Yet, when the tracks are cleared and the first train pulls through, the Devon volunteers again feel themselves returning to boyishness. The train carries young men barely older than the students, recruits who are off to the real war, leaving the Devon boys behind. The recruits' new uniforms, their excitement, the fact that they are going off to the war, make Gene and the other school boys feel even more isolated, more inconsequential, and, finally, childish.
Against this backdrop, Leper appears — the boy who consistently refused to jump from the tree and who has also skipped the shoveling to ski by himself. Here, in this chapter, Leper's eccentric interests, his isolation, and his vulnerability all become apparent, especially in contrast to Gene and Brinker.
Leper's appearance in this chapter also foreshadows later developments in the novel. For example, as Leper approaches Gene and Brinker, his touring skis move with the slow regularity of a piston engine — an image that will reappear later in his testimony (in Chapter 11) about Finny's fall from the tree.
This scene also dramatizes Leper's status as a loner at Devon. While the other boys battle winter with shovels, Leper keeps his own vigil in the wild, observing how animals dig into their homes to escape the harsh conditions. Leper's winter day, in fact, foreshadows his later inability to adapt to military life and his frightened retreat to his own snowy Vermont home after his nervous breakdown.
