{"id":"01KG073JS0FP0JD6J61C7GZNB6","cid":"bafkreibfkh3i33ag7zfcqamfuxf3wkgnndqjndp3ccbl45szswi7jmatiq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":319,"extracted_at":"2026-01-27T17:13:03.335Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KFYTG9MG93RTB6YAW34V48XG","start_line":267,"text":"   256\tthe secret ingredients were that the Egyptians used when they\n   257\twrapped up dead people so that their faces would not rot for\n   258\tinnumerable centuries. This interesting riddle is still quite\n   259\ta challenge to modern science in the twentieth century.\n   260\tHe stopped reading and put my paper down. I was beginning to sort of hate him.\n   261\t\"Your essay, shall we say, ends there,\" he said in this very sarcastic voice. You wouldn't\n\n<!-- [Page 7](arke:01KFYTAC5V31ZRY8T52K3KX86K) -->\n   262\tthink such an old guy would be so sarcastic and all. \"However, you dropped me a little\n   263\tnote, at the bottom of the page,\" he said.\n   264\t\"I know I did,\" I said. I said it very fast because I wanted to stop him before he\n   265\tstarted reading that out loud. But you couldn't stop him. He was hot as a firecracker.\n   266\tDEAR MR. SPENCER [he read out loud]. That is all I know about\n   267\tthe Egyptians. I can't seem to get very interested in them\n   268\talthough your lectures are very interesting. It is all right\n   269\twith me if you flunk me though as I am flunking everything\n   270\telse except English anyway.\n   271\tRespectfully yours, HOLDEN CAULFIELD.\n   272\tHe put my goddam paper down then and looked at me like he'd just beaten hell\n   273\tout of me in ping-pong or something. I don't think I'll ever forgive him for reading me\n   274\tthat crap out loud. I wouldn't've read it out loud to him if he'd written it--I really wouldn't.\n   275\tIn the first place, I'd only written that damn note so that he wouldn't feel too bad about\n   276\tflunking me.\n   277\t\"Do you blame me for flunking you, boy?\" he said.\n   278\t\"No, sir! I certainly don't,\" I said. I wished to hell he'd stop calling me \"boy\" all\n   279\tthe time.\n   280\tHe tried chucking my exam paper on the bed when he was through with it. Only,\n   281\the missed again, naturally. I had to get up again and pick it up and put it on top of the\n   282\tAtlantic Monthly. It's boring to do that every two minutes.\n   283\t\"What would you have done in my place?\" he said. \"Tell the truth, boy.\"\n   284\tWell, you could see he really felt pretty lousy about flunking me. So I shot the\n   285\tbull for a while. I told him I was a real moron, and all that stuff. I told him how I\n   286\twould've done exactly the same thing if I'd been in his place, and how most people didn't\n   287\tappreciate how tough it is being a teacher. That kind of stuff. The old bull.\n   288\tThe funny thing is, though, I was sort of thinking of something else while I shot\n   289\tthe bull. I live in New York, and I was thinking about the lagoon in Central Park, down\n   290\tnear Central Park South. I was wondering if it would be frozen over when I got home,\n   291\tand if it was, where did the ducks go. I was wondering where the ducks went when the\n   292\tlagoon got all icy and frozen over. I wondered if some guy came in a truck and took them\n   293\taway to a zoo or something. Or if they just flew away.\n   294\tI'm lucky, though. I mean I could shoot the old bull to old Spencer and think\n   295\tabout those ducks at the same time. It's funny. You don't have to think too hard when you\n   296\ttalk to a teacher. All of a sudden, though, he interrupted me while I was shooting the bull.\n   297\tHe was always interrupting you.\n   298\t\"How do you feel about all this, boy? I'd be very interested to know. Very\n   299\tinterested.\"\n   300\t\"You mean about my flunking out of Pencey and all?\" I said. I sort of wished he'd\n   301\tcover up his bumpy chest. It wasn't such a beautiful view.\n   302\t\"If I'm not mistaken, I believe you also had some difficulty at the Whooton\n   303\tSchool and at Elkton Hills.\" He didn't say it just sarcastic, but sort of nasty, too.\n   304\t\"I didn't have too much difficulty at Elkton Hills,\" I told him. \"I didn't exactly\n   305\tflunk out or anything. I just quit, sort of.\"\n","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG0725KPVMV05TTCRWCZSD90","peer_label":"2","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"}],"ver":1,"created_at":"2026-01-27T17:13:03.703Z","ts":"2026-01-27T17:13:03.703Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}