“Could you see the whites of their eyes?" said the man, who was seated on a soap box.

“Nothing of the kind.," replied old Henry warmly.“Just a lot of figures running towards us, and I let go at where there appeared to be most. Bang!"

“Mr. Fleming:”said the grocer一his respectful voice expressed somehow the old man's exact social weight-' "Mr. Fleming. you never were frightened much in those battles, were you?"

The veteran (老兵) looked down and smiled. Observing his manner, the entire group laughed a little.“Well, I guess I was." he answered finally.“Pretty well scared. sometimes. Why. in my first battle, I thought the sky was falling down. I thought the world was coming to an end. You bet I was scared."

Everyone laughed. Perhaps it seemed strange and rather wonderful to them that a man should admit the thing. and in the tone of their laughter there was probably more admiration than if old Fleming had declared that he had always been a lion Moreover, they knew that he had ranked as an orderly sergeant (中士). and so their opinion of heroism was fixed. None, to be sure, knew how an orderly sergeant ranked. but then it was understood to be somewhere just shy of a major-general's stars. So, when old Henry admitted that he had been frightened, there was a laugh.

“The trouble was," said the old man,“I thought they were all shooting at me. Yes, sir, I thought every man in the other army was aiming at me in particular. and only me. And it seemed so unreasonable. you know. I wanted to explain to them what an almighty good fellow I was. because I thought then they might quit all trying to hit me. But I couldn't explain, and they kept on being unreasonable. Blimp! Blam! Bang! So. I ran!"

Two little triangles of wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. Evidently he appreciated some comedy in this storytelling. Down near his feet, however, little Jim, his grandson, was obviously horror-stricken. His hands were clasped nervously. and his eyes were wide with astonishment at this terrible scandal (丑闻), his most magnificent grandfather telling such a thing.

“That was at Chancellorsville. Of course, afterwards I got kind of used to it A man does. Lots of men, though, seem to feel all right from the start. I did. as soon as   I got on to it" as they say now, but at first I was pretty well scared. Now, there was young Jim Conklin, old Si Conklin's son- that used to keep the leather factory- you none of you recall him- -well, he went into it from the start just as if he was born to it. But with me it was different. I had to get used to it."

When little Jim walked with his grandfather. he was in the habit of skipping along on the stone pavement, in front of the three stores and the hotel of the town, and betting that he could avoid the cracks. But upon this day he walked calmly. with his hand gripping two of his grandfather's fingers. Sometimes he kicked abstractedly at dandelions that curved over the walk. Anyone could see that he was much troubled.

“Um," said the boy. with a strange lack of interest. He continued his reflections. Then finally he asked:“Grandpa- now- -was that true what you were telling those men?"

“What?" asked the grandfather. “What was I telling them?"

“Oh, about your running.

“Why. yes, that was true enough, Jimmie. It was my first fight, and there was an awful lot of noise, you know.'

Jimmie seemed a bit confused that this idol (偶像). of its own will, should be so weak. His stout boyish idealism was injured and then lapsed into a moody silence.

The tornado came without any sign—the sky was blue and the sun had been out. The first alert (警报) that my husband, Jimmy, 67, and I, 65,   got came around 9 p. m., from some scrolling text on the TV Jimmy was watching. He ran upstairs to find me in our third-floor bedroom, and we changed the channel to our local station of Pensacola, Florida.

No sooner had we found coverage of the tornado than it was on top of us. The bones of the house shook, and the power went out. The wind began to roar through the house. We had three flights of steps to move to the relative safety of the first floor. Because the closet down there is wedged (将……塞进) underneath a brick staircase, it seemed like the sturdiest (坚固的) place in our town house to wait things out.

I didn’t know how or if we would make it down the steps. It felt as if there were no floor underneath me as the wind lifted me off my feet. I gripped (紧抓) the banister (楼梯的扶手) and tried to move forwards, but this intense pressure held me in place. In those seconds of stillness, I could hear everything around me rattling (发出咔嗒咔嗒的声音).

As we reached the last flight of steps, our front door blew out. Shards of glass that looked like broken ice flew everywhere. Suddenly, a three-foot-long tree branch whipped through the door frame. It flew over our heads, missing us by inches. Had we been one step up, it would have impaled (刺穿) us. The back wall of the house followed suit and was tore off into the darkness outside.

Instantly I reached the closet, Jimmy pushed me down to the closet floor, but he couldn’t get inside himself because of the wind. I gripped Jimmy’s arm as the tornado sucked the door open and tried to bring Jimmy with it. My knees and scalp (头皮) were full of glass, but in that moment, I felt no pain. If I had let go, Jimmy would have flown right out and into the bay. “Hold on! Hold on!” he shouted. But there was nothing in this closet to hold on to.

All of a sudden, Jimmy lifted off his feet like people in tornadoes do in the movies. I thought he was gone. And then everything stopped. He landed on his feet. In those first quiet moments, I couldn’t believe it was over. Jimmy said he’d go outside to check. “No,” I said. “Don’t leave me.”

Our neighbour says the storm lasted four minutes. In that time, four of the twelve town houses in our unit were completely destroyed. Of the houses left standing, ours suffered the most damage. Amazingly, none of us were severely injured.

Everyone tries their best in life, and sometimes a few kind words of encouragement can help people realize that their efforts are not in vain (徒劳). I remember a time when I was in fifth grade, and I was a very shy girl.

There was a drawing competition at my school that day. As everyone started to use their creative ideas to draw, I was only trying to think of something creative that could express my thoughts and emotions. Lost in my own world, I was brought back to reality when my art teacher called my name from behind. She came to me and encouraged me, saying, “Don’t overthink it, just put whatever comes to your mind on the canvas (画布). Do your best, and you will do well.”

Taking her words of wisdom to heart, I started my painting. Time flew by, and soon the bell rang, signaling the end of the time limit. We all turned in our canvases for inspection (检查). The next day, the winners of the competition were announced in front of the whole school. To my surprise, I heard my name being called second prize. It was a bolt from the blue for me, as I had never dared to dream of winning any prize.

Later on, I expressed my gratitude to my art teacher for her words of encouragement and for believing in me. That day, I became aware of my talent and started painting more whenever I had free time. Sometimes, I think that if it weren’t for her words of encouragement, I may have never discovered the talent I have.

Overall, this experience taught me the importance of encouraging others and how a few kind words can make a significant impact on someone’s life.