Page 31 - SpringBoard_ELD_Grade8_Flipbook

resolute: determined
slack: to diminish or fade away
aCTiViTY 1.3
continued
My Notes
interpret the Text Using Close reading
42 “Now, boy,” said the general quietly, “you are the heart of the army. Think of that. You’re the heart of the army. Listen, now.”
43 And, lying there, Joby listened. And the general spoke on.
44 If he, Joby, beat slow tomorrow, the heart would beat slow in the men. They
would lag by the wayside. They would drowse in the fields on their muskets. They would sleep for ever, after that, in those same fields—their hearts slowed by a drummer boy and stopped by enemy lead.
45 But if he beat a sure, steady, ever faster rhythm, then, then their knees would come up in a long line down over that hill, one knee after the other, like a wave on the ocean shore! Had he seen the ocean ever? Seen the waves rolling in like a well- ordered cavalry charge to the sand? Well, that was it that’s what he wanted, that’s what was needed! Joby was his right hand and his left. He gave the orders, but Joby set the pace!
46 So bring the right knee up and the right foot out and the left knee up and the left foot out. One following the other in good time, in brisk time. Move the blood up the body and made the head proud and the spine stiff and the jaw resolute. Focus the eye and set the teeth, flare the nostrils and tighten the hands, put steel armor all over the men, for blood moving fast in them does indeed make men feel as if they’d put on steel. He must keep at it, at it! Long and steady, steady and long! The men, even though shot or torn, those wounds got in hot blood—in blood he’d helped stir—would feel less pain. If their blood was cold, it would be more than slaughter, it would be murderous nightmare and pain best not told and no one to guess.
47 The general spoke and stopped, letting his breath slack off. Then after a moment, he said, “So there you are, that’s it. Will you do that, boy? Do you know now you’re general of the army when the general’s left behind?”
48 The boy nodded mutely.
49 “You’ll run them through for me then boy?”
50 “Yes, sir.”
51 “Good. And maybe, many nights from tonight, many years from now, when
you’re as old or far much older than me, when they ask you what you did in this awful time, you will tell them—one part humble and one part proud—‘I was the drummer boy at the battle of Owl Creek,’ or the Tennessee River, or maybe they’ll just name it after the church there. ‘I was the drummer boy at Shiloh.’ Who will ever hear those words and not know you, boy, or what you thought this night, or what you’ll think tomorrow or the next day when we must get up on our legs and move!”
52 The general stood up. “Well then ... Bless you, boy. Good night.”
53 “Good night, sir.” And tobacco, brass, boot polish, salt sweat and leather, the
man moved away through the grass.
54 Joby lay for a moment, staring but unable to see where the man had gone. He swallowed. He wiped his eyes. He cleared his throat. He settled himself. Then, at last, very slowly and firmly, he turned the drum so that it faced up toward the sky.
55 He lay next to it, his arm around it, feeling the tremor, the touch, the muted thunder as, all the rest of the April night in the year 1862, near the Tennessee River, not far from the Owl Creek, very close to the church named Shiloh, the peach blossoms fell on the drum.
8 SpringBoard® English Language Development grade 8
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