A Separate Peace.pdf - Southwest High School

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96acoustics in the school. I couldn't make out what Brinker was saying. He stood on the polishedmarble floor in front of us, but facing the platform, talking to the boys behind the balustrade. Iheard him say the word "inquiry" to them, and something about "the country demands. . . .""What is all this hot air?" I said into the blur."I don't know," Phineas answered shortly.As he turned toward us Brinker was saying ". . . blame on the responsible party. We willbegin with a brief prayer." He paused, surveying us with the kind of wide-eyed surmise Mr.Carhart always used at this point, and then added in Mr. Carhart's urbane murmur, "Let uspray."We all slumped immediately and unthinkingly into the awkward crouch in which God wasaddressed at Devon, leaning forward with elbows on knees. Brinker had caught us, and in amoment it was too late to escape, for he had moved swiftly into the Lord's Prayer. If whenBrinker had said "Let us pray" I had said "Go to hell" everything might have been saved.At the end there was an indecisive, semiserious silence and then Brinker said, "Phineas, ifyou please." Finny got up with a shrug and walked to the center of the floor, between us andthe platform. Brinker got an armchair from behind the balustrade, and seated Finny on it withcourtly politeness. "Now just in your own words," he said."What own words?" said Phineas, grimacing up at him with his best you-are-an-idiotexpression."I know you haven't got many of your own," said Brinker with a charitable smile. "Usesome of Gene's then.""What shall I talk about? You? I've got plenty of words of my own for that.""I'm all right," Brinker glanced gravely around the room for confirmation, "you're thecasualty.""Brinker," began Finny in a constricted voice I did not recognize, "are you off your head orwhat?""No," said Brinker evenly, "that's Leper, our other casualty. Tonight we're investigatingyou.""What the hell are you talking about!" I cut in suddenly."Investigating Finny's accident!" He spoke as though this was the most natural and selfevidentand inevitable thing we could be doing.I felt the blood flooding into my head. "After all," Brinker continued, "there is a war on.Here's one soldier our side has already lost. We've got to find out what happened.""Just for the record," said someone from the platform. "You agree, don't you, Gene?"
97"I told Brinker this morning," I began in a voice treacherously shaking, "that I thought thiswas the worst—""And I said," Brinker's voice was full of authority and perfectly under control, "that forFinny's good," and with an additional timbre of sincerity, "and for your own good too, by theway, Gene, that we should get all this out into the open. We don't want any mysteries or anystray rumors and suspicions left, in the air at the end of the year, do we?"A collective assent to this rumbled through the blurring atmosphere of the Assembly Room."What are you talking about!" Finny's voice was full of contemptuous music. "What rumorsand suspicions?""Never mind about that," said Brinker with his face responsibly grave. He's enjoying this, Ithought bitterly, he's imagining himself Justice incarnate, balancing the scales. He's forgottenthat Justice incarnate is not only balancing the scales but also blindfolded. "Why don't you justtell us in your words what happened?" Brinker continued. "Just humor us, if you want to thinkof it that way. We aren't trying to make you feel bad. Just tell us. You know we wouldn't askyou if we didn't have a good reason . . . good reasons.""There's nothing to tell.""Nothing to tell?" Brinker looked pointedly at the small cast around Finny's lower leg andthe cane he held between his knees."Well then, I fell out of a tree.""Why?" said someone on the platform. The acoustics were so bad and the light so dim that Icould rarely tell who was speaking, except for Finny and Brinker who were isolated on thewide strip of marble floor between us in the seats and the others on the platform."Why?" repeated Phineas. "Because I took a wrong step.""Did you lose your balance?" continued the voice."Yes," echoed Finny grimly, "I lost my balance.""You had better balance than anyone in the school.""Thanks a lot.""I didn't say it for a compliment.""Well then, no thanks.""Have you ever thought that you didn't just fall out of that tree?"This touched an interesting point Phineas had been turning over in his mind for a long time.I could tell that because the obstinate, competitive look left his face as his mind becameengaged for the first time. "It's very funny," he said, "but ever since then I've had a feeling that
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
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 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 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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