Butch was the fourth
person called on to read his paper. He walked to the front of the class with a
casual, confident stride, aware of his stirring presence. Butch was one of the best readers in the class
and had won many spelling competitions throughout Norwood Elementary School. He had a good speaking voice that was loud and
clear, and most of the students were eager to listen to what he had to say. “My report is a little different than the
other reports,” he said. “I took a
completely different view of what most people think about in war. I chose to
write about what it must have been like to be an animal in wartime!” The class began to shuffle their feet and move
around in their chairs in a nervous manner. “My Uncle Dan had a farm, and he used to plant
the lower forty acres next to the river. He had a mule named Midnight, because
he would sometimes pull a plow from morning till midnight. That old mule worked
six days a week dragging a plow behind him, turning up the soil in long
straight furrows. He continued to work that way until he died in the barn at
the age of twenty-two. When I looked at all of the ink drawings in the books
showing the war-time destruction of animal life on the farm, I couldn’t help
but feel what those animals must have thought about the sacrifice they had
dedicated to mankind. Their only request in their life was a little bit of
food, shelter, and perhaps a token of love by a kind word, a scratch behind the
ear, or a pat on the back. Throughout the battle scenes depicted by an artist’s
sketch pad, the black-and-white images were a vivid contrast of emotion that
was graphically portrayed in each scene. Too many pages had sketches with dead
animals that had been slaughtered in their cages or in their pens. Pigs, cows,
chickens and horses lay in heaps on the battlefields. Some of the animals were
killed by bullets or cannon fire or just plain starved to death. Many were
bloated and distorted out of shape, so they were unrecognizable. They died in a
position that was in proportion to their pain and suffering – without any
dignity. Some had their legs sticking straight up in the air like a stuffed
toy. There were multiple objects that had pierced their body from splintered
trees, boards, and other objects that could be propelled by an explosion. I
could only imagine the stench that saturated the area. Throughout the area, it
must have been a lingering smell that you couldn’t wash away from your skin or
your clothes. I thought about all the farm animals that had been needlessly
slaughtered – animals like those which had given me so much pleasure in my life
throughout the years. I thought about their loyalty, devotion, and willingness
to accept the consequences of risks put upon them by their masters. In my
mind’s eye I could still see my spotted hound dog that had accompanied me on so
many hunting trips through the woods, and how he protected me with his barks
whenever he thought danger was near. I thought about how he enjoyed my company
and showed his appreciation of his love even though I was away from the farm
for less than an hour! He would overwhelm me with his love and his joy when
seeing me again, until it was almost embarrassing to have him make such a fuss
over me each time we met. I would now like to conclude my report,” said Butch
as he looked all around the classroom. “This
report is a reflection of my feelings and thoughts of what it must have been
like for the animal kingdom to experience the tragedy of men killing and
destroying everything around them. War not only kills people and animals, but
it does massive destruction to all forms of wildlife and nature. Some of these
things we don’t even think about, like the birds, butterflies, and flowers that
are killed. Trees that are hundreds of years old are needlessly destroyed by
war. Survivors are left homeless and
without a livelihood as their houses, farms, and businesses are destroyed. The
big question is, ‘When will man doubt the validity of such actions and see the
consequences of his deeds!’ This concludes my report.”
There were many tears
throughout the classroom, and Ms. Smith thought to herself.” How profound is
the wisdom of a child!” Lester was the fifth and last student of the day to
give a report. Lester was the smartest boy in the school and was known for his
large vocabulary. Every year, as far back as anybody could remember, Lester had
always won the contest for the most books read by a student in a year. In the
third grade he won a silver dollar for reading over 300 books. He could tell
you the longest word in the dictionary – “antidisestablishmentarianism” – and
spell the word correctly and even tell you what it meant. He also scored the
highest in the school on all kinds of math tests. To say that Lester was a good
student was putting it mildly. When Lester approached the front of the class he
knew that he was in control of the situation. It didn’t bother him if he used
words that his classmates didn’t understand; he figured they could look them up
in the dictionary if they were so inclined.
“My report,” said
Lester, “is mostly about the ballistic capabilities of weapons used in the
Revolutionary War. It also describes the hardships, lack of supplies, and
scarcity of good equipment that handicapped the Continental Army. There were
basically two types of rifles used by the minutemen in the Revolutionary War.
There was the musket that had a smoothbore and was not very accurate at more
than 100 yards. The other was the long rifle which got its name from the grooves
inside the barrel. The grooves were called rifling because they would spiral
the bullet in its flight, making it a lot more accurate at a longer distance.
Pistols were used mostly by officers for close range combat. There were two
weapons that were mostly feared by both sides in the battle. Both were very
deadly in the eyes of the soldier. The most feared was the cannon. It was a
large heavy weapon that had to be moved around on wheels. It could be fired at
long ranges and did devastating damage to men, animals, and structural
dwellings. Because of the cannon’s great weight, it had to be maneuvered by many
men or pulled into place by a team of horses or mules. The next most- feared
weapon was the bayonet. It was fixed to the front of the rifle and used when
the soldiers ran out of ammunition for hand-to-hand combat. It has been
reported that more soldiers were killed with the bayonet than by any other
weapon in that war. Of course the men also used swords, sabers, knives,
tomahawks, and spears. Most people cannot really appreciate or understand the
conditions under which the minutemen fought during the war,” continued Lester. “Soldiers fought under many adverse
conditions, starting with lack of rations involving food and water. He was
ill-equipped to contend with the weather in the summer as well as in winter.
