finished the game. I like being in a quiet place.

George Bush Grade IV

It rained all day today
I couldn't go out to play.
It was cold anyway.

Barry Cox Grade III

In our day and age I have come to notice that there are few moments when I can find myself absolutely alone. But one Sunday night it seemed I was forty miles away from earth.

I was walking through our church when I found myself alone in the main sanctuary - a place so large that echoes could bounce off its walls.

Slowly I walked up to the pulpit where the sermon is delivered and looked down at the empty seats which seat thousands on Sunday. The stillness scared me. As I looked around I felt the strangest feeling. All was still in God's house as I drooped my head and said a silent prayer.

Kevin Roark Grade IV

I do not think parents should spank, then talk. They should talk and then if it seems right, spank. Spankings do not accomplish much if the children are used to it. There should be some other punishment besides spanking, like no allowance, or going to bed early, no T.V. or no play after school, or no candy on Saturday, or no bicycle for a month, or no more lighting the fire until they are good.

Fred Bonte Grade IV

It is cool. There is shade. In front of me there is a clearing. On both sides of the clearing there are many different kinds of flowers. In the clearing there is fresh, new grass. On the other side there are woods. Behind the woods is a creek. All around me are daffodils and rose buds. The tree above me is blooming. The dirt under me is cool and soft. in front of the flowers around me is blooming honeysuckle. It is sunny and warm outside the shade of the tree. I think this is the prettiest place I have ever seen.

Lincoln Cobb Grade IV

One cool day in Colorado we saddled our horses and got all our camping gear into place. Vie were off for an exciting and adventurous three days in the mountains. We rode up hills and down into deep valleys. We saw a lot of wildlife such as a doe and her fawn drinking from a stream, big, black bears, beavers gnawing at trees, and antelope darting in and out of the brush. At night we cooked our food over an open fire. After that we fell asleep with full stomachs. Soon it was time to go home. We had saddle sores, chigger bites, and scratches. It had been an adventurous three days of fun and excitement.

Buck Smith Grade IV

The prettiest place I have ever seen is in Canada. I was at a stream called Red Sidewinder and the fish were beautiful as they lazily swam along. If you threw a fly into the water, the fish would scramble for it. When you hooked one, he would fight like everything. The mountains were purple and white, and the air was very fresh. The trees were tall and straight.

Charles Mayhew Grade IV

The Quietest place I know is in the house when everyone else is outside. Then I think.

One of my thoughts when I am in the house alone is of raiding the icebox. If I open the icebox, I surely look for ice cream and pickles, as usual.

Another thought is being a martyr for my country. If I would be a martyr for my country and an enemy ship could not be destroyed by bombs, I would crash my plane into the ship and blow it up.

Another thing I think about is going fishing and catching a whale shark. If I did catch one, I would let go of the fishing pole and forget about the whale shark rather than be eaten up by it.

I have many thoughts when I am alone in a quiet place.

Henry English Grade IV

Once upon a time there lived a man. His name was Columbus. He always wanted to sail to a far away land. When he was 36, he had his first ship. It was a beautiful one. He named it Santa Maria. In 1492 he discovered America. It was a pretty place. Some Indians came to the shore to see the Santa Maria. At first the Indians didn't know if the people were good or pirates. But they found out that they were good men coming to America. And that is why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

Charles Rutherford Grade III

Prehistoric men lived long ago. They were half men and half animal. People do not know much about them. They have been finding skulls and bones of them. They lived in caves and killed animals for food with clubs and sticks. They didn't have a language, but they made a noise like this, "Ug - Ug." I wish I could see a pre-historic man's body. I know that would be interesting. Or I would like to see a prehistoric man's skeleton, but that would be hard to do.

Jack Vaughn Grade III

My story is about Indians. They are an ancient people Everyone knows about them, but if we did not know about this people, we would not have peace. If they were in the middle of a war and their chief was killed, they went back to camp and elected another chief before they would finish their battle. I would like to know more about them.

Wynn Taylor Grade III

The subject I have loved for seven years is dinosaurs. Most people think of dinosaurs as a million miles high, but they are not. The biggest dinosaur was only about seventy feet tall. Most dinosaurs had four feet instead of two.

One of the funny things I read once was about a Goragop (a meat-eating dinosaur) that came upon an Anhelopaursus and wanted to eat him. The Anhelopaursus moved aside and jabbed him. So the Goragop went up to a Triceratops and tried to eat him. The same thing happened. The Goragop decided he wasn't hungry after all.

There are many more adventures. Just read about DINOSAURS.

Lewis Hutcheson Grade IV

The Greeks first came to Greece about 2000 B.C. during the Bronze Age. At this time many states were formed; Sparta, Corinth, and Athens. Later the Athenians rose to leadership. They had many wars with Persia. Then came the Golden Age, and Greece bloomed with Philosophy, Drama, and Art. After this came Alexander the Great who conquered all the known world. He later died of a fever. Finally the Romans took over and there came an end of a wonderful era.

Mark Jordan. Grade IV

The clock struck twelve. They say midnight is the witching hour. What had awakened me? I listened but the whole house was quiet. Suddenly from my open window, I heard strange music. It seemed to me it came from an old haunted house. I went to investigate.

Now I understood why they called it the witching hour. There was a tree that looked like it had giant fingers reaching toward the moon. The fence posts looked like soldiers marching

right beside each other. The pillars on the old house were all cracked and broken down. The shingles on the roof were almost caved in. One of the hinges on the door was broken. There was an old rocking chair with a broken rocker sitting on the porch.

