Explore "Outward Bound" by Oliver Optic on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
One of the most singular traits observable in the character of some boys / is the willingness, and even the desire, under certain circumstances, to / get into trouble. A young gentleman, feeling that he has been slighted, / or his merit overlooked, permits himself to fall into a mental condition / in which he feels no responsibility for his conduct; in which he / recklessly breaks through all regulations, places himself in an attitude / of opposition to constituted authority, and seems to court the heaviest / penalty which can be inflicted upon him for disobedience, impudence, and / rebellion.
The fourth lieutenant of the Young America had worked himself up to this / disagreeable pitch. He was not only disposed to assume an attitude of / opposition to the principal, who had made the obnoxious regulation which / was the immediate cause of his rebellious condition, but to all who / supported his authority, or willingly submitted to it.