Page 25
By Jack Joseph Smith
By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Even in damaged form, the page keeps its focus on work detail, institutional discipline, and the boys' wary relation to Cid.
Much of the phrasing is unstable, but the situation comes through clearly enough: hallways, shifts, cigars, wax, orders, and waiting for turns out of sight. The page feels trapped inside routine, which is exactly why its scraps of observation matter.
A continuation trapped inside institutional routine: 'The farmer chewing on that big cigar', his 'lanky body... squinting through his eyes' while the boys 'swabbed the wooden hallways spit shinning over and over the wax'. The closing image holds the surveillance plainly - 'their feet slid the rags as their eyes waited for the turns that would take them out of sight of Cid.' The page is broken by struck typed deletions documented in metadata, but its situation of work, watching, and waiting comes through clearly.