Hardly was everybody gone when K. said to the assistants: “Clear out!” Disconcerted by the unexpectedness of the command they obeyed, but when K. locked the door behind them they tried to get in again, whimpered outside and knocked on the door. “You are dismissed,” cried K. , “never again will I take you into my service!” But that, of course, was just what they did not want, and they kept hammering on the door with their hands and feet. “Let us back to you, sir!” they cried, as if they were being swept away by a flood and K. were dry land. But K. did not relent, he waited impatiently for the unbearable din to force the teacher to intervene. That soon happened. “Let your confounded assistants in!” he shouted. “I’ve dismissed them,” K. shouted back; it had the incidental effect of showing the teacher what it was to be strong enough not merely to give notice, but to enforce it. The teacher next tried to soothe the assistants by kindly assurances that they had only to wait quietly and K. would have to let them in sooner or later. Then he went away. And now things might have settled down if K. had not begun to shout at them again that they were finally dismissed once and for all, and had not the faintest hope of being taken back. Upon that they recommenced their din. Once more the teacher entered, but this time he no longer tried to reason with them, but drove them, apparently with his dreaded rod, out of the house.
Soon they appeared in front of the windows of the gymnasium, rapped on the panes and cried something, but their words could no longer be distinguished. They did not stay there long either, in the deep snow they could not be as active as their frenzy required. So they flew to the railings of the school garden and sprang on to the stone pediment, where, moreover, though only from a distance, they had a better view of the room; there they ran to and fro holding on to the railings, then remained