July 1862. From Mary.
I feel quite pert after the cool rain we had yesterday. I hope it isn’t as cold at night
up the Valley. Tell Beards he didn’t take all the rain away from here this time when he
headed back to camp, and he also left the cold air behind. I suppose I shouldn’t
complain about the rain, it was welcome after such a dry May and June. Beards also
left behind a bit of sadness, I confess. He came by to call, and because I told Ma about
our vow1 to be sweethearts, she left us alone in the parlor2 for an afternoon. I believe I
love him more with each passing week. You can tell him that he is sorely missed
around here.
Law, Tom, your jaw3 would drop if you could see the poverty of the merchants in
Staunton these days. Pa set off last week to get provisions, but there were none to be
had. Mr. Sampson’s market was shut tight, as were Mr. Wilson’s bakery, the shoe
stores, hardware and seed merchants, the American Hotel, and even all the taverns4.
Nary a crumb5 of sugar or coffee could be bought for all the gold in China! Prices for
flour have risen from six dollars a barrel last year up to as much as forty dollars, and
butter has risen from twenty cents a pound to as much as two dollars a pound. There
simply is no salt, not even for rich people.
Pa finished his first harvest last Monday. He had no help, but for young Jackie
Beard one day and old Mr. York, who must be in his seventies, the next two. He could
scarcely find time to be in the field because folks dragged one sack after another to the
mill. Farmers around here are not storing their grains but are having them ground
immediately after harvest. Pa says it’s because they want to take advantage of current
government prices.
But I believe they are convinced that if their grain is in sacks rather than a silo, it
can be better hid under floorboards and in attics6, safe from both armies’ soldiers. I
tell you, Tom, folks this year don’t want to give up their all for the Confederacy. The
summer’s terrible drought and relentless7 army requisitioning is causing men around
here to predict a sure famine. They say an agricultural catastrophe8 plagues the entire
Valley.
In the flatlands around Richmond, I’d marched alongside dry fields filled with stunted9 brown
corn stalks and topsoil spiraling upward in the slightest breeze. That’s where we camped and
fought that June and July. I’d witnessed the townspeople’s faces marked with fear that they’d
lose what was left of their crops when we marched through. But I had prayed that the Valley had
been spared. This letter proved my worst fears were true.
In her next letter, Mary told me that cannon10 reports were heard every day, that they came
more rapidly than she could write each word of her letter. That the booming kept rhythm with
every beat of her heart. She wrote:
It seems powerfully strange for violent noises to fill the house, while I sit as usual on
the library sofa, surrounded by familiar things like our childhood books and Ma’s
framed Currier and Ives prints. The morning sun shines just the same on the blue
Chinese carpet. Outdoors, it looks like any summer day. Ma’s fluffy11 pink and red roses
are in full bloom, and clusters of snow-white daisies and fever-few are near the end of
their season. Do you remember that the only machine sounds we used to hear were
those of the horse-drawn12 thresher with the swish, swish of the blades in the fields,
wagon13 wheels rumbling14 on the dirt road, and the hall clock ticking? Now, close by,
there is the unrelenting noise of cannons15 and artillery16.
At first, with no newspapers and only rumors17 to inform us, we had no idea how
close those weapons were. We worried sick we’d be overrun by Yankees or be struck
down by stray bullets whenever we went into the garden to fetch a potato. It’s taken us
a while to figure distance and to understand that cannon fire can be heard from battles
as far away as sixty miles because the mountains pass along the sound. When we can
bear it no longer, we lower the window sashes and swelter inside during the heat. To
preserve sanity18, the booming must be ignored, or we’ll all join poor Mrs. Calliston in
the lunatic asylum19.
I’d worried for days over Mary’s letters about the drought and hardships at home. Now, not
far from Manassas again, the boys in my company and I were also suffering from heat,
surrounded by tens of thousands of soldiers tramping ahead and behind us.
Grunting20 with effort behind a briar rosebush by the roadside, Sam tugged21 at his filthy22 canvas
pants. Then off came the one-piece cotton drawers that covered him from shoulder to mid-thigh,
and which were slung23 disdainfully aside. He quickly yanked the pants back on, but at least had
shed the extra layer underneath24. His shirt had been peeled off several miles back.
The August sun sizzled hot enough to boil a cup of Confederate rye coffee and pretty soon
gave rise to blisters25 across Sam’s muscular shoulders. His clothing blended into the other
drawers, shirts, handkerchiefs, and vests that littered the road and blanketed ditches with a
continuous strip of white. Jim Blue walked next to me bare-chested, but his shirt draped his head
like a biblical sheik of Arabia and partially26 shaded his back. A chorus of coughs and sneezes
peppered the air, caused by grit27 stirred up by boots on the road. Our meager28 water was hoarded29
in tin canteens drawn from a nearby caramel-colored creek30. Sweat blinded anyone without a
bandana or torn strip of shirting knotted across his forehead.
“When I took these things off a second ago, it felt good enough to do it again and tramp
naked down the road.” Sam grinned mischievously31 and fiddled32 with his top pants button again.
“These canvas pants are danged hot.”
“You do that, and Winchester women will faint at your feet. I hope you’ll spare a few for
your old comrades.” Tayloe wiggled shirtsleeves from his bare shoulders as he spoke33. Along the
route, women and children had come into their yards to cheer us on.
“Not a chance,” Sam said.
Beards’s complaints had grown fewer and weaker as the sun soared higher. “Tom, I cannot . .
