Good Blood | Page 5

climbing apparatus and
every other possible thing--now it has all gone. From the infirmary a
door led out into the gymnasium, but it was always kept locked. When
one wanted to go into the infirmary, one had to cross the court and
enter in front. The door then, as I said, was always locked; that is, it
was opened only on some special occasion, and that, indeed, was
always a very mournful occasion. For behind the door was the
mortuary, and when a cadet died he was laid therein, and the door
remained open until the other cadets had filed by, and looked at him
once more--and he was then taken out--yes--h'm."
A long pause followed.
"Concerning the new house over there in Lichterfelde," continued the
old colonel in* a somewhat disparaging tone, "I know nothing, as I said,
but have heard that it is become a big affair with a great number of
cadets. Here in New Friedrich Street there were not so many, only four
companies, and they divided themselves into two classes: Sekundaner
and Primaner, and to these two were added the Selektaner, or special
students, who afterward entered the army as officers, and who were
nicknamed 'The Onions,' because they had authority over the others and

were barely tolerated in consequence.
"Now in the company to which I belonged--it was the fourth--there
were two brothers who sat together in the same class with me, the
Sekun-daner. Their name is of no consequence--but--well, they were
called, then, von L; the older of the two was called by the superiors L
No. I, and the smaller, who was a year and a half younger than the
other, L No. II. Among the cadets, however, they were called Big and
Little L. Little L, indeed--h'm--"
He moved in his chair, his eyes gazed out into vacancy. It appeared that
he had reached the subject of his reveries.
"Such a contrast between brothers I have never seen," he continued,
blowing a thick cloud from his meerschaum pipe. "Big L was a
strapping fellow, with clumsy arms and legs and a big fat head; [1]
Little L was like a willow switch, so slender and supple. He had a small,
fine head, and light, wavy hair that curled of itself, and a delicate nose
like a young eagle's, but above all--he was a lad--"
1 "Die Bollen," a term of dislike among the Berlin cadets.
The old colonel drew a deep sigh. "Now you must not think that all this
was a matter of indifference to the cadets; on the contrary. The brothers
had scarcely entered the Berlin Cadet. School from the preparatory
school (they came from the one at Wahlstatt, I believe) when their
status was at once fixed: Big L was neglected, and Little L was the
universal favorite.
"Now with such boys it is an odd thing: the big and the strong, they are
the leaders, and on whomsoever these bestow their favor, with that boy
all goes well. It also procures for him respect from the others, and no
one ventures lightly to attack him. Such boys--here again nature stands
right out--much as it is with the animals, before the biggest and
strongest all the rest must crouch."
Fresh, vigorous puffs from the meerschaum accompanied these words.

"When the cadets came down at recreation time those who were good
friends together met and would go walking arm in arm around the
'Karreehof and toward the court where the trees stood, and so it was
always until the trumpet sounded for return to work.
"Big L--well--he attached himself just wherever he could find
attachment, and stalked sullenly ahead by himself--Little L, on the
contrary, almost before he could reach the court was seized under the
arm by two or three big fellows and compelled to walk with them. And
they were Primaners at that. For ordinarily, you must know, it never
occurred to a Primaner to go with a 'Knapsack,' or Plebe, from the
Sekunda; it was far beneath his dignity; but with Little L it was
different, there an exception was made. And yet he was no less loved
by the Sekundaner than by the Primaner. One could see that in class,
where we Sekundaner boys, you know, were by ourselves. In class we
were ranged according to alphabet, so that the two L's sat together very
nearly in the centre.
"In their lessons they stood pretty nearly even. Big L had a good head
for mathematics; in other things he was not of much account, but in
mathematics he was, as you might say, a "shark," and Little L, who was
not strong in mathematics, used to "crib" from his brother. In all other
respects Little L was ahead of his older brother, and in fact one of