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No one spoke ruht up in his own fears to sayto his fellows We mustered in the usual place, and Corporal Dent appeared to curse and blaed and wondered briefly why I had ever wanted so desperately to be here This was not the golden future I had iined for myself This was ht Maybe it would just be a relief to be sent hoave avein ranks I scarcely noticed

We waited in the cold and the dark until our cadet officers caly, they found little to scorn us for that day Perhaps they, too, dreaded the day’s exa process Or perhaps they looked forward to Dark Evening’s holiday and felt merciful to us Maybe it was simply too dark for Jaffers to see that I had not brushed ht on the floor, not on a hanger In any case, Cadet Captain Jaffers allowed as hoould do, and ere dismissed from our inspection

We marched off to a breakfast I had no stoeant Duril’s saying, "The soldier who doesn’t break his fast when he can is a fool" At the table, only Gord seemed to eat with a will Spink pecked at his food Trist heaped his plate, ate five bites, and then pushed at the rest as if he were poking a dead animal with a stick Ordinarily Corporal Dent would have demanded that he eat whatever he took, and lectured us all that a reedily and then wasted theiment Dent, however, had found as many possible excuses as he could of late to leave us alone at table, so there was no one to rebuke us for the half-eaten h a cold day that was just now turning gray to our first class In Military History, the entire chalkboard was already covered in questions written out in Captain Infal’s sloping hand He greeted us with, "Co I will collect your papers at the end of class No talking until then"

And that was it I set outI tried to pace myself, to be sure that I would write at least soh at that I left space at the ends of some answers to allow led with dates and with the sequences of the sea battles I wrote until ers and , "That’s it, Cadets Finish the sentence you are writing and put your pens away Leave your papers on your desk I will take them up Dismissed"

And that was it The day outside had warh to ot to the river, the more bitterly the wind blew The dilapidatedcreaked in the cold There were coal stoves in each classroom, but their warmth did not seem to extend more than a few feet beyond their sullen iron bellies We took our custo on one side of Spink and me on the other Captain Rusk saw us seated, then went to the board and began writing the first probleave Spink a reassuring smile but I don’t think he saw it His nose was red with cold, and the rest of his face white eariness and perhaps fear

I recognized Rusk’s first problem as one directly out of the textbook examples I could have simply written the answer, but he de down each problem as he wrote it, and several ti me so well prepared for h the test, it happened I heard a small crunch, and then Gord’s hand shot ihed "Yes, Cadet?"

"I’ve broken my pencil, sir May I ask to borrow one?"

Rusk sighed "A prepared soldier would have an extra one with hih you should always be in a position to let the may use?"

Spink lifted his hand "I do, sir"

"Then lend it, Cadet Please continue with your tests"

Gord leaned over to accept the pencil Spink offered As he did so, his desk buainst Spink’s Both their papers cascaded to the floor under Spink’s desk Spink leaned down, gathered the papers, and handed Gord’s back to hi with the extra pencil I watched this from the corner of ave Gord back every sheet that truly belonged to him