Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports,
you’re going to play them for me . . .
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Summary: Chapter 6
Gene sits at the first chapel service of the school year
and observes that the school atmosphere seems back to normal, with
all its usual austerity and discipline. He lives in the same room
that he shared with Finny over the summer. The room across the hall,
which belonged to Leper, now houses Brinker Hadley, a prominent
personage on campus. After lunch, Gene starts to go across the hall
but suddenly decides that he doesn’t want to see Brinker. He realizes that
he is late for an afternoon appointment at the Crew House. On his
way, he stops on the footbridge at the junction of the upper Devon
River and the lower Naguamsett River. He envisions Finny balancing
himself on the prow of a canoe on the river, the way Finny used
to do.
Gene has taken the thankless position of assistant senior
crew manager and has to work for Cliff Quackenbush, an unhappy,
bullying type. After practice is over, Quackenbush pesters Gene
as to why he has taken the job: normally boys only tolerate the
position of assistant in hopes of becoming manager the following
year, but Gene is already a senior. Quackenbush begins to insult
him, implying that Gene must be working as a manager because he
cannot row; indeed, as Gene knows, disabled students usually fill
such positions. Gene hits Quackenbush hard and they start to fight
and fall into the river. Gene pulls himself out and Quackenbush
tells him not to come back. As Gene walks home, he meets Mr. Ludsbury,
the master in charge of his dormitory, who berates him for taking
advantage of the summer substitute and engaging in illegal activities:
in addition to his escape to the beach with Finny, Gene had participated
in late-night games of poker and transgressed the rules in other
ways. Gene only regrets not having taken fuller advantage of the
summer laxity.
Mr. Ludsbury then mentions that Gene has received a long
distance phone call. Gene enters the master’s study and, calling
the number written on the notepad there, soon hears Finny’s voice. Finny
asks about their room and is relieved when Gene replies that he
has no roommate. Finny says that he just wanted to be sure that Gene
is no longer “crazy” like he was when he visited Finny and claimed
that he jounced the limb. Finny then asks about sports and throws
a fit when Gene tells him that he is trying to be assistant crew manager.
Finny tells Gene that he has to play sports, for his sake, and Gene
feels oddly joyful to think that he must be destined to become a
part of Finny.
Summary: Chapter 7
Brinker comes across the hall to see Gene and congratulates
him on getting such a large room all to himself. He jokingly accuses
Gene of having “done away with” Finny to get the room. Gene tries
weakly to play along with the joke and then suggests that they go
smoke cigarettes in the basement “Butt Room.” Upon their arrival,
however, Brinker pretends that the Butt Room is a dungeon and announces
to the others there that he has brought a prisoner accused of killing
his roommate. Gene tries to shake off the comment’s hint of truth
by making an overblown, obviously joking confession; he chokes, however,
when he begins to describe jolting Finny out of the tree. Paralyzed,
he challenges a younger boy to “reconstruct the crime,” but the
boy says simply that Gene must have pushed Finny off the branch.
Gene ridicules the boy’s conclusion, directing attention away from
himself but eliciting the boy’s hatred. He then declares that he
must go study his French, leaving without having smoked.
To relieve wartime labor shortages, the boys shovel snow
off the railroad and receive payment in return. On his way to the
train station to go shovel, Gene finds Leper in the middle of a
meadow, cross-country skiing. Leper says that he is looking for
a beaver dam on the Devon River and invites Gene to come see it
sometime if he finds it. Gene works on the same shoveling team as
Brinker and Chet Douglass but finds the work dull and arduous. The
boys shovel out the main line and cheer as a troop train, packed
with young men in uniform, continues by them on its way. On the
train home, the boys talk only of the war and their eagerness to
be involved. Quackenbush says that he will finish school before
going off to be a soldier, as he wants to take full advantage of
Devon’s physical hardening program. The other boys accuse him of
being an enemy spy.
When they arrive back at Devon, the boys find Leper coming back
from his expedition to the beaver dam. Brinker makes fun of him
and, as they walk away, tells Gene that he is tired of school and wants
to enlist tomorrow. Gene feels a thrill at the thought of leaving
his old life to join the military. That night, after spending some time
contemplating the stars, he decides to enlist as well. When he returns
to his room, however, he finds Finny there.
