CHAPTER VI—AMERICAN JOANS OF ARC

“A month and a half was long enough for us on the Cheman de Damns¹ front. We parteed ’bout March fifteenth or so and got on another one of them funny little trains—didn’t stay on long—only ’bout fifteen hours.

“Detrained at Chateau-Brienne and started hiking over the road to our rest-camp. We was due for a rest, also furloughs. But I ain’t seen neither of them things so far. That country down there sure was the darb for us. It was just turnin’ off kind of spring-like and warm, too. We were the first Americans to go through that section, and the people—honest, O. D., they must have thought that we were American Joans of Arc³. Everybody came rushin’ to the doors and waved to us. The mademoiselles threw us kisses by the bushel. I got so excited that I muffed most of ’em that came my way.

“After bein’ up in that mud-coated front country where you hardly ever saw human bein’s, just soldiers, and where all of the houses had holes in ’em and the gardens were all torn up by shells, it was great to get back where the fields was green and people smiled and said nice things. I was gettin’ to this French stuff ’bout that time and I could compree a little of what they said.

“Our first stop was at a little town called Dienville. We blew in with the band playin’ and everybody happy. The villagers gave us the hell of a fine welcome and made us feel to home toot sweet. Right after I put my horse on the picket-line and camouflaged⁴ my equipment I started lookin’ for something to monjay and a place to cushay. First store I hit was a baker⁵ shop—boulangerie, they say in Fransay. The shop was full of women and little girls. They was talkin’ a mile a minute. That’s the fastest thing they do in this country, you know, parley—and every few minutes I could hear ’em say ‘Américains—Américains.’

“Finally I asked ’bout monjayin’ and they told me where the restaurant was. I never had tried to get a chambre before, but I got parleyin’ ’bout a place to cushay, and a little girl ’bout twelve years old and pretty—listen to me, O. D., that child was the darb of a petite mademoiselle. She asked her mother how ’bout my stayin’ with them, or it sounded that way to me. Course I said in my foolish French, ‘Keskesay?’ which means, What did you say?

“The mademoiselle was a little timid⁶. Guess I’m kind of hard to look at, anyway. She got closer to her mother, but she didn’t hide them pretty blue eyes. Looked me straight in the face and said her mother, the madame, would fix me up on the cushay stuff. Then I got kind of brave myself and went over to her and her mother. The girl put her hand in mine toot sweet and said, ‘Comrade.’ I never was much for bein’ ’round children, but I grabbed⁷ her and threw her up and down like I have seen daddies do. She kissed me smack⁸ on the cheek and said her name was Louise.

“That little mademoiselle’s kiss was the first one I had in a long time, O. D. Sometimes I still get the taste of it, as I ’ain’t had another since. Louise and the madame was more than jauntee, which as I compree it means nice, or kind. They fed me dey zerfs, der lay—that’s eggs and milk—and beaucoup pom de tear fritz for every monjay. I cu-shayed in a real lee—Frog for bed—that night, and honest it took me near three hours to get asleep, the bed was so soft. Next mornin’ I fooled ’em and didn’t answer reveille—cushayed till ’bout nine bells and got up, shaved with real hot water, washed as far down my neck as my hand could go and sure felt fittin’ for anything.

“Louise had beat it to school, but the madame saved a big bowl of café-ooo-lay—O. D., if you ever drink a bowl of real French café-ooo-lay you’ll never be satisfied with that stuff they serve in Childs’ or the Waldorf. It’s coffee with beaucoup hot milk, and it sure is the darb. Along with that café-ooo-lay I had a hunk of regular du pan. Frog bread is bon when it’s made right—and some du burre—butter, you know. Madame kept parleyin’ somethin’ ’bout dey zerfs—which are eggs in American—but I told her that I’d wait till dinner to monjay the omelet.

“While I was gettin’ away with the petite dayjunay—as madame called what I was monjayin’—she told me that her marrieh, her husband, was a lieutenant⁹ in the Frog artillery—swasont kans—which means the same as our three-inch pieces. Showed me beaucoup pictures of the old man and lots of souvenirs. He’d been in the guerre three and a half years—wounded three times. I began thinkin’ that us Americans didn’t have so much kick comin’ bein’ as how we were about four years late in gettin’ in against the Kaiser.

“When Louise came home from school she took me out for a walk. Say, you ought to have seen the guys pike me off. ‘What you doin’, Jimmy, teachin’ kindergarten?’ lots of ’em asked me. I told ’em no, that she was my fiancée and was goin’ to partee to Amérique with me. Louise compreed that line and said, ‘Oui’ all the time.

“There was a band concert in the little square that afternoon, and, believe me, the Frogs sure enjoyed it. They hadn’t heard any music since the guerre started, except the church organ, I guess. I had a flock¹⁰ of little mademoiselles hangin’ on to me by that time, as Louise was mighty¹¹ popular with ’em all. Course, as luck would have it, I had a bar or two of chocolate in my jeans, and I handed it over to Louise and her little friends. Boy, they thought I was a regular Santa Claus after that.

