at hugglestones this had not counted for a great deal , since most of its graduates never expected to have to do much more with a pen than sign their names ( a feat which most of them could manage after three or four years ) , but it had meant long mornings peacefully reading anything that took his fancy while around him the hulking front-row forwards who would one day be at least the deputy-leaders of the land learned how to hold a pen without crushing it .