Under the Lilacs - Chapter 22

It was some days before the children were tired of talking over Ben's birthday party; for it was a great event in their small world; but, gradually, newer pleasures came to occupy their minds, and they began to plan the nutting frolics which always followed the early frosts. While waiting for Jack ¹ to open the chestnut ² burrs, they varied ³ the monotony of school life by a lively scrimmage long known as "the wood-pile fight.", ,The girls liked to play in the half-empty shed, and the boys, merely for the fun of teasing, declared that they should not, so blocked up the doorway ⁴ as fast as the girls cleared it. Seeing that the squabble was a merry one, and the exercise better for all than lounging in the sun or reading in school during recess ⁵, Teacher did not interfere ⁶, and the barrier rose and fell almost as regularly as the tide., ,It would be difficult to say which side worked the harder; for the boys went before school began to build up the barricade ⁷, and the girls stayed after lessons were over to pull down the last one made in afternoon recess. They had their play-time first; and, while the boys waited inside, they heard the shouts of the girls, the banging of the wood, and the final crash, as the well-packed pile went down. Then, as the lassies came in, rosy ⁸, breathless, and triumphant ⁹, the lads rushed out to man the breach ¹⁰, and labor ¹¹ gallantly ¹² till all was as tight as hard blows could make it., , ,When the party was safely over, Sam began to fall into his old way of tormenting ¹⁶ Ben by calling names, as it cost no exertion ¹⁷ to invent trying speeches, and slyly utter them when most likely to annoy. Ben bore it as well as he could; but fortune favored him at last, as it usually does the patient, and he was able to make his own terms with his tormentor ¹⁹., ,When the girls demolished ²⁰ the wood-pile, they performed a jubilee ²¹ chorus on combs, and tin kettles, played like tambourines ²²; the boys celebrated ²³ their victories with shrill ²⁴ whistles, and a drum accompaniment with fists on the shed walls. Billy brought his drum, and this was such an addition that Sam hunted up an old one of his little brother's, in order that he might join the drum corps ²⁵. He had no sticks, however, and, casting about in his mind for a good substitute for the genuine thing, bethought him of bulrushes., ,He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎 。,We have a chestnut tree in the bottom of our garden.我们的花园尽头有一棵栗树。