Just as the sun fell behind the green hills of Verdun and the shadows of night began to fill the valleys a long column of American artillery6 started rolling toward the lines of the St. Mihiel sector7. Jimmy McGee and William G. Preston, alias8 O. D., loaded down under their equipment and carrying canes9, followed behind Betsy, the third piece of Battery C, humming the chorus of “Where Do We Go from Here, Boys?”
It was two o’clock in the morning when the regiment reached its rendezvous10 in a wooded valley near Rupt-en-Woevre. The sky had become clouded and the early morning was jet black.
“Guess we’ll get soaked, O. D.,” prophesied11 Jimmy when they halted and got a chance to observe the weather conditions.
“Will we stay here now?” asked O. D.
“Oui. Might just as well scare up a place to cushay. Wait here; I’ll look ’round.”
A little while later Jimmy returned with the news that there was nothing to do but put the pup tent up again and sleep on the ground.
“There’s one barrack here, but the First Battalion4 guys grabbed that as they got here first,” he explained.
Jimmy and O. D. put the tent up on the slope of a hill that formed the eastern side of the valley in which the horses and matériel of the entire regiment were hidden.
O. D. heard, in a sort of indifferent manner, the growl12 of big guns that seemed very near. He was startled once or twice by the crash of bombs and the anti-air-craft guns. But he was too tired to lend ears and thoughts to such things on his first night at the front, for the regiment was only a few kilometers from the first lines. O. D. fell asleep immediately and didn’t wake until three hours later when a downpour of rain splashed him from head to foot.
The wind that accompanied the rain swept the tent away time and time again. Everything that Jimmy and O. D. owned got soaked. The earth beneath them turned into crawling slime. Finally, seeing the impossibility of keeping the tent up, Jimmy told his friend to pull his shelter-half over him, head and all. Jimmy did likewise with his shelter-half and blankets. The two boys, wrapped in canvas and blankets, lay in the deluge13 like two muffled14 mummies, trying to sleep.
Instead of moving into position at once the regiment made at least fifty final preparations to do so, only to be ordered to remain in the valley for further orders.
Four days passed. Rain fell incessantly15. The bottom of the valley became as slippery as glass. Men bogged16 up to their knees in mud. There were no boots. The mess was a succession of “corned willy,” hardtack, and sugarless coffee meals.
At last, when every man and officer had reached the point of absolute disgust, the guns were dragged out of their mud-holes and hauled by horse and man power to the positions from which they were scheduled to launch their part of the drive.
Passing through the shell-torn village of Rupt-en-Woevre, the Second Battalion, of which Jimmy’s battery was a part, swerved17 off the main road and followed a woods trail that seemed to lead straight into the noises and strange, mysterious lights of the front.
A gun barked out, not forty feet from the road. O. D. looked to Jimmy.
“Are we at the front now Jimmy?” he asked in a whisper.
“Don’t know myself. Guess there’s a battery in the woods near here. We’ll be there soon now.”
The firing was not very heavy that night. Occasionally a big gun spoke18 or the staccato voices of machine-guns stabbed the night air intermittently19. Flares20 and rockets went up frequently, causing the darkness of the woods that bordered the road to accentuate21. O. D. owned some strange, indescribable feelings at times, but he could not identify any of them as the sensations which he had expected to experience upon his first intimacy22 with the things of the front.
The column halted at a crossroad. Orders to dismount came quickly and were repeated down the line of guns in ordinary tones. Before O. D. had a chance to ask what was going on platoon commanders had issued instructions for the piece teams to haul the guns into certain positions nearby.
“Well, we’re here. Now for the business,” declared Jimmy.
“You mean we are at the front,” gasped23 O. D., incredulously. “I thought—”
“Sure, we all thought the same thing when we came up the first time. Looked for signposts sayin’, ‘This is the front,’ or a bunch of Germans tryin’ to get us. Just like that No-Man’s-Land stuff. I’d heard so much about that place before comin’ to France that I thought it would be as easy to find as a piece of choice real estate. Kinda expected that it would be a square field, or somethin’ like that, between two story-book trenches24. First No Man’s Land I ran into was in the middle of a village. Graveyard25 and church made most of it. The front’s built on the same idea.”
Jimmy selected a spot near the third piece and arranged a place for himself and O. D. Before O. D. fell asleep he mentioned that he wanted to write some letters to his mother and Mary.
At the sound of Mary’s name Jimmy instinctively26 ran his hand over his breast pocket to see if the picture was still there. It was.
“You can write to-morrow, O. D.”
“I can?” said O. D. “I thought it would be pretty hard to get a chance to write at the front.”
“That’s what most of the guys spend their time doin’ when there ain’t no firin’ or work,” assured Jimmy.
“Well, good night, old man.”
“Bon swoir, O. D.”
The mention of Mary made Jimmy forget about sleeping. Since the night that he had spent in the French house with O. D. he had been day-dreaming whenever the chance to do so came. He wondered if Mary was in love with somebody back in America or in France. That idea disquieted27 him a great deal, but judging from O. D.’s conversations, he felt at liberty to hope that her heart was still free.
When he was sure that O. D. was sound asleep Jimmy lit a cigarette and took Mary’s picture out of his pocket. By drawing hard on the cigarette he caused a fire glow that was enough to enable him to catch glimpses of her face.
“Gosh! She’s a pretty, slender somebody,” mused28 the Yank to himself. “Bet she’s as sweet as she looks. It’ll be great gettin’ letters from her. If I make this old guerre I’m sure goin’ to know Mary O. D. But I’m a nut. What business have I got thinkin’ that she’ll even look at a bum29 like me? I’d disgrace her most likely in public, ’specially at a dinnertable, as I’d forget and use the old knife. Got to put the brakes on this cussin’ stuff, too. I can imagine her if I said ‘damn’ in front of her. I’d be fineed toot sweet.” Jimmy put the picture away and puffed30 on while his dreams mingled31 with his blue cigarette smoke.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
rescinding
|
|
| v.废除，取消( rescind的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
accomplished
|
|
| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
regiment
|
|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
battalion
|
|
| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
battalions
|
|
| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
artillery
|
|
| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
sector
|
|
| n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
alias
|
|
| n.化名；别名；adv.又名 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
canes
|
|
| n.（某些植物，如竹或甘蔗的）茎( cane的名词复数 )；（用于制作家具等的）竹竿；竹杖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
rendezvous
|
|
| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
prophesied
|
|
| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
growl
|
|
| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
deluge
|
|
| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
muffled
|
|
| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
incessantly
|
|
| ad.不停地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
bogged
|
|
| adj.陷于泥沼的v.（使）陷入泥沼， （使）陷入困境( bog的过去式和过去分词 )；妨碍，阻碍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
swerved
|
|
| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
intermittently
|
|
| adv.间歇地；断断续续 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
flares
|
|
| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
accentuate
|
|
| v.着重，强调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
intimacy
|
|
| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
gasped
|
|
| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
trenches
|
|
| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
graveyard
|
|
| n.坟场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
instinctively
|
|
| adv.本能地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
disquieted
|
|
| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bum
|
|
| n.臀部；流浪汉，乞丐；vt.乞求，乞讨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
puffed
|
|
| adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
mingled
|
|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |