![]() Talk turns to training programs and recruitment - activities much more meaningful, they decide, than school. The work on the railroad exhausts the boys, and the sight of the first train to pass - a troop train carrying young recruits - makes the students feel childish. Only Leper stays behind, to ski through the countryside and take photographs. Later, with the first heavy snow, they volunteer to dig out the railroad yards so that trains can pass. ![]() Making an excuse about having to study, Gene escapes the awkward situation.Īs the winter approaches, Devon students start to take on the work usually done by men now in the service. When the boy answers that Gene pushed Finny off the limb, Gene tells him he is wrong and brushes him aside, exposing the younger boy to the ridicule of the others. At this point, he dares a younger boy to guess what happened at the tree. Later in the basement Butt Room where students gather to smoke, Brinker pushes Gene into a crowd of boys and openly accuses him of "doing away with his roommate." In response, Gene makes up a long, silly list of crimes he committed against Finny, stopping short of actually admitting to his part in the fall. ![]() Gene laughs off the remark uneasily, feeling as if Brinker is hinting that he deliberately caused Finny's accident. ![]() Brinker teases Gene about having a room to himself, suggesting that Gene has "fixed it" that way on purpose. ![]() This chapter opens when Brinker Hadley, a leader of the senior class, visits Gene in his room. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |