85人教版高中英语第一册第十八课 A LITTL HERO

A group of Italian soldiers led by a captain were advancing slowly toward the position of the enemy. They were expecting to see in the distance some signs of the enemy. They arrived at a farmhouse, in front of which sat a small boy. The boy was cutting a branch of a tree with his knife to make a cane.
When the boy saw the soldiers, he stopped working on the branch, stood up, and took off his cap. He was a handsome boy with large, bright eyes and fair hair.
“What are you doing here?” asked the captain. “Why didn’t you leave with your family?”
“I don’t have any family,” said the boy. “I’m an orphan. I used to work for the family that lived here. They’ve gone, but I stayed in order to see the fighting.”
“Have you seen any Austrians pass by here?”
“Not within the last three days.”
The captain got off his horse, and went into the house. His head soon appeared out of one of the second storey windows, from where he could see nothing but trees. In front of the house was a tall tree, its top well above the tops of the other trees. The captain came out and asked the boy:
“Do you have good eyesight young man?”
“Me?” asked the boy. “I can see a sparrow two hundred paces away.”
“Do you think you could climb that tree and tell me whether you see anything of the Austrians in the distance?”
“Sure,” said the boy eagerly, jumping up, kicking off his shoes, and throwing aside his cap.
“How much do you want for that?” asked the captain.
“I don’t want anything,” said the boy, already starting to climb. “I would do anything for our soldiers.”
In a few minutes the boy was at the top of the tree.
“Look straight ahead,” cried the captain," and tell me what you see."
“Two men on horseback - nothing else.”
“How far away?”
“About a mile and a half. They’re standing still.”
“What else do you see?” asked the captain after a moment of silence.
The boy looked to the right. after a while he said:
“Near the cemetery, between the trees, there’s something shining, perhaps bayonets.”
“Do you see any soldiers?”
“No, if there are any, they must be hidden among the trees.”
Just then there was the sharp whistle of a bullet which passed near the boy.
“Get down!” said the captain.
Another bullet whistled by.
“They’re shooting at me,” said the boy. “but don’t worry. Let me tell you what’s to the left. Well, there’s a church and I think I see…”
A third bullet passed, and at almost the same moment the boy was seen to fall suddenly from the tree. He struck the ground heavily. Blood was trickling from his mouth. The captain ran to him and tore open the boy’s shirt. A bullet had passed through his chest on the left. The boy opened his eyes for a moment, looked at the captain, and then died.
“Poor boy!” said the captain over and over. He looked at the boy for a minute. He ordered a soldier to bring a national flag and covered the boy’s body with it, leaving only his face exposed. The captain collected the boy’s cap, shoes, knife, and the branch he had been cutting, and placed them near the boy’s body.
“We’ll send someone to pick him up,” said the captain. “He died like a soldier and we must bury him like a soldier.”
The captain and his group moved on, but the story of the little boy spread quickly. Later that afternoon other groups of soldiers moved up to the front. When they passed the place where the dead boy lay, each soldier saluted. Some of them placed flowers on the boy’s body. Soon it was covered with flowers. On the boy’s pale face there was a half-smile that seemed to suggest that he was happy to have given his life to his country.