"Yes you do, Pecker Head," the boy said, and then tried to bugger Homer Wells. Homer had never seen or heard of anyone being so abused at St. Cloud's. Although the older boy had learned his style of buggery at a private school -a very good one- he had never been educated in the kind of crying that homer Wells had been taught by the family from Three Mile Falls. It seemed to Homer that it was a good time for crying, loudly -if one wanted to escape buggery- and his crying immediately awakened the one adult in the Draper household who had merely gone to sleep (as opposed to passing out). In other words, Homer woke Mom. He woke all the grandchildren, too, and since several of them were younger than Homer, and all of them had no knowledge of Homer's capacity for howls, his crying produced sheer terror among them -and even aroused Rufus, who snapped.
"What in Heaven's name?" Mom asked, at Homer's door.
"He tried to bugger me, so I let him have it, " said the private school boy. Homer, who was struggling to get his legendary howls under control -to send them back to history- didn't know that grandchildren are believed before orphans.
"Here at St. Cloud's." wrote Dr. Larch, "it is self-defeating and cruel to give much thought to ancestors. In other parts of the world, I'm sorry to say, an orphan's ancestors are always under suspicion."
Mom hit Homer as hard as any representative of the failed family from Three Mile Falls ever hit him. She then banished him to the furnace room for the reminder of the night; it was at least warm and dry there, and there was a fold-out cot, which in the summers was used for camping trips.
There were also lots of wet shos- a pair of which even belonged to Homer. Some wet socks were almost dry, and fit him. And the assortment of wet snowsuits and hardy tramping clothes gave Homer an adequate selection. He dressed himself in warm, outdoor clothes, which were -for the most part- nearly dry. He knew that Mom and the professor thought too highly of family ever to send him back to St. Cloud's over a mere buggery; if he wanted to go back, and he did, he;d have to leave on his own initiative.
In fact, Mom had provided Homer with a vision of how his alleged buggery would be treated and, doubtlessly, cured. She'd made hims kneel before the fold-out cot in the furnace room.
"Say after me," she said, and repeated he professor's strange version of grace. "I am vile, I abhor myself,'"Mom said, and Homer had said after her- knowing that everyword was untrue. He'd never liked himself so much. He felt he was on the track to finding out who he was, and how he could be of use, but he knew that path led him back to St. Cloud's.
When Mom kissed him good night, she said, "Now, Homer, don't mind what the professor has to say about this. Whatever he says, you just take it with a grain of salt."
Homer Wells didn't wait to hear the text of professor's lesson regarding buggery. Homer stepped outside; even the snow didn't stop him. In Waterville, in 193_ it was no surprise to see so much snow on the ground for Thanksgiving; and Professor Draper had very carefully instructed Homer on the merits and methods of snowshoeing.
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