Many of the men fought without wearing any shoes and could be tracked like an
animal by the bloody footprints left in the snow. Supplies like tents, blankets
and personal hygiene supplies were scarce. When a soldier was wounded or came
down with some kind of disease, he was often treated in a facility that made
his wounds or disease more life threatening, and he usually died there. It is
also interesting to note that after surviving all these conditions and hardships,
there were very few minutemen who deserted their post, the battle, or the war!
After General Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington, the general feeling
of the people at the time was that the war was over, and there was no need to
supply the Continental Army with additional equipment. That posed a challenge
for the future of national defense.”
The classroom looked
pleased with Lester’s report. However, they
were glad the reports were over for the day. Ms. Smith called for a recess break, and the
students went happily about their business, looking forward to playing in the
warm sunshine outside. The reports of
the Revolutionary War were soon forgotten along with all the atrocities of war,
as the students focused on fun.
The five boys’ reports
were all posted on the bulletin board in front of the principal’s office on the
Honor Board at Norwood Elementary School. Each report had a big “A+” marked with bright
red ink at the top right-hand corner of the page, under the name of each author.
Almost everybody in the school read or
looked over the reports. It didn’t take
long for all five boys to become celebrities throughout the school. As the year went by, the fabulous five
continued to be celebrities, both in the classroom and out on the playground. The school had athletic contests with other schools
from the surrounding areas. With the
help of the fabulous five, Norwood Elementary School won trophies in ragtag
football, softball, and basketball. Before
long, the local newspaper did an article in the paper about “Achievements of
Norwood Elementary School.” The local
community had a banquet at the school for all the achievements and awards the
school had won throughout the year.
When school had finally
ended for the year, the boys were beginning to prepare for summer vacation. The last big event of the summer was the
Fourth of July picnic. Each year the
picnic was held in the same place to celebrate the Fourth of July. There would be dazzling fireworks, food, and
games; participating would be the same people that were there last year and the
year before. “I wonder if the dry-cell
batteries on our shortwave radio still work,” asked Lester. “What do you have in mind?” asked Butch. “Oh, I was just wondering what the little old Lady
was up to,” said Lester. “We could buy
some new dry-cell batteries and see if we could pick up some of her
broadcasting frequencies on our shortwave radio set.” replied Robert. So the boys went to the hardware store and
bought two brand new dry-cell batteries to replace the old ones. The boys were getting a little bored from
being out of school and could hardly wait for the Fourth of July fireworks to
begin. It was a chance to see all of
their old schoolmates again and talk about old times. Robert said, “I can hardly wait to see and
talk to Karen at the picnic while watching the fireworks.” The rest of the boys started laughing. “She sure is pretty,” said Allan. “Do you
remember when Claudia had a birthday party?” asked Allan. “I sure do,” said Butch. “There was Claudia, Karen, Judy, Phoebe, and
Barbara at the party.” “Yeah, and we all
played games of post office, spin the bottle and seven minutes in heaven,”
recalled Butch. “Boy, that was a great
birthday party,” said Butch, smiling with a look of satisfaction on his face. “Maybe we can talk the girls into playing a
couple of those games with us again at the fireworks display,” said Butch with
a romantic sound in his voice. “Let’s go
over to the tree Fort and hook up the new dry-cell batteries to our shortwave
radio set. I have a hunch we might be able to pick up some important news.” said
Butch. “Oh, you’re just looking for some
excitement,” said Lester in a humorous way. When everything was hooked up properly
including the telescope, the boys scanned the horizon with their binoculars. They had been looking through their binoculars
for a while, when the first star came out for the evening. A faint voice was coming through the radio. “Turn up the volume,” said Lester. When the radio was adjusted, and the voice
became louder and clearer, the boys gathered around to hear what was talked about. Admiral was saying something about landing in
the Meadows and doing some exploratory investigation of the human anatomy. “We’ll come in and land in visual mode so the
boys will be able to see us as well as hear us.” “Sir, we have made radio contact. Shall we
begin crypto-code procedures?” he asked. “Yes, give them enough information to keep
their interest aroused and then switch over to mute, using light-interpretation
codes. Remember we only need one species sample of each gender for our
anatomical research facilitator to analyze the genetic makeup of the DNA and
the amino acids makeup of the Homo sapiens that we cloned several thousand
years ago. I want to study the insertion we made into the DNA code. I question whether
it was enough of a genetic boost to enhance their cognitive learning
capabilities for speech and higher levels of thought. We may want to intervene
with another code change in the DNA molecule structure that will give them the
capability of dual thinking on both sides of their brain. This higher order of
thinking would allow them to read a book or engage in conversation and do
mathematical equations at the same time. It would also be to their advantage if
they were able to become ambidextrous to help them complete several tasks at
the same time with either or both hands. You may proceed with the necessary
experimental steps to give us the results that we are searching for, and start
the project immediately using the nanostep procedures!”
(Part Two of the
novella by George F. Kohn, author of Holiday Favorites series available on
Amazon.com)
For the rest of the
story, order your copy of The Big Fourth, published for Kindle
e-readers and paperback. Amazon search: Holiday Favorites by George F.
Kohn.)
