A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School

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54After they had gone we laborers looked rather emptily across the newly cleared rails at eachother, at ourselves, and not even Brinker thought of the timely remark. We turned away. Theold man told us to go back to other parts of the yard, but there was no more real work done thatafternoon. Stranded in this mill town railroad yard while the whole world was convergingelsewhere, we seemed to be nothing but children playing among heroic men.The day ended at last. Gray from the beginning, its end was announced by a deepening gray,of sky, snow, faces, spirits. We piled back into the old, dispiritedly lit coaches waiting for us,slumped into the uncomfortable green seats, and no one said much until we were miles away.When we did speak it was about aviation training programs and brothers in the service andrequirements for enlistment and the futility of Devon and how we would never have war storiesto tell our grandchildren and how long the war might last and who ever heard of studying deadlanguages at a time like this.Quackenbush took advantage of a break in this line of conversation to announce that hewould certainly stay at Devon through the year, however half-cocked others might rush off. Heelaborated without encouragement, citing the advantages of Devon's physical hardeningprogram and of a high school diploma when he did in good time reach basic training. He forone would advance into the army step by step."You for one," echoed someone contemptuously."You are one," someone else said."Which army, Quackenbush? Mussolini's?""Naw, he's a Kraut.""He's a Kraut spy.""How many rails did you sabotage today, Quackenbush?""I thought they interned all Quackenbushes the day after Pearl Harbor."To which Brinker added: "They didn't find him. He hid his light under a Quackenbush."We were all tired at the end of that day.Walking back to the school grounds from the railroad station in the descending darkness weovertook a lone figure sliding along the snow-covered edge of the street"Will you look at Lepellier," began Brinker irritably. "Who does he think he is, theAbominable Snowman?""He's just been out skiing around," I said quickly. I didn't want to see today's strainedtempers exploding on Leper. Then as we came up beside him, "Did you find the dam, Leper?"He turned his head slowly, without breaking his forward movement of alternately planted
55poles and thrust skis, rhythmically but feebly continuous like a homemade piston engine's."You know what? I did find it," his smile was wide and unfocused, as though not for me alonebut for anyone and anything which wished to share this pleasure with him, "and it was reallyinteresting to see. I took some pictures of it, and if they come out I'll bring them over and showyou.""What dam is that?" Brinker asked me."It's a . . . well a little dam up the river he knows about," I said."I don't know of any dam up the river.""Well, it's not in the Devon itself, it's in one of the . . . tributaries.""Tributaries! To the Devon?""You know, a little creek or something."He knit his brows in mystification. "What kind of a dam is this, anyway?""Well," he couldn't be put off with half a story, "it's a beaver dam."Brinker's shoulders fell under the weight of this news. "That's the kind of a place I'm in witha world war going on. A school for photographers of beaver dams.""The beaver never appeared himself," Leper offered.Brinker turned elaborately toward him. "Didn't he really?""No. But I guess I was pretty clumsy getting close to it, so he might have heard me and beenfrightened.""Well." Brinker's expansive, dazed tone suggested that here was one of life's giant ironies,"There you are!""Yes," agreed Leper after a thoughtful pause, "there you are.""Here we are," I said, pulling Brinker around the corner we had reached which led to ourdormitory. "So long, Leper. Glad you found it.""Oh," he raised his voice after us, "how was your day? How did the work go?""Just like a stag at eve," Brinker roared back. "It was a winter wonderland, every minute."And out of the side of his mouth, to me, "Everybody in this place is either a draft-dodgingKraut or a . . . a . . ." the scornful force of his tone turned the word into a curse, "a nat-u-ralist!"He grabbed my arm agitatedly. "I'm giving it up, I'm going to enlist. Tomorrow."I felt a thrill when he said it. This was the logical climax of the whole misbegotten day, thiswhole out-of-joint term at Devon. I think I had been waiting for a long time for someone to saythis so that I could entertain these decisive words myself.
Page 1 and 2:
1John KnowlesA Separate Peace
Page 4 and 5: 4Devon was both scholarly and very
Page 6 and 7: 6sprang out, fell through the tops
Page 8 and 9: 8a kitchen rattle from the wing of
Page 10 and 11: 10true and sincere; Finny always sa
Page 12 and 13: 12Withers, perched nervously behind
Page 14 and 15: 14of the great northern forests. I
Page 16 and 17: 163Yes, he had practically saved my
Page 18 and 19: 18Up the field the others at badmin
Page 20 and 21: 20that Finny could shine at it. He
Page 22 and 23: 22"You can try it again and break i
Page 24 and 25: 24tonks and shooting galleries and
Page 26 and 27: 26But Finny gave me little time to
Page 28 and 29: 28was weakened by the very genuinen
Page 30 and 31: 30"Don't go." He said it very simpl
Page 32 and 33: 325None of us was allowed near the
Page 34 and 35: 34The door was slightly ajar, and I
Page 36 and 37: 36We found it fairly easily, on a s
Page 38 and 39: 38"Sure, I'll be there by Thanksgiv
Page 40 and 41: 40Still it had come to an end, in t
Page 42 and 43: 42"How many?""Who knows? Get some.
Page 44 and 45: 44The houses on either side were in
Page 46 and 47: 46"No, I wouldn't.""And I spent my
Page 48 and 49: 48"What?" I pulled quickly around i
Page 50 and 51: 50They laughed at him a little, and
Page 52 and 53: 52"I'm not sure, Leper, but I think
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 104 and 105:
104Dr. Stanpole stopped near the do
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
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