Properties
- end_line
- 122
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:12:48.314Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 77
- text
- 74 myself and all. They gave me frequent warning to start applying myself--especially
75 around midterms, when my parents came up for a conference with old Thurmer--but I
76 didn't do it. So I got the ax. They give guys the ax quite frequently at Pencey. It has a
77 very good academic rating, Pencey. It really does.
78 Anyway, it was December and all, and it was cold as a witch's teat, especially on
79 top of that stupid hill. I only had on my reversible and no gloves or anything. The week
80 before that, somebody'd stolen my camel's-hair coat right out of my room, with my fur-
81 lined gloves right in the pocket and all. Pencey was full of crooks. Quite a few guys came
82 from these very wealthy families, but it was full of crooks anyway. The more expensive a
83 school is, the more crooks it has--I'm not kidding. Anyway, I kept standing next to that
84 crazy cannon, looking down at the game and freezing my ass off. Only, I wasn't watching
85 the game too much. What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind
<!-- [Page 3](arke:01KFYTAC4MQZFAFQJDV8QRBWB1) -->
86 of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I
87 hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad goodby, but when I leave a place I like
88 to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse.
89 I was lucky. All of a sudden I thought of something that helped make me know I
90 was getting the hell out. I suddenly remembered this time, in around October, that I and
91 Robert Tichener and Paul Campbell were chucking a football around, in front of the
92 academic building. They were nice guys, especially Tichener. It was just before dinner
93 and it was getting pretty dark out, but we kept chucking the ball around anyway. It kept
94 getting darker and darker, and we could hardly see the ball any more, but we didn't want
95 to stop doing what we were doing. Finally we had to. This teacher that taught biology,
96 Mr. Zambesi, stuck his head out of this window in the academic building and told us to
97 go back to the dorm and get ready for dinner. If I get a chance to remember that kind of
98 stuff, I can get a good-by when I need one--at least, most of the time I can. As soon as I
99 got it, I turned around and started running down the other side of the hill, toward old
100 Spencer's house. He didn't live on the campus. He lived on Anthony Wayne Avenue.
101 I ran all the way to the main gate, and then I waited a second till I got my breath. I
102 have no wind, if you want to know the truth. I'm quite a heavy smoker, for one thing--that
103 is, I used to be. They made me cut it out. Another thing, I grew six and a half inches last
104 year. That's also how I practically got t.b. and came out here for all these goddam
105 checkups and stuff. I'm pretty healthy, though.
106 Anyway, as soon as I got my breath back I ran across Route 204. It was icy as hell
107 and I damn near fell down. I don't even know what I was running for--I guess I just felt
108 like it. After I got across the road, I felt like I was sort of disappearing. It was that kind of
109 a crazy afternoon, terrifically cold, and no sun out or anything, and you felt like you were
110 disappearing every time you crossed a road.
111 Boy, I rang that doorbell fast when I got to old Spencer's house. I was really
112 frozen. My ears were hurting and I could hardly move my fingers at all. "C'mon, c'mon,"
113 I said right out loud, almost, "somebody open the door." Finally old Mrs. Spencer
114 opened. it. They didn't have a maid or anything, and they always opened the door
115 themselves. They didn't have too much dough.
116 "Holden!" Mrs. Spencer said. "How lovely to see you! Come in, dear! Are you
117 frozen to death?" I think she was glad to see me. She liked me. At least, I think she did.
- title
- Chunk 3