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Updated: June 3, 2025
"A great to-do followed; search was made everywhere; the belt was not to be found. The Primaner had not locked it in his wardrobe, but had put it with his helmet in the dormitory behind the curtain where the helmets of the other cadets lay openly and from there it had disappeared. "It could not possibly have disappeared in any other way; some one must have taken it. "But who?
He was able to afford this much, you see, for he had money sent to him from home. He had displayed this belt about everywhere, for he was inordinately proud of it, and the other cadets admired it. "Now as the day arrived for the Primaner to pack together his scattered belongings in order to go home, he looked to buckle on his fine belt and all at once the thing was missing.
The Primaner swore and scolded because he must now leave wearing the ordinary institution belt; the other cadets in the room were altogether silent and depressed; they had at once unlocked all their wardrobes and offered to let the Primaner search them, but he had merely replied: 'That's nonsense, of course; who could think of such a thing?
"And now something remarkable happened, and caused more sensation than all that went before; all at once the Primaner got back the belt. "He had just left his room with his portmanteau in his hand, and had reached the stairs, when he was hastily called from behind, and as he turned about, Little L came running up, holding something in his hand it was the Primaner's belt.
For ordinarily, you must know, it never occurred to a Primaner to go with a 'Knapsack, or Plebe, from the Sekunda; it was far beneath his dignity; but with Little L it was different, there an exception was made. And yet he was no less loved by the Sekundaner than by the Primaner. One could see that in class, where we Sekundaner boys, you know, were by ourselves.
He had whispered something into the ear of the Primaner, and the two had exchanged all quietly a couple of words, and then the Primaner affectionately stroked the other's head, took off his regulation belt, buckled on the fine one and was gone; he had handed the regulation belt over to Little L to carry back. Naturally the story could now no longer be concealed, and it all came out accordingly.
Here in New Friedrich Street there were not so many, only four companies, and they divided themselves into two classes: Sekundaner and Primaner, and to these two were added the Selektaner, or special students, who afterward entered the army as officers, and who were nicknamed 'The Onions, because they had authority over the others and were barely tolerated in consequence.
But Little L, ready to help as he always was, did not allow himself to be deterred by this, and as he was taking out of his brother's locker the gymnasium drill jacket that was lying neatly folded together, he felt all at once something hard within and it was the belt of the Primaner.
"There was now in the dormitory where the two brothers lived a certain Primaner, a 'swell, as he was called by the cadets, and because he had made up his mind, as soon as he should pass the examination and breathe the fresh air again, to conduct himself like a fine gentleman, he had had made for himself, instead of a sword-belt like those the cadets procured from the institution and wore, a special patent-leather belt of his own, thinner and apparently finer than the ordinary regulation belt.
"But hardly was he out of the door and in the corridor, when he threw the jacket on the ground, and without once thinking of what might be made out of the affair, he ran up behind the Primaner with the belt. "But now, of course, it could no longer be helped; in five minutes the story was the property of the whole company.
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