3634. After a while, waking up from his nap on the coach
box, a sleepy Alexis began to watch the boys playing in the yard. A wrestling
match was going on, but it was a gentle affair. Two boys would firmly grasp
each other’s shoulders, and at a signal begin to push and shove each other
inside a square marked in the dirt of the yard.
3635. The objective was simply to force one’s opponent to
have to put one foot outside the boundary and as soon as that happened the
match was called and another boy entered the ring to face the current champion.
The match was supervised by a student of an upper grade, who had the
distinction of being undefeated in the game of, “Land” as they called it.
3636. The name of the game long ago was “Get out of My
Land,” but had been shortened to, “My Land,” and then just the single word
“land,” as so often happens.
3637. The boys were restricted to this form of combat for a
simple and obvious reason, their uniforms had to be kept constantly in pristine
condition so that, if God Forbid there should be a sudden inspection, all would
be in order and no crease or shoelace out of place. These uniforms of theirs
were almost as elaborate as Alexis’s coachman’s outfit.
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