Read "Square and Compasses" by Oliver Optic online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Several groups of the students had formed on the banks of Beech Hill Lake, and were discussing the plans when the school-bell rang. They obeyed the summons, and began to think this was a queer sort of a vacation, when the principal informed them that he had forgotten something. Seeing them talking together at the lake had reminded him of the omission.
"I must exact a promise from each student that the plan he offers is wholly his own work," said Captain Gildrock. "There must be no conversation, conference, or comparison among you, and no student must show his plan to another, or tell another what it is. All of you who assent to this, and make this promise, will signify it by standing."