Properties
- end_line
- 319
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:13:03.335Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 267
- text
- 256 the secret ingredients were that the Egyptians used when they
257 wrapped up dead people so that their faces would not rot for
258 innumerable centuries. This interesting riddle is still quite
259 a challenge to modern science in the twentieth century.
260 He stopped reading and put my paper down. I was beginning to sort of hate him.
261 "Your essay, shall we say, ends there," he said in this very sarcastic voice. You wouldn't
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262 think such an old guy would be so sarcastic and all. "However, you dropped me a little
263 note, at the bottom of the page," he said.
264 "I know I did," I said. I said it very fast because I wanted to stop him before he
265 started reading that out loud. But you couldn't stop him. He was hot as a firecracker.
266 DEAR MR. SPENCER [he read out loud]. That is all I know about
267 the Egyptians. I can't seem to get very interested in them
268 although your lectures are very interesting. It is all right
269 with me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything
270 else except English anyway.
271 Respectfully yours, HOLDEN CAULFIELD.
272 He put my goddam paper down then and looked at me like he'd just beaten hell
273 out of me in ping-pong or something. I don't think I'll ever forgive him for reading me
274 that crap out loud. I wouldn't've read it out loud to him if he'd written it--I really wouldn't.
275 In the first place, I'd only written that damn note so that he wouldn't feel too bad about
276 flunking me.
277 "Do you blame me for flunking you, boy?" he said.
278 "No, sir! I certainly don't," I said. I wished to hell he'd stop calling me "boy" all
279 the time.
280 He tried chucking my exam paper on the bed when he was through with it. Only,
281 he missed again, naturally. I had to get up again and pick it up and put it on top of the
282 Atlantic Monthly. It's boring to do that every two minutes.
283 "What would you have done in my place?" he said. "Tell the truth, boy."
284 Well, you could see he really felt pretty lousy about flunking me. So I shot the
285 bull for a while. I told him I was a real moron, and all that stuff. I told him how I
286 would've done exactly the same thing if I'd been in his place, and how most people didn't
287 appreciate how tough it is being a teacher. That kind of stuff. The old bull.
288 The funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot
289 the bull. I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down
290 near Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home,
291 and if it was, where did the ducks go. I was wondering where the ducks went when the
292 lagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them
293 away to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away.
294 I'm lucky, though. I mean I could shoot the old bull to old Spencer and think
295 about those ducks at the same time. It's funny. You don't have to think too hard when you
296 talk to a teacher. All of a sudden, though, he interrupted me while I was shooting the bull.
297 He was always interrupting you.
298 "How do you feel about all this, boy? I'd be very interested to know. Very
299 interested."
300 "You mean about my flunking out of Pencey and all?" I said. I sort of wished he'd
301 cover up his bumpy chest. It wasn't such a beautiful view.
302 "If I'm not mistaken, I believe you also had some difficulty at the Whooton
303 School and at Elkton Hills." He didn't say it just sarcastic, but sort of nasty, too.
304 "I didn't have too much difficulty at Elkton Hills," I told him. "I didn't exactly
305 flunk out or anything. I just quit, sort of."
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