Properties
- end_line
- 592
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:13:25.100Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 539
- text
- 516 "You got robbed." He started cleaning his goddam fingernails with the end of a
517 match. He was always cleaning his fingernails. It was funny, in a way. His teeth were
518 always mossy-looking, and his ears were always dirty as hell, but he was always cleaning
519 his fingernails. I guess he thought that made him a very neat guy. He took another look at
520 my hat while he was cleaning them. "Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in,
521 for Chrissake," he said. "That's a deer shooting hat."
522 "Like hell it is." I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was
523 taking aim at it. "This is a people shooting hat," I said. "I shoot people in this hat."
524 "Your folks know you got kicked out yet?"
525 "Nope."
526 "Where the hell's Stradlater at, anyway?"
527 "Down at the game. He's got a date." I yawned. I was yawning all over the place.
528 For one thing, the room was too damn hot. It made you sleepy. At Pencey, you either
529 froze to death or died of the heat.
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530 "The great Stradlater," Ackley said. "--Hey. Lend me your scissors a second,
531 willya? Ya got 'em handy?"
532 "No. I packed them already. They're way in the top of the closet."
533 "Get 'em a second, willya?" Ackley said, "I got this hangnail I want to cut off."
534 He didn't care if you'd packed something or not and had it way in the top of the
535 closet. I got them for him though. I nearly got killed doing it, too. The second I opened
536 the closet door, Stradlater's tennis racket--in its wooden press and all--fell right on my
537 head. It made a big clunk, and it hurt like hell. It damn near killed old Ackley, though. He
538 started laughing in this very high falsetto voice. He kept laughing the whole time I was
539 taking down my suitcase and getting the scissors out for him. Something like that--a guy
540 getting hit on the head with a rock or something--tickled the pants off Ackley. "You have
541 a damn good sense of humor, Ackley kid," I told him. "You know that?" I handed him the
542 scissors. "Lemme be your manager. I'll get you on the goddam radio." I sat down in my
543 chair again, and he started cutting his big horny-looking nails. "How 'bout using the table
544 or something?" I said. "Cut 'em over the table, willya? I don't feel like walking on your
545 crumby nails in my bare feet tonight." He kept right on cutting them over the floor,
546 though. What lousy manners. I mean it.
547 "Who's Stradlater's date?" he said. He was always keeping tabs on who Stradlater
548 was dating, even though he hated Stradlater's guts.
549 "I don't know. Why?"
550 "No reason. Boy, I can't stand that sonuvabitch. He's one sonuvabitch I really can't
551 stand."
552 "He's crazy about you. He told me he thinks you're a goddam prince," I said. I call
553 people a "prince" quite often when I'm horsing around. It keeps me from getting bored or
554 something.
555 "He's got this superior attitude all the time," Ackley said. "I just can't stand the
556 sonuvabitch. You'd think he--"
557 "Do you mind cutting your nails over the table, hey?" I said. "I've asked you about
558 fifty--"
559 "He's got this goddam superior attitude all the time," Ackley said. "I don't even
560 think the sonuvabitch is intelligent. He thinks he is. He thinks he's about the most--"
561 "Ackley! For Chrissake. Willya please cut your crumby nails over the table? I've
562 asked you fifty times."
563 He started cutting his nails over the table, for a change. The only way he ever did
564 anything was if you yelled at him.
565 I watched him for a while. Then I said, "The reason you're sore at Stradlater is
566 because he said that stuff about brushing your teeth once in a while. He didn't mean to
567 insult you, for cryin' out loud. He didn't say it right or anything, but he didn't mean
- title
- Chunk 5