104Dr. Stanpole stopped near the doors, looking for the light switch. There was an interval of afew seconds when no one was near him. I came up to him and tried to phrase my question butnothing came out, I couldn't find the word to begin. I was being torn irreconcilably between "Ishe" and "What is" when Dr. Stanpole, without appearing to notice my tangle, saidconversationally, "It's the leg again. Broken again. But a much cleaner break I think, muchcleaner. A simple fracture." He found the light switch and the foyer was plunged into darkness.Outside, the doctor's car was surrounded by boys while Finny was being lifted inside it byPhil Latham. Phil and Dr. Stanpole then got into the car and drove slowly away, the headlightsforming a bright parallel as they receded down the road, and then swinging into anotherparallel at right angles to the first as they turned into the Infirmary driveway. The crowd beganto thin rapidly; the faculty had at last heard that something was amiss in the night, and severalalarmed and alarming masters materialized in the darkness and ordered the students to theirdormitories.Mr. Ludsbury loomed abruptly out of a. background of shrubbery. "Get along to thedormitory, Forrester," he said with a dry certainty in my obedience which suddenly struck meas funny, definitely funny. Since it was beneath his dignity to wait and see that I actuallyfollowed his order, I was by not budging free of him a moment later. I walked into the bank ofshrubbery, circled past trees in the direction of the chapel, doubled back along a large buildingdonated by the alumni which no one had ever been able to put to use, recrossed the street andwalked noiselessly up the emerging grass next to the Infirmary driveway.Dr. Stanpole's car was at the top of it, headlights on and motor running, empty. I idlyconsidered stealing it, in the way that people idly consider many crimes it would be possiblefor them to commit. I took an academic interest in the thought of stealing the car, knowing allthe time that it would be not so much criminal as meaningless, a lapse into nothing, an escapeinto nowhere. As I walked past it the motor was throbbing with wheezy reluctance—prepschool doctors don't own very desirable getaway cars, I remember thinking to myself—andthen I turned the comer of the building and began to creep along behind it. There was only onewindow lighted, at the far end, and opposite it I found some thin shrubbery which providedenough cover for me to study the window. It was too high for me to see directly into the room,but after I made sure that the ground had softened enough so that I could jump without makingmuch noise, I sprang as high as I could. I had a flashing glimpse of a door at the other end ofthe room, opening on the corridor. I jumped again; someone's back. Again; nothing new. Ijumped again and saw a head and shoulders partially turned away from me; Phil Latham's. Thiswas the room.The ground was too damp to sit on, so I crouched down and waited. I could hear theirblurred voices droning monotonously through the window. If they do nothing worse, they'regoing to bore Finny to death, I said to myself. My head seemed to be full of bright remarks thisevening. It was cold crouching motionless next to the ground. I stood up and jumped severaltimes, not so much to see into the room as to warm up. The only sounds were occasional snorts
105from the engine of Dr. Stanpole's car when it turned over with special reluctance, and a thin,lonely whistling the wind sometimes made high in the still-bare trees. These formed thebackground for the dull hum of talk in Finny's room as Phil Latham, Dr. Stanpole and the nightnurse worked over him.What could they be talking about? The night nurse had always been the biggest windbag inthe school. Miss Windbag, R.N. Phil Latham, on the other hand, hardly ever spoke. One of thefew things he said was "Give it the old college try"—he thought of everything in terms of theold college try, and he had told students to attack their studies, their sports, religious waverings,sexual maladjustments, physical handicaps and a constellation of other problems with the oldcollege try. I listened tensely for his voice. I listened so hard that I nearly differentiated it fromthe others, and it seemed to be saying, "Finny, give that bone the old college try."I was quite a card tonight myself.Phil Latham's college was Harvard, although I had heard that he only lasted there a year.Probably he had said to someone to give something the old college try, and that had finishedhim; that would probably be grounds for expulsion at Harvard. There couldn't possibly be sucha thing as the old Harvard try. Could there be the old Devon try? The old Devon endeavor? Thedecrepit Devon endeavor? That was good, the decrepit Devon endeavor. I'd use that some timein the Butt Room. That was pretty funny. I'll bet I could get a rise out of Finny with—Dr. Stanpole was fairly gabby too. What was he always saying. Nothing. Nothing? Wellthere must be something he was always saying. Everybody had something, some word, somephrase that they were always saying. The trouble with Dr. Stanpole was that his vocabularywas too large. He talked in a huge circle, he probably had a million words in his vocabularyand he had to use them all before he started over again.That's probably the way they were talking in there now. Dr. Stanpole was working his wayas fast as possible around his big circle, Miss Windbag was gasping out something or other allthe time, and Phil Latham was saying, "Give 'er the old college try, Finny." Phineas of coursewas answering them only in Latin.I nearly laughed out loud at that.Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres—Finny probably answered that whenever Phil Lathamspoke. Phil Latham would look rather blank at that.Did Finny like Phil Latham? Yes, of course he did. But wouldn't it be funny if he suddenlyturned to him and said, "Phil Latham, you're a boob." That would be funny in a way. And whatabout if he said, "Dr. Stanpole, old pal, you're the most long-winded licensed medical manalive." And it would be even funnier if he interrupted that night nurse and said, "Miss Windbag,you're rotten, rotten to the core. I just thought I ought to tell you." It would never occur toFinny to say any of these things, but they struck me as so outrageous that I couldn't stop myselffrom laughing. I put my hand over my mouth; then I tried to stop my mouth with my fist; if Icouldn't get control of this laughing they would hear me in the room. I was laughing so hard it
- Page 1 and 2:
1John KnowlesA Separate Peace
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4Devon was both scholarly and very
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6sprang out, fell through the tops
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8a kitchen rattle from the wing of
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10true and sincere; Finny always sa
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12Withers, perched nervously behind
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14of the great northern forests. I
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163Yes, he had practically saved my
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18Up the field the others at badmin
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20that Finny could shine at it. He
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22"You can try it again and break i
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24tonks and shooting galleries and
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26But Finny gave me little time to
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28was weakened by the very genuinen
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30"Don't go." He said it very simpl
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325None of us was allowed near the
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34The door was slightly ajar, and I
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36We found it fairly easily, on a s
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38"Sure, I'll be there by Thanksgiv
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40Still it had come to an end, in t
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42"How many?""Who knows? Get some.
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44The houses on either side were in
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46"No, I wouldn't.""And I spent my
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48"What?" I pulled quickly around i
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50They laughed at him a little, and
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52"I'm not sure, Leper, but I think
- Page 54 and 55: 54After they had gone we laborers l
- Page 56 and 57: 56To enlist. To slam the door impul
- Page 58 and 59: 588"I can see I never should have l
- Page 60 and 61: 60"So," Brinker curled his lip at m
- Page 62 and 63: 62So the war swept over like a wave
- Page 64 and 65: 64We went into the gym, along a mar
- Page 66 and 67: 66you at the Funny Farm.""In a way,
- Page 68 and 69: 68large rambling, doubtfully Coloni
- Page 70 and 71: 709This was my first but not my las
- Page 72 and 73: 72Giraud but Lepellier; we knew, be
- Page 74 and 75: 74"Who wants a Winter Carnival?" he
- Page 76 and 77: 76Still the sleek brown head bent m
- Page 78 and 79: 78ELWIN LEPER LEPELLIER.
- Page 80 and 81: 80escapes from is danger, death, th
- Page 82 and 83: 82"That's what you say. But that's
- Page 84 and 85: 84a good boy underneath," she must
- Page 86 and 87: 86the Mess Hall, I had to eat every
- Page 88 and 89: 88"How's Leper?" he asked in an off
- Page 90 and 91: 90I didn't say anything."He must be
- Page 92 and 93: 92never will.""You're so wrong I ca
- Page 94 and 95: 94I believed you," he added hurried
- Page 96 and 97: 96acoustics in the school. I couldn
- Page 98 and 99: 98the tree did it by itself. It's a
- Page 100 and 101: 100"Here! Go get him," said Brinker
- Page 102 and 103: 102"I can't think of the name of th
- Page 106 and 107: 106hurt my stomach and I could feel
- Page 108 and 109: 108and "psycho" and "sulfa," strang
- Page 110 and 111: 110His face had been struggling to
- Page 112 and 113: 11213The quadrangle surrounding the
- Page 114 and 115: 114Brinker slid his fingers into th
- Page 116 and 117: 116At the gym a platoon was undress