Chapter Twenty-Two THE BATTLE

 Orders had been given to attack the wild men in the morning and most of the Teenie Weenie soldiers slept very little during the night. At daylight a thimbleful of hot cocoa and a supply of bread was brought into the front trenches¹ and while the little soldiers ate, the artillery² kept up a heavy fire on the wild men’s fort.

At last the order was given to charge and the excited Teenie Weenies climbed out of their trenches and dashed for the fort.

Although the soldiers’ tiny knees knocked together and their teeth chattered³ with fright, they went into battle with great eagerness, cheered by the voices of several meadow mice and bugs⁴, who stood out of range of the wild men’s arrows.

 

It was a great victory. Probably the history of the battle can be better told by one who took part in it, so we shall hear the story from a letter written by Mr. Lover to his wife immediately after the battle. The tiny letter was written on a piece of very thin birch bark, about half the size of a postage stamp, but if you could see it under a powerful microscope you would read it, word for word, just as it appears on this page.

My dear Bab:

As the Indian is carrying the official news of the battle back to Shoehurst, you will know before you open this letter that we have won. It was wonderful and I will tell you all about it from the very first. The wild men’s fort, which was made of strong sticks, lay in a narrow path guarding the only open road to the village, where the Lady of Fashion and Poet are held prisoners. In order to get to the village we had to capture the fort. We heard the night before that we were to storm the fort in the morning and believe me, we didn’t sleep much; that is, I didn’t. I was as nervous as a cat in a dog house.

Early in the morning the aviator⁵ flew over the fort and dropped pepper bombs. These bombs are made out of red pepper tied up in thin pieces of tissue paper and when they hit the ground they break and scatter⁶ the pepper all around. While the wild men were sneezing from the effects of the pepper, the artillery opened up and sent a lot of shot into the fort.

Next, a big mine we had made under the fort was exploded. There were two big firecrackers in it and, say, you ought to have seen the sticks fly up in the air when that mine went off! Right after the mine explosion we were ordered to charge and we jumped out of the trenches and started on the run for the fort.

 

The Teenie Weenie Army Drives the Wild Men from their WRECKED⁷ FORT.—Chapter Twenty-two.

We were almost halfway⁸ there when the Sailor, who was carrying the flag, dropped with an arrow in his chest. The Dunce caught up the fallen flag and putting his hat on top of the staff, he yelled for us to follow. Everybody cheered, for we didn’t think the Dunce had enough nerve to do such a brave thing.

The fort was badly wrecked by the explosion, so it wasn’t hard to climb over it to get at the wild men. Most of the Saboes were so scared they never tried to fight, but a few of them stood their ground. They were quickly subdued⁹, however. We captured fourteen men; five of them are wounded, but the Doctor has them in the hospital and he’ll fix them up all right.

Four of our men were wounded, but the Sailor is the only one who was badly hurt. The Doctor says that he will pull through all right.

We wanted to attack the wild men’s village, but the General wouldn’t let us. He says we have got to take care of the wounded and make our lines safe before we can go farther. Some of the men seem to think that there will be very little fight left in the wild men, for they were pretty well scared by our attack. The Scotchman and I are doing guard duty; we have to guard the prisoners. We are using an old bottle for a prison and it certainly makes a good one; if we keep on getting prisoners we’ll soon have a bottleful.

I do hope the General follows up the victory and goes right after these wild men, so we can end this war, for I want to get home to you and the children.

Well, I’ll have to stop now as the Indian is about ready to start for Shoehurst. Tell the twins I have a nice string of blackberry seed beads¹⁰ for each of them and give them each a kiss for me.

Affectionately,

Your Husband.

P. S.: The Cook and the Chinaman have just brought up a pot of cocoa and four hot beans! Hurrah¹¹! we’re going to have a feast.

Hubby.

1 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

2 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

3 chattered   

（人）喋喋不休( chatter的过去式 )； 唠叨； （牙齿）打战； （机器）震颤

参考例句：

• They chattered away happily for a while. 他们高兴地闲扯了一会儿。
• We chattered like two teenagers. 我们聊着天，像两个十多岁的孩子。

4 bugs   

adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误

参考例句：

• All programs have bugs and need endless refinement. 所有的程序都有漏洞，都需要不断改进。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 aviator   

n.飞行家，飞行员

参考例句：

• The young aviator bragged of his exploits in the sky.那名年轻的飞行员吹嘘他在空中飞行的英勇事迹。
• Hundreds of admirers besieged the famous aviator.数百名爱慕者围困那个著名飞行员。

6 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

7 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

8 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

9 subdued   

adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He seemed a bit subdued to me. 我觉得他当时有点闷闷不乐。
• I felt strangely subdued when it was all over. 一切都结束的时候，我却有一种奇怪的压抑感。

10 beads   

n.（空心）小珠子( bead的名词复数 )；水珠；珠子项链

参考例句：

• a necklace of wooden beads 一条木珠项链
• Beads of perspiration stood out on his forehead. 他的前额上挂着汗珠。

11 hurrah   

int.好哇，万岁，乌拉

参考例句：

• We hurrah when we see the soldiers go by.我们看到士兵经过时向他们欢呼。
• The assistants raised a formidable hurrah.助手们发出了一片震天的欢呼声。