IX SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS AGAIN

 “Well, this is the way it happened.  We did the escort duty; then we came back and struck for the plain and put the Rangers¹ through a rousing drill—oh, for hours!  Then we sent them home under Brigadier-General Fanny Marsh²; then the Lieutenant-General and I went off on a gallop³ over the plains for about three hours, and were lazying along home in the middle of the afternoon, when we met Jimmy Slade, the drummer-boy, and he saluted⁴ and asked the Lieutenant-General if she had heard the news, and she said no, and he said:

 

“‘Buffalo⁵ Bill has been ambushed⁶ and badly shot this side of Clayton, and Thorndike the scout⁷, too; Bill couldn’t travel, but Thorndike could, and he brought the news, and Sergeant⁸ Wilkes and six men of Company B are gone, two hours ago, hotfoot, to get Bill.  And they say—’

 

“‘Go!’ she shouts to me—and I went.”

 

“Fast?”

 

“Don’t ask foolish questions.  It was an awful pace.  For four hours nothing happened, and not a word said, except that now and then she said, ‘Keep it up, Boy, keep it up, sweetheart; we’ll save him!’  I kept it up.  Well, when the dark shut down, in the rugged⁹ hills, that poor little chap had been tearing around in the saddle all day, and I noticed by the slack knee-pressure that she was tired and tottery¹⁰, and I got dreadfully afraid; but every time I tried to slow down and let her go to sleep, so I could stop, she hurried me up again; and so, sure enough, at last over she went!

 

 

 

“Ah, that was a fix to be in I for she lay there and didn’t stir, and what was I to do?  I couldn’t leave her to fetch help, on account of the wolves.  There was nothing to do but stand by.  It was dreadful.  I was afraid she was killed, poor little thing!  But she wasn’t.  She came to, by-and-by, and said, ‘Kiss me, Soldier,’ and those were blessed words.  I kissed her—often; I am used to that, and we like it.  But she didn’t get up, and I was worried.  She fondled my nose with her hand, and talked to me, and called me endearing names—which is her way—but she caressed¹¹ with the same hand all the time.  The other arm was broken, you see, but I didn’t know it, and she didn’t mention it.  She didn’t want to distress¹² me, you know.

 

“Soon the big gray wolves came, and hung around, and you could hear them snarl¹³, and snap at each other, but you couldn’t see anything of them except their eyes, which shone in the dark like sparks and stars.  The Lieutenant-General said, ‘If I had the Rocky Mountain Rangers here, we would make those creatures climb a tree.’  Then she made believe that the Rangers were in hearing, and put up her bugle¹⁴ and blew the ‘assembly’; and then, ‘boots and saddles’; then the ‘trot’; ‘gallop’; ‘charge!’  Then she blew the ‘retreat,’ and said, ‘That’s for you, you rebels; the Rangers don’t ever retreat!’

 

“The music frightened them away, but they were hungry, and kept coming back.  And of course they got bolder and bolder, which is their way.  It went on for an hour, then the tired child went to sleep, and it was pitiful to hear her moan and nestle, and I couldn’t do anything for her.  All the time I was laying for the wolves.  They are in my line; I have had experience.  At last the boldest one ventured within my lines, and I landed him among his friends with some of his skull¹⁵ still on him, and they did the rest.  In the next hour I got a couple more, and they went the way of the first one, down the throats of the detachment.  That satisfied the survivors¹⁶, and they went away and left us in peace.

 

“We hadn’t any more adventures, though I kept awake all night and was ready.  From midnight on the child got very restless, and out of her head, and moaned, and said, ‘Water, water—thirsty’; and now and then, ‘Kiss me, Soldier’; and sometimes she was in her fort and giving orders to her garrison¹⁷; and once she was in Spain, and thought her mother was with her.  People say a horse can’t cry; but they don’t know, because we cry inside.

 

“It was an hour after sunup that I heard the boys coming, and recognized the hoof-beats of Pomp and Cæsar and Jerry, old mates of mine; and a welcomer sound there couldn’t ever be.

 

Buffalo Bill was in a horse-litter, with his leg broken by a bullet, and Mongrel and Blake Haskins’s horse were doing the work.  Buffalo Bill and Thorndike had lolled both of those toughs.

