The Big Fourth, Part 2

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.)