. do you,” he mumbled34. For several minutes he had rambled35 in his talk, but a headache pounded
between my ears, and my vision swam. In my haze36, I couldn’t pay attention to anyone else.
“If you’re going to say something, for tarnation’s sake, make some sense,” I grumbled37.
Suddenly, he bent38 over double and spewed out the messy contents of his gut39. This seemed
different from Beards’s vomiting40 habit whenever battle was nigh. He stumbled and grabbed my
arm, panting. Then he crumpled41 at my feet. He lay there unmoving, his legs tucked under like
useless wings.
“Water! Does anyone have water to spare? A man is down with sunstroke here,” I hollered as
I stooped to raise his head above the parched42 road. The flesh on the back of his neck felt on fire,
and he was still as a corpse43. Beards had been in my life as long as I could remember, right up
through these worst of days. He couldn’t abandon me now. And I wasn’t the only one who
would mourn his passing. What would I tell Mary? My breath caught in my throat. With the last
of my canteen, I frantically44 sprinkled his head and slapped his reddened cheeks. His eyes
fluttered, and he shoved my hand away. Pushing himself up with his elbows, he sat without
support in the dust. Now that he was roused, Sam and I helped him stagger to a hospital wagon,
where he could travel sheltered by its tarp. We settled him on the boards with his back propped45
against the side. Wiping his forehead with his hand, in a weak voice he said, “I owe you, my
friend. I’ll not forget.” My heart near to burst with relief. Some boys had fallen, never to rise
again. Thank God, Beards wasn’t one of them. The wagon train gathered their prostrate46 bodies
and hauled them to the next campground where their gaseous47 remains48 would be buried before
they burst. Mary couldn’t have lost Beards like that, nor could I.
For two weeks, we had marched twenty-five miles a day as blood pounded unceasingly
through my ears. We marched even when the temperature must have soared above 100 degrees.
A rifle, ammunition49, a water canteen, and rations50 were all that was worth carrying. By the sides
of the road, foam-speckled horses sprawled51, done in by the sun. We hadn’t passed a creek or
pond for far too many hours. By nightfall, the army came upon a few houses with wells in their
yards, but with thousands of men jostling for a position to get water, there was little hope of
quenching52 one’s thirst. Now we were a day from the brutal53 battle of Second Manassas where
we’d find relief from the marching but not the infernal temperature. Those of us who survived
Nature, through dumb luck or precaution, eventually became hardened like a gallstone to such
discomfort54.
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收听单词发音
![收听单词发音](/template/default/tingnovel/images/play.gif)
1
vow
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n.誓(言),誓约;v.起誓,立誓 | |
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2
parlor
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n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅 | |
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3
jaw
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n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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4
taverns
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n.小旅馆,客栈,酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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5
crumb
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n.饼屑,面包屑,小量 | |
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6
attics
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n. 阁楼 | |
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7
relentless
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adj.残酷的,不留情的,无怜悯心的 | |
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8
catastrophe
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n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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9
stunted
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adj.矮小的;发育迟缓的 | |
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10
cannon
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n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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11
fluffy
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adj.有绒毛的,空洞的 | |
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12
drawn
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v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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13
wagon
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n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车 | |
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14
rumbling
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n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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15
cannons
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n.加农炮,大炮,火炮( cannon的名词复数 ) | |
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16
artillery
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n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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17
rumors
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n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷 | |
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18
sanity
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n.心智健全,神智正常,判断正确 | |
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19
asylum
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n.避难所,庇护所,避难 | |
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20
grunting
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咕哝的,呼噜的 | |
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21
tugged
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v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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22
filthy
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adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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23
slung
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抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 ); 吊挂; 遣送; 押往 | |
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24
underneath
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adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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25
blisters
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n.水疱( blister的名词复数 );水肿;气泡 | |
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26
partially
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adv.部分地,从某些方面讲 | |
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27
grit
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n.沙粒,决心,勇气;v.下定决心,咬紧牙关 | |
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28
meager
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adj.缺乏的,不足的,瘦的 | |
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29
hoarded
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v.积蓄并储藏(某物)( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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30
creek
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n.小溪,小河,小湾 | |
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31
mischievously
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adv.有害地;淘气地 | |
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32
fiddled
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v.伪造( fiddle的过去式和过去分词 );篡改;骗取;修理或稍作改动 | |
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33
spoke
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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 | |
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34
mumbled
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含糊地说某事,叽咕,咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
rambled
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(无目的地)漫游( ramble的过去式和过去分词 ); (喻)漫谈; 扯淡; 长篇大论 | |
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36
haze
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n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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37
grumbled
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抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 ); 发牢骚; 咕哝; 发哼声 | |
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38
bent
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n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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39
gut
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n.[pl.]胆量;内脏;adj.本能的;vt.取出内脏 | |
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40
vomiting
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吐 | |
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41
crumpled
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adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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42
parched
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adj.焦干的;极渴的;v.(使)焦干 | |
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43
corpse
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n.尸体,死尸 | |
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44
frantically
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ad.发狂地, 发疯地 | |
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45
propped
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支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
prostrate
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v.拜倒,平卧,衰竭;adj.拜倒的,平卧的,衰竭的 | |
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47
gaseous
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adj.气体的,气态的 | |
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48
remains
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n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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49
ammunition
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n.军火,弹药 | |
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50
rations
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定量( ration的名词复数 ); 配给量; 正常量; 合理的量 | |
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51
sprawled
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v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词);蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
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52
quenching
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淬火,熄 | |
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53
brutal
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adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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54
discomfort
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n.不舒服,不安,难过,困难,不方便 | |
参考例句: |
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