I went up to the house slowly. Just as I was going to open the door, I found old bones from animals that must have died in the basement. But I still couldn't find where the music was coming from. I heard a piano start to play, and I found out what was playing it. It was two black cats jumping up and down on the keys. I went up the creaky, old stairs that led to the attic. The music grew louder and louder. I was afraid to open the door, but my curiosity was stronger than my fear. The room was filled with moonlight. Wind was blowing through the broken windows. The music was louder than ever. Then I discovered the mystery. The wind blowing across the empty bottles on the table was playing the strange music.

Theo Hockaday Grade IV

 "All That Glitters Is Not Gold"

This saying means that sometimes something is not what it appears to be. Once in prehistoric ages a giant sloth came upon what seemed to be a nice pool of water, but when he dived in, he found out it was a tar pit.

Mark Jordan Grade IV

This means that there is something good in every bad. One of the most famous stories of this is Christopher Columbus who tried to find a short cut to India. He failed and landed somewhere else by accident, but he discovered America.

Lewis Hutcheson Grade IV

This means that a famous person who is always looked-up to and praised all the time may let it affect him and he may fail in later life.

Once upon a time there was a television star who played Superman. On television bullets would bounce off him and everyone thought he was the best hero there was. One day he played Russian roullette to see if one real bullet would bounce off. It didn't.

Jimmy Riggs Grade IV

Which means when you do work, you should do it slowly and get it right rather than do it fast and get it wrong.

There once was a girl who was sewing a dress. She wanted to get it finished quickly because she was going to a ball the next night. She worked too fast and got the skirt on backwards and put the sleeves in wrong. She didn't get it finished in time for the ball. When she went crying to her mother, her mother said, "I hope you have learned that "Haste Makes Waste"."

Robert Bonner Grade IV

This means if a man does worthwhile things and does them carefully, he will "benefit from them."

One day a man decided to start on his garden. It took him about two weeks. All his friends laughed at him because he worked so hard. When it came time to gather the crops, all of his friends had the sorriest looking crops in town. But he had the best crop in the whole county. This man shared some of his crops with his friends and got their love and friendship.

Bill Goddard Grade IV

I think the Bible changes the lives of people without killing and fighting people. Men would live and die for the Bible. The Bible is God's Word in a book. I think the Bible is one of the greatest books ever written. I do not think anybody could change me, no matter what they would say or they would do to me.

Johnny DeCecco Grade IV

The pen is mightier than the sword because you can't kill ideas. Like the Declaration of Independence. If we didn't have that, we wouldn't be free. And all it is a piece of paper with words on it. And so is the Constitution. When you have a fight with somebody, you go out and play with him the next day. But when you have a word fight, it may never end. So you see, words have power.

Brian Coyle Grade III

Words can change people's thoughts and religion. Like Karl Max who wrote a book and it became the Bible of Communism. Pen means the words a pen writes. The Holy Bible is a book like this. It changed people in a good way. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" started a little of the Civil war. The book Karl Marx wrote took over half the world and the Holy Bible took over the other half. An idea in a man's head brought all of these books to the world. Some of these books are good and some are bad. You could almost call this brainwashing.

Brad Moore Grade IV

I am in a beautiful place sleeping beside a squirrel in a high Sycamore tree. I can hear the trickle of a stream close by. I can smell the fresh pine needles. Where am I?

Philip Montgomery Grade III

Sounds I Hear Early in the Morning

I usually hear sizzling, crackling, beating and rushing. The sizzling is bacon cooking. The crackling is my father turning the pages of the newspaper. The beating is my mother beating the eggs. And the rushing is water.

Mike McManus Grade III

The sun looks like
A big yellow furnace
Of fire
Shooting towards
The earth
All the time,
But at nighttime
God blows
It out.

Brian Coyle Grade III

Soft snow
Falling down to earth
Delight at night
So slow.

David Solomon Grade III

When the moon is thin
And very, very narrow,
I think about my little friend,
The little, brown sparrow.

And when the stars shine bright,
I'm happy for my friend,
Because when it's dark
He needs a little light.

And when the day breaks,
I think I'll visit him,
My little brown friend,
The little, brown sparrow.

George Holmes Grade III

Purple Hills

Beautiful,
With tops of gold,
Hard as a rock,
Far away as the sun,
Covered with shadows . . ..
Someday I'll see all these things
And you will too.

Robert Murchison Grade III

The Russian pattern is on Communism and one man started it by writing a book of ideas. Our American pattern is set on the Constitution, and the laws of our country, and our religion, and we are governed by law. Our country is a free country except for imprisoned people. The pen is mightier than the sword because an idea will never die.

Thommy Massey Grade III

Quotables

A volcano is a mountain sneezing...............Garry Potts

A tornado is a twist of wind...................Henry English

Stars are God's nightlights....................Brad Moore

Thunder - God when He is mad...................Charles Mayhew

As quiet as an ant sleeping in his own house...Bill Goddard

Rain is God's tears when someone is hurt.......Lincoln Cobb

A tornado is God's vacuum cleaner..............Everett Simonds

As quiet as foam rubber bouncing...............Kevin Roark<?P>

A volcano is God's ashtray.....................Robert Adler

COULD YOU SAY IT BETTER?

The sun rises
Over the hill,
And you see it spill
Its color.

Mike Merrill Grade III

When I was about four there was a tornado that came close to our house. But my mother did not tell me about it. So I went about playing and did not know about it. But my mother watched it all the time.

Michael Fitzgerald Grade III