“When we left Dienville two days later all the kids in the village was cryin’ because the Americans was parteein’. I sure got to hand it to those people in that place, they was the old darb for us. Course things has changed a good deal since then—we ain’t new to the Frogs any more and lots of ’em with stuff to sell have found out that we get a darn sight more frankers a month than the Frog army pays.

“We hiked ’bout five days or so, stoppin’ every night in some village and finally got to the area which was to be our rest-camp. Just got settled in the billets when we got an order to partee toot sweet. We was kinda sore, but most of us said, ‘Say la guerre,’ and let it go at that. Nobody knew what the hell it meant as we was miles from newspapers and telegraph wires, and never got any news of the guerre. That’s how we started the seventeen-day hike from down around Joinville straight up to the Toul front.

“That hike was one of the worst things we bucked¹² against durin’ this guerre. There wasn’t but two days on which the sun came out at all. It rained day and night. The roads was all mud and so slippery that the men and horses was slidin’ all over the place. There wasn’t no way to carry fresh rations¹³, so we monjayed ‘corn willy,’ black coffee, and hardtack seventeen days straight. The horses had a hell of a time, too, as there never was enough hay and oats for all of ’em to monjay at one time. Guess we covered ’bout twenty-two kilofloppers every day. Never got up later than three bells in the mornin’ and generally got to cushay around nerver. That’s nine o’clock in this country.

“When we hit a town at night we had to stretch a picket-line for the chevaux, then water and feed ’em. After that we could feed ourselves and hunt a chambre or hayloft to cushay. As a rule, the chambres was all for the officers when we got to ’em. We sure had a tough time hikin’ across this damn² country. Never did get warm the whole time. ’Bout that time my old feet began to get malade. Whenever you hear a Frog say malade you’ll know they’re talkin’ about bein’ sick. They was so cold all the time until they would swell¹⁴ up overnight and in the mornin’ you had a fat chance of gettin’ your shoes on, as those darn hobnails used to shrink up like a pair of white-flannel britches do after washin’ ’em. One mornin’ the old feet was so bad that I had to wear a pair of those wooden boats ’round. The doctors call feet like I had trench¹⁵ feet. I’ve had ’em ever since. Wear tens now; used to wear eights and a half back in civilian¹⁶ days.”

1 damns   

一点点，丝毫( damn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

2 damn   

int.该死，他妈的；vt.指责，贬斥，诅咒

参考例句：

• Damn this useless typewriter!这台破打字机真该死！
• I knew damn well what he was going to say.我非常清楚他要说什么。

3 arc   

n.弧形（物），弧，电弧，弧光

参考例句：

• The sun appears to move in an arc across the sky.太阳看起来在天空中以弧形运行。
• The rainbow described an arc in the dark sky.彩虹在昏暗的天空划出了一道圆弧。

4 camouflaged   

v.隐蔽( camouflage的过去式和过去分词 )；掩盖；伪装，掩饰

参考例句：

• We camouflaged in the bushes and no one saw us. 我们隐藏在灌木丛中没有被人发现。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They camouflaged in bushes. 他们隐蔽在灌木丛中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

6 timid   

adj.胆怯的，害羞的

参考例句：

• The rabbit is timid and suspicious.兔子胆小而多疑。
• He was timid about investing money.他不敢投资。

7 grabbed   

v.抢先，抢占( grab的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指匆忙地）取；攫取；（尤指自私、贪婪地）捞取

参考例句：

• He was grabbed by two men and frogmarched out of the hall. 他被两个男人紧抓双臂押出大厅。
• She grabbed the child's hand and ran. 她抓住孩子的手就跑。

8 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

9 lieutenant   

n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员

参考例句：

• He was promoted to be a lieutenant in the army.他被提升为陆军中尉。
• He prevailed on the lieutenant to send in a short note.他说动那个副官，递上了一张简短的便条进去。

10 flock   

n.羊群，一群，大量；vi.群集，聚集，成群

参考例句：

• A flock of customers were waiting for the store to open.一群顾客在等候着商店开门。
• A few sheep have been lost from the flock.羊群里少了几只羊。

11 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

12 bucked   

adj.快v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的过去式和过去分词 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• When he tried to ride the horse, it bucked wildly. 当他试图骑上这匹马时，它突然狂暴地跃了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The plane bucked a strong head wind. 飞机顶着强烈的逆风飞行。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 rations   

定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量

参考例句：

• They are provisioned with seven days' rations. 他们得到了7天的给养。
• The soldiers complained that they were getting short rations. 士兵们抱怨他们得到的配给不够数。

14 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

15 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

16 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。