【英文原著类】boyhood in norway(挪威孩提).pdf

BOYHOOD IN NORWAY
BOYHOOD IN
NORWAY
STORIES OF BOY-LIFE IN THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT
SUN
HJALMAR HJORTH BOYESEN
1
BOYHOOD IN NORWAY
THE BATTLE OF THE RAFTS
I. THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR
A deadly feud was raging among the boys of Numedale. The East-
Siders hated the West-Siders, and thrashed them when they got a chance;
and the West-Siders, when fortune favored them, returned pliment
with interest. It required considerable courage for a boy to venture,
unattended rades, into the territory of the enemy; and no one took
the risk unless dire pelled him.
The hostile parties had played at war so long that they had forgotten
that it was play; and now were actually inspired with the emotions which
they had formerly simulated. Under the leadership of their chieftains,
Halvor Reitan and Viggo Hook, they held councils of war, sent out scouts,
planned midnight surprises, and fought at times mimic battles. I say mimic
battles, because no one was ever killed; but broken heads and bruised
limbs many a one carried home from these engagements, and unhappily
one boy, named Peer Oestmo, had an eye put out by an arrow.
It was a great consolation to him that he became a hero to all the West-
Siders and was promoted for bravery in the field to the rank of first
lieutenant. He had the sympathy of all panions in arms and got
innumerable bites of apples, cancelled postage stamps, and colored
advertising-labels in token of their esteem.
But the principal effect of this first serious wound was to invest the
war with a breathless and all-absorbing interest. It was now no longer
"make believe," but deadly earnest. Blood had flowed; insults had been
exchanged in due order, and offended honor cried for vengeance.
It was fortunate that the river divided the West-Siders from the East-
Siders, or it would have been difficult to tell what might have happened.
Viggo Hook, the West-Side general, was a handsome, high-spirited lad of
fifteen, who was the last per