CHAPTER VIII FIAM GOES TO THE WAR

Fiam had been with me about a month when I was ordered to go to the war.

You know, this was just the time when a great war had broken out between Japan and another empire, and I was ordered to go out and describe what I saw there. While writing up the important events that sent two armies to the front I couldn’t stop to narrate¹ the adventures of my little friend, and so I never put a word about Fiam in any of my writings. Besides, grown people are so incredulous!

The war took place in a part of China called Manchuria. In order to get there you have first to travel by railroad to a seaport², then on a ship to China, then on horseback or afoot, crossing plains and mountains for about a hundred miles, and so to the field of battle.

In telling his story Fiam had shown so much fear of war that I hadn’t dared to tell him where we were going. He fairly flooded me with questions.

[70]

“Why do we travel so much?” he asked me one day in the train when I had put him up on my collar so that he could see the country out of the window. I made him look at it well so that he could give me a description of it, as, in fact, he did.

“We are traveling to amuse ourselves,” I replied.

“Beautiful amusement,” he grumbled³, “to be carried by this monster spitting out smoke. It seems to me like going back to that great house where I was split⁴ up and cut to pieces. Look up there,” he added after a few moments. “What lovely country! See the roof of that temple through the trees, and that wonderful field of flowers. Let us stop here.”

“We can’t.”

“Why not, if we are traveling to amuse ourselves?”

[71]

“Yes, but the amusement will come further on.”

Fiam gave a soft whistle—it was his way of sighing. Then he crept down on my shirt to find the silk waterfall and rest a while in a fold; but he couldn’t find any tie. I was wearing a kind of uniform similar to that of the soldiers.

“Why are you dressed this way?” he asked in a surprised tone⁵, tapping me on my chin.

“It is the fashion in my country.”

He whistled again, and going down from button to button he reached my knees.

“Why do you wear these great boots?” he said, looking down at my feet, stretching himself out cautiously⁶ as if he were an Alpine⁷ climber hanging over a precipice⁸.

“It is the fashion in my country.”

1 narrate   

v.讲，叙述

参考例句：

• They each narrate their own tale but are all inextricably linked together.她们各自讲述自己的故事，却又不可避免地联系在一起。
• He once holds the tear to narrate a such story to mine.他曾经含着泪给我讲述了这样的一个故事。

2 seaport   

n.海港，港口，港市

参考例句：

• Ostend is the most important seaport in Belgium.奥斯坦德是比利时最重要的海港。
• A seaport where ships can take on supplies of coal.轮船能够补充煤炭的海港。

3 grumbled   

抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声

参考例句：

• He grumbled at the low pay offered to him. 他抱怨给他的工资低。
• The heat was sweltering, and the men grumbled fiercely over their work. 天热得让人发昏，水手们边干活边发着牢骚。

4 split   

n.劈开，裂片，裂口；adj.分散的；v.分离，分开，劈开

参考例句：

• Who told you that Mary and I had split up?谁告诉你玛丽和我已经离婚了？
• The teacher split the class up into six groups.老师把班级分成6个小组。

5 tone   

n.语气，音调，气度，色调；vt.（up）增强

参考例句：

• There was a tone of mockery in his voice.他说话的语气含有嘲笑的意味。
• Holmes used an informal,chatty tone in his essays.霍姆斯在文章中语气轻松随便。

6 cautiously   

adv.小心地，谨慎地；小心翼翼；翼翼

参考例句：

• She walked cautiously up the drive towards the door. 她小心翼翼地沿着车道向门口走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 alpine   

adj.高山的；n.高山植物

参考例句：

• Alpine flowers are abundant there.那里有很多高山地带的花。
• Its main attractions are alpine lakes and waterfalls .它以高山湖泊和瀑布群为主要特色。

8 precipice   

n.悬崖，危急的处境

参考例句：

• The hut hung half over the edge of the precipice.那间小屋有一半悬在峭壁边上。
• A slight carelessness on this precipice could cost a man his life.在这悬崖上稍一疏忽就会使人丧生。