The Guardians Read Online Free PDF Page A

dull because they themselves were only half alive. They could not have put up with the excitement, the “go,” which characterized life in the Conurbs. As for the Commuters, they might be bosses but they were really no better than hangers-on, aping their betters. There was something sneaky and dishonest about living in two worlds. The Conurbans prided themselves on their own single-heartedness.
    Views such as these were well known to Rob, though he recalled now that he had never heardthem expressed by his parents. He had not challenged them, though he had not in every way agreed with them. There was even something desirable in the thought of those empty fields, the unpeopled moors and beaches. But he had kept his feelings to himself.
    One other thing he remembered. The greatest contempt had been reserved for those who lived in the County as servants, ministering to the needs of the gentry. Their spinelessness in accepting that kind of servitude was seen as utterly repulsive. He realized why the County had never been mentioned by his mother and father. His mother obviously had not been gentry, so she must have come from the servant class.
    It was a shock, a great shock. He felt ashamed and then, in an odd way, angry. His mother had not been spineless. Gentle, yes, but brave also, especially during the final years of illness. If they were wrong about that they could be wrong about other things, too. He realized with another smaller shock that he was thinking of the other Conurbans as Them—something different from himself.
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    There were no lessons on Saturday morning but that did not make the day one to look forward to, because instead there was the weekly school inspection. Friday evening was devoted to an extensive cleaning and tidying program, supervised by the prefects, and this was continued after breakfast on Saturday. The inspection, by the Master of Discipline, started at eleven and lasted for roughly an hour and a half. He took with him an entourage of prefects, who noted down the names of offenders against his rules for later punishment.
    On the first Saturday inspection Rob had been checked for an untidy bed but let off, as a new arrival, with a warning to do better in future. The three sections of the mattress had to be stacked, one above the other and perfectly aligned at the head of the bed, and various items of clothing and belongings—best jacket, spare shoes, toilet articles, sports kit and so on—had to be set out on top of them in a particular order. On the lower part of the bed blankets were placed, folded to a certain size, with the following week’s sheets and pillowslip. Allother belongings had to be disposed of neatly in the locker beside the bed.
    The second week he was kept busy on Friday in the work gang that was detailed to scrub the dormitory floor and polish the taps and other fittings in the washroom. In the morning, immediately after breakfast, he was detailed to a party picking up scraps of paper all around G-House. He was not released until half past ten and sprinted along with the others to get on with the job of tidying his own bed space. But he was caught on the way upstairs by a senior boy and made to help in laying out his things. He did it badly and was made to do it again. It was eleven before he was dismissed.
    Everyone else’s bed was ready. There was still time though, he thought as he feverishly set about his task. On the previous Saturday the inspecting party had not reached them until after twelve. He folded the blankets, saw they would not do, and tried again. The second effort was worse than the first. His fingers by this time were thumbs. He did it once more; better, but the edges were not exactly in line. He was forced to start all over.
    The other boys were playing dice and talking. Then one who had been posted as a lookout at the top of the stairs called: “Stand by your beds! They’re here and coming