Hazing had to be explained, too, so he told me that when he first went
to boarding school, the elder boys teased and tormented him, "putting
him through a course of sprouts," as they termed it. They made him spend
what money he had in buying goodies which he was not permitted to taste.
They threw him into the canal, to see if he could swim, and then dragged
him around in the sand to dry his clothes. These and similar delicate
attentions they bestowed upon him to try his metal.
I ventured to hope that he being, of course, furiously angry, had vented
his rage upon them afterwards, as chance offered, but he said, no, that
would not do at all. The ordeal was to test a boy's temper and to find
whether he could stand fire without getting mad or at least without
showing it. "You have passed your examination," he added, "and have been
given your place among your companions, and I'm very glad of it."
Mr. Hosmer had general oversight of the boys as Mrs. Ripley had of the
girls. He informed me that I was to be quartered in Pilgrim Hall under
the guardianship of Miss Marian Ripley, and my mate was to be Bonico,
otherwise Isaac Colburne.
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