Properties
- end_line
- 4201
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T17:18:13.527Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 4152
- text
- 3975 way. She was ostracizing the hell out of me. Just like the fencing team at Pencey when I
3976 left all the goddam foils on the subway.
3977 "How's old Hazel Weatherfield?" I said. "You write any new stories about her? I
3978 got that one you sent me right in my suitcase. It's down at the station. It's very good."
3979 "Daddy'll kill you."
3980 Boy, she really gets something on her mind when she gets something on her mind.
3981 "No, he won't. The worst he'll do, he'll give me hell again, and then he'll send me
3982 to that goddam military school. That's all he'll do to me. And in the first place, I won't
3983 even be around. I'll be away. I'll be--I'll probably be in Colorado on this ranch."
3984 "Don't make me laugh. You can't even ride a horse."
3985 "Who can't? Sure I can. Certainly I can. They can teach you in about two
3986 minutes," I said. "Stop picking at that." She was picking at that adhesive tape on her arm.
3987 "Who gave you that haircut?" I asked her. I just noticed what a stupid haircut somebody
3988 gave her. It was way too short.
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3989 "None of your business," she said. She can be very snotty sometimes. She can be
3990 quite snotty. "I suppose you failed in every single subject again," she said--very snotty. It
3991 was sort of funny, too, in a way. She sounds like a goddam schoolteacher sometimes, and
3992 she's only a little child.
3993 "No, I didn't," I said. "I passed English." Then, just for the hell of it, I gave her a
3994 pinch on the behind. It was sticking way out in the breeze, the way she was laying on her
3995 side. She has hardly any behind. I didn't do it hard, but she tried to hit my hand anyway,
3996 but she missed.
3997 Then all of a sudden, she said, "Oh, why did you do it?" She meant why did I get
3998 the ax again. It made me sort of sad, the way she said it.
3999 "Oh, God, Phoebe, don't ask me. I'm sick of everybody asking me that," I said. "A
4000 million reasons why. It was one of the worst schools I ever went to. It was full of
4001 phonies. And mean guys. You never saw so many mean guys in your life. For instance, if
4002 you were having a bull session in somebody's room, and somebody wanted to come in,
4003 nobody'd let them in if they were some dopey, pimply guy. Everybody was always
4004 locking their door when somebody wanted to come in. And they had this goddam secret
4005 fraternity that I was too yellow not to join. There was this one pimply, boring guy, Robert
4006 Ackley, that wanted to get in. He kept trying to join, and they wouldn't let him. Just
4007 because he was boring and pimply. I don't even feel like talking about it. It was a stinking
4008 school. Take my word."
4009 Old Phoebe didn't say anything, but she was listen ing. I could tell by the back of
4010 her neck that she was listening. She always listens when you tell her something. And the
4011 funny part is she knows, half the time, what the hell you're talking about. She really does.
4012 I kept talking about old Pencey. I sort of felt like it.
4013 "Even the couple of nice teachers on the faculty, they were phonies, too," I said.
4014 "There was this one old guy, Mr. Spencer. His wife was always giving you hot chocolate
4015 and all that stuff, and they were really pretty nice. But you should've seen him when the
4016 headmaster, old Thurmer, came in the history class and sat down in the back of the room.
4017 He was always coming in and sitting down in the back of the room for about a half an
4018 hour. He was supposed to be incognito or something. After a while, he'd be sitting back
4019 there and then he'd start interrupting what old Spencer was saying to crack a lot of corny
4020 jokes. Old Spencer'd practically kill himself chuckling and smiling and all, like as if
4021 Thurmer was a goddam prince or something."
4022 "Don't swear so much."
- title
- Chunk 6