 

“When they got to us, and Buffalo Bill saw the child lying there so white, he said, ‘My God!’ and the sound of his voice brought her to herself, and she gave a little cry of pleasure and struggled to get up, but couldn’t, and the soldiers gathered her up like the tenderest women, and their eyes were wet and they were not ashamed, when they saw her arm dangling¹⁸; and so were Buffalo Bill’s, and when they laid her in his arms he said, ‘My darling, how does this come?’ and she said, ‘We came to save you, but I was tired, and couldn’t keep awake, and fell off and hurt myself, and couldn’t get on again.’  ‘You came to save me, you dear little rat?  It was too lovely of you!’  ‘Yes, and Soldier stood by me, which you know he would, and protected me from the wolves; and if he got a chance he kicked the life out of some of them—for you know he would, BB.’  The sergeant said, ‘He laid out three of them, sir, and here’s the bones to show for it.’  ‘He’s a grand horse,’ said BB; ‘he’s the grandest horse that ever was! and has saved your life, Lieutenant-General Alison, and shall protect it the rest of his life—he’s yours for a kiss!’  He got it, along with a passion of delight, and he said, ‘You are feeling better now, little Spaniard—do you think you could blow the advance?’  She put up the bugle to do it, but he said wait a minute first.  Then he and the sergeant set her arm and put it in splints, she wincing¹⁹ but not whimpering; then we took up the march for home, and that’s the end of the tale; and I’m her horse.  Isn’t she a brick, Shekels?

 

“Brick?  She’s more than a brick, more than a thousand bricks—she’s a reptile²⁰!”

 

“It’s a compliment out of your heart, Shekels.  God bless you for it!”

该作者的其它作品
《Life on the Mississippi 生活在密西西比》
《The Adventures of Tom Sawyer汤姆.索亚历险记》
《The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝里·芬历险记》

1 rangers   

护林者( ranger的名词复数 )； 突击队员

参考例句：

• Do you know where the Rangers Stadium is? 你知道Rangers体育场在哪吗？ 来自超越目标英语 第3册
• Now I'm a Rangers' fan, so I like to be near the stadium. 现在我是Rangers的爱好者，所以我想离体育场近一点。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

2 marsh   

n.沼泽，湿地

参考例句：

• There are a lot of frogs in the marsh.沼泽里有许多青蛙。
• I made my way slowly out of the marsh.我缓慢地走出这片沼泽地。

3 gallop   

v./n.(马或骑马等)飞奔；飞速发展

参考例句：

• They are coming at a gallop towards us.他们正朝着我们飞跑过来。
• The horse slowed to a walk after its long gallop.那匹马跑了一大阵后慢下来缓步而行。

4 saluted   

v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂

参考例句：

• The sergeant stood to attention and saluted. 中士立正敬礼。
• He saluted his friends with a wave of the hand. 他挥手向他的朋友致意。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。

6 ambushed   

v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 )；埋伏着

参考例句：

• The general ambushed his troops in the dense woods. 将军把部队埋伏在浓密的树林里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The military vehicles were ambushed. 军车遭到伏击。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

8 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

9 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

10 tottery   

adj.蹒跚的，摇摇欲倒

参考例句：

11 caressed   

爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His fingers caressed the back of her neck. 他的手指抚摩着她的后颈。
• He caressed his wife lovingly. 他怜爱万分地抚摸着妻子。

12 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

13 snarl   

v.吼叫，怒骂，纠缠，混乱；n.混乱，缠结，咆哮

参考例句：

• At the seaside we could hear the snarl of the waves.在海边我们可以听见波涛的咆哮。
• The traffic was all in a snarl near the accident.事故发生处附近交通一片混乱。

14 bugle   

n.军号，号角，喇叭；v.吹号，吹号召集

参考例句：

• When he heard the bugle call, he caught up his gun and dashed out.他一听到军号声就抓起枪冲了出去。
• As the bugle sounded we ran to the sports ground and fell in.军号一响，我们就跑到运动场集合站队。

15 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

16 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

17 garrison   

n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防

参考例句：

• The troops came to the relief of the besieged garrison.军队来援救被围的守备军。
• The German was moving to stiffen up the garrison in Sicily.德军正在加强西西里守军之力量。

18 dangling   

悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口

参考例句：

• The tooth hung dangling by the bedpost, now. 结果，那颗牙就晃来晃去吊在床柱上了。
• The children sat on the high wall,their legs dangling. 孩子们坐在一堵高墙上，摇晃着他们的双腿。

19 wincing   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She switched on the light, wincing at the sudden brightness. 她打开了灯，突如其来的强烈光线刺得她不敢睜眼。
• "I will take anything," he said, relieved, and wincing under reproof. “我什么事都愿意做，"他说，松了一口气，缩着头等着挨骂。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

20 reptile   

n.爬行动物；两栖动物

参考例句：

• The frog is not a true reptile.青蛙并非真正的爬行动物。
• So you should not be surprised to see someone keep a reptile as a pet.所以，你不必惊奇有人养了一只爬行动物作为宠物。