A DREAM ON THE NIGHT BEFORE AN EXAMINATION

Southland Times, Issue 23676, 26 November 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

A DREAM ON THE NIGHT BEFORE AN EXAMINATION

—PRIZE— When our teacher told us we were going to have our examination the following day, I could not help wondering how I would get on. Mother sent us off to bed early, so that we could have a good rest. I lay awake for a while, and the next moment, I was back in our school room and the class was all ready to start the exam. The only difference was that I was the teacher, and sure enough there was teacher sitting in my seat. What an opportunity! I would make him scratch his head and think, with the exam papers I would set him. First of all I gave them arithmetic, and I went and stood beside teacher while he struggled to get through in time. One subject followed another, and I had a lovely time, watching teacher. What a hard task he was finding it. On examining the papers after they were all finished, I found teacher was at the bottom of the class. Weren’t the rest pleased, and I was just going to declare a half-holiday for the occasion, when mother shook me to waken me, and I awoke to find it all a dream. I hope I do not finish in the exam, as teacher did in my dream. —Prize of 1/6 to Cousin Colin Gibson (9), 60 Robertson street. —PRIZE— One day, as Trixie Barton sat in school, the head master came in to the room and announced to the class, “Tomorrow we begin the annual examinations so I want you all to revise what you have learned this year, and be prepared for the exams.” A groan passed through the room, but was quickly silenced by a stern look from the teacher. At a quarter past three all the children, including Trixie, \finished school for the day. Trixie slowly wended her way homewards, thinking of the coming exams. She wanted to go out that evening and did not want the exams to upset her plans. “I am not going to stay at home to swot tonight,” she muttered, “I’m going out.” That evening she went to the cinema, but did not enjoy it as much as she expected. Once in bed, however, she went straight to sleep but had the wierdest dream! Nurhbers, letters and words danced before her on funny little legs while two little arms projected from their sides. “You’ll fail! You’ll fail!” they jeered at her. They asked her the answers to difficult sums, made her spell hard words and asked her questions about history and geography. If she had an answer wrong they would screech at her, “Dunce! Dunce! You’ll fail!” Just as the figures were going to rush at her the clamour died down, the figures disappeared. Trixie blinked. It was all a dream! It was morning, so Trixie dressed quickly and then learned lessons until breakfast time. When the exams were over and she received her report she found that she had passed! If she had not had that dream she would not have learned her lessons, and therefore would have failed. So, after all, even nasty dreams like that are not so bad as we believe. —Prize of 1/6 to Cousin Betty Hunt (11), 83 Yarrow Street.

—VERY HIGHLY COMMENDED—

It took me a long time to go to sleep. At last, however, I dozed off, and it was most annoying to find that not even in my sleep was I safe from geometry. For no sooner had I dozed off than I found myself on a road with its sides strictly parallel, walking through miles of fields growing crops of hexagons, trapeziums, isosceles triangles (angles at the base always equal), and polygons of all sorts and sizes; and worse, my companion was two triangles, and four parallelograms, stuck together to look like a man minus features. (“Must I really go with this thing?” I thought. But there seemed to be no escape, -o on we went.) At last we came to a gate. At least, it was supposed to be a gate, though it looked like a parallelogram with its diagonals bisecting one another (at O). My companion climbed up, and sat on top, with one of his parallelograms twisted round a diagonal, and his top triangle nodding absurdly on its vertex. “Hey!” he said.

“I beg your pardon?” “Hey!” he said again, as I stared at him perplexedly. “Can you prove,” he asked, ‘that if a line is drawn through the middle point of one side of a triangle parallel to the base it.. er .. well

you know what I mean?” (I did, I had been trying to prove the theorem all night.) “Doesn’t it bisect the third side?” I said brightly. “Does it? I don’t know,” he replied dreamily, his head nodding more than ever. “Anyway, you set to work and prove it on ,me.” “On you?”

Yes, here,” and he patted his lower triangle with a parallelogram, offering me at the same time a piece of diagonal of the gate. “Hurry up.” And so it was that when we found in our paper at the examination, that same theorem, my brain was so fuddled that I could not remember anything other than two triangles, and long parallelograms sitting on top of a gate, with a top triangle nodding absurdly on its vertex. —3 marks to Cousin Mary McMillan (14), 124 Duke street. —VERY HIGHLY COMMENDED“Oh dear,” sighed Joan, lying back in bed, “I feel so sleepy, and I must learn my spelling, for tomorrow we are having our exam.” Just then in skipped a little Elf •who beckoned to Joan to follow. Joan jumped out of bed and very soon found herself in Elfland. What a surprise she got to see all her school-mates seated at tiny

desks, and at the table in front sat the Pixie head master with big spectacles on his nose. Joan tried to add up the figures, but little spots kept dancing before her eyes, and when she took her pen to write, she let spots of ink fall all over her work.

“Oh dear, I do feel so tired, I’m sure my eyes are.going to shut,” said Joan.

Just then the head master looked up find came over to see Joan’s paper. When he saw the spots all over her work he was so angry he ordered the Elf to take Joan straight home, and for punishment she was to stay in bed for a week. Next morning when Joan’s mother came to call her to get up she found that Joan was covered in spots.

“Why Joan, you have the measles, you will have to stay in bed,” said her mother. Joan did not mind, she felt so tired, but she could, not help thinking about what the Pixie head master had told her. —3 marks to Cousin Valerie Fox (8), 57 Conyers street.

—VERY HIGHLY COMMENDED— At last the big day had come, our examinations had started. I had felt quite worried, but now the actual time had come my fears were at rest, for, to my surprise and delight, everything seemed easy and simple. The arithmetic problems seemed to solve themselves, history dates came correctly to my mind, and when the composition was announced, it was one of my favourite subjects. Altogether was too easy to be possible. It was preposterous. At the end of the day, my teacher added up the marks and my name

was called, the only one to gain the possible number of marks. How delighted I was. The whole class cheered me, and amid the applause, I heard mother’s voice, “Time to get up,” she said, “remember today is your examination.” It was only a’dream and I awoke to go sadly, to school and muddle through a real-life examination. —3 marks to Cousin Richard Goodson, V.A.C. (11), 64 Robertsor street. —HIGHLY COMMENDED— The next day was my examination day, so after looking over my work, I went to bed and soon dropped off to sleep* Very soon I found myself in -a small room with bars over the windows, and a heap of books lying in front of me. A tiny ugly man, who seemed like a goblin, looked through the bars and told me to get bn with my work, I then realized . I was having an examination. However,, as soon as I started I felt something poking me in the back. On looking round I saw half a dozen goblins their fingers poking me, and all shouting very loudly. I pretended I did not notice them and went on arithmetic. They then jumped through and scattered my books all over the floor; while one little fellow shouted in my ear all kinds of sums and geography until my ears were ringing with them. His voice became louder and louder, until at last I woke up. How thankful I was, when I realized it was only a dream. —2 marks to Cousin Vera Lake, V.A.C., M.A. (14), Section 8, Glencoe R.D.