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I began, foolishly perhaps, to take seances When I blacked the second-years’ boots, I took care to get blacking on the laces so they’d dirty their hands They caught rily warned me to be more careful the next time I blacked the boots meticulously, but pushed a thumbful of pine tar up into the treads of several random boots They tracked the stickyas they left their dormitory, and reaped the punishment for a sticky floor at the noon inspection That, they blamed on each other, and had demerits of their own to march off That pleased me Far better to hts later, I rose froed the others were asleep I walked silently through the study room, but just as I reached the door, Rory spoke

"Whare you going, Nevare?"

He and Nate had been sitting in the dark, talking quietly I hadn’t noticed them

"Out Just for a uave a snort of laughter "I saw you gatherin’ it the other day Pretty sht it of you What are ya doing now?"

I was torn between reluctance and a certain amount of pride in my cleverness I came back to the hearth, blew briefly on the coals to wake a feeble flame, and then showed them what I held into do ood chips?"

"Wedge them into a doorframe"

Nate was shocked "Nevare! That’s not like you Or is it?"

I shook my head, a bit surprised at his question, and taken aback for a moment It wasn’t like ht to e, and probably unworthy of a gentleman I tried to care about that, and could not It was almost as if I had discovered a second s

Rory leaned closer to my hand to peer at the chips, and then shook his head "They’re too little to make any difference They won’t hold"

"Want to bet?" I asked hiot to see this"

Rory and Nate followed me as I crept down the stairwell to the next floor The second-years had a door that opened out froht to hold the heat in their rooms I crouched down The dim lantern in the stairwell barely illuminated my work as I carefully stacked the wood chips into a series of wedges under their door "Do soested in a whisper

I nodded, grinning, and worked the the the we hastened our fellows out of the roo and shouting from the second-years’ door as we passed it There, we asse our corporal when the third-years and the cadet officers arrived All the second-years were late to the parade ground and awarded demerits as a result It was easy for most of us to look innocent, for Nate, Rory, and I had kept our secret to ourselves I don’t know if Nate or Rory whispered, but by noon all ratulations to me Our corporal suspected us and did his best to make us miserable that day Yet his best efforts did little to dampen our spirits, and that, I think, infuriated hiator of such a trick, for I should have known that Rory would only escalate the war of mischief I think it was he who pissed in their water ewer and left it by their washbasin, but I have no way to be certain Day after day, the second-years bullied us, and every day we found some small way to strike back We were far e, and ar rubbed into their bedsheets s A hollowed stick of firewood packed with horsehair froht They cursed at us and accused us, but could prove nothing We marched off the demerits, kept our eyes down, and seehts-out, we often gathered to whisper and rejoice in our defiance All good-natured tolerance for our "initiation" was gone We waged a war of endurance, now, to prove ould not be run off

The six-week initiation culround Traditionally, it was so-of-war or footraces or other sport challenge between the houses that theoretically dispersed any ill feeling that had built up during the initiation All were to ee from it peers and equals, Acade, and to this day I do not think what happened was entirely an accident How naive we all were! We had been brought to the edge of a boil and held there by bullying and pressure We should have known better than to put any trust in anything a second-year fro up the stairs, shouting at us to rally, for Bringha us to take it back, we all slammed our books shut and left our Sevday afternoon study to pelt down the staircase coatless out onto the parade ground