{"product_id":"2940012317605","title":"The Red Badge of Courage","description":"Chapter 1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs\u003cbr\u003erevealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting.  As the landscape\u003cbr\u003echanged from brown to green, the army awakened, and began to tremble\u003cbr\u003ewith eagerness at the noise of rumors.  It cast its eyes upon the\u003cbr\u003eroads, which were growing from long troughs of liquid mud to proper\u003cbr\u003ethoroughfares.  A river, amber-tinted in the shadow of its banks,\u003cbr\u003epurled at the army's feet; and at night, when the stream had become of\u003cbr\u003ea sorrowful blackness, one could see across it the red, eyelike gleam\u003cbr\u003eof hostile camp-fires set in the low brows of distant hills.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOnce a certain tall soldier developed virtues and went resolutely to\u003cbr\u003ewash a shirt.  He came flying back from a brook waving his garment\u003cbr\u003ebannerlike.  He was swelled with a tale he had heard from a reliable\u003cbr\u003efriend, who had heard it from a truthful cavalryman, who had heard it\u003cbr\u003efrom his trustworthy brother, one of the orderlies at division\u003cbr\u003eheadquarters.  He adopted the important air of a herald in red and gold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We're goin' t' move t'morrah--sure,\" he said pompously to a group in\u003cbr\u003ethe company street.  \"We're goin' 'way up the river, cut across, an'\u003cbr\u003ecome around in behint 'em.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo his attentive audience he drew a loud and elaborate plan of a very\u003cbr\u003ebrilliant campaign.  When he had finished, the blue-clothed men\u003cbr\u003escattered into small arguing groups between the rows of squat brown\u003cbr\u003ehuts.  A negro teamster who had been dancing upon a cracker box with\u003cbr\u003ethe hilarious encouragement of twoscore soldiers was deserted.  He sat\u003cbr\u003emournfully down.  Smoke drifted lazily from a multitude of quaint\u003cbr\u003echimneys.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's a lie!  that's all it is--a thunderin' lie!\" said another private\u003cbr\u003eloudly.  His smooth face was flushed, and his hands were thrust sulkily\u003cbr\u003einto his trouser's pockets.  He took the matter as an affront to him.\u003cbr\u003e\"I don't believe the derned old army's ever going to move.  We're set.\u003cbr\u003eI've got ready to move eight times in the last two weeks, and we ain't\u003cbr\u003emoved yet.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe tall soldier felt called upon to defend the truth of a rumor he\u003cbr\u003ehimself had introduced.  He and the loud one came near to fighting over\u003cbr\u003eit.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA corporal began to swear before the assemblage.  He had just put a\u003cbr\u003ecostly board floor in his house, he said.  During the early spring he\u003cbr\u003ehad refrained from adding extensively to the comfort of his environment\u003cbr\u003ebecause he had felt that the army might start on the march at any\u003cbr\u003emoment.  Of late, however, he had been impressed that they were in a\u003cbr\u003esort of eternal camp.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany of the men engaged in a spirited debate.  One outlined in a\u003cbr\u003epeculiarly lucid manner all the plans of the commanding general.  He\u003cbr\u003ewas opposed by men who advocated that there were other plans of\u003cbr\u003ecampaign.  They clamored at each other, numbers making futile bids for\u003cbr\u003ethe popular attention.  Meanwhile, the soldier who had fetched the\u003cbr\u003erumor bustled about with much importance.  He was continually assailed\u003cbr\u003eby questions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What's up, Jim?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Th'army's goin' t' move.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ah, what yeh talkin' about?  How yeh know it is?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, yeh kin b'lieve me er not, jest as yeh like.  I don't care a\u003cbr\u003ehang.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere was much food for thought in the manner in which he replied.  He\u003cbr\u003ecame near to convincing them by disdaining to produce proofs.  They\u003cbr\u003egrew much excited over it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere was a youthful private who listened with eager ears to the words\u003cbr\u003eof the tall soldier and to the varied comments of his comrades.  After\u003cbr\u003ereceiving a fill of discussions concerning marches and attacks, he went\u003cbr\u003eto his hut and crawled through an intricate hole that served it as a\u003cbr\u003edoor.  He wished to be alone with some new thoughts that had lately\u003cbr\u003ecome to him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lay down on a wide bunk that stretched across the end of the room.\u003cbr\u003eIn the other end, cracker boxes were made to serve as furniture.  They\u003cbr\u003ewere grouped about the fireplace.  A picture from an illustrated weekly\u003cbr\u003ewas upon the log walls, and three rifles were paralleled on pegs.\u003cbr\u003eEquipments hung on handy projections, and some tin dishes lay upon a\u003cbr\u003esmall pile of firewood.  A folded tent was serving as a roof.  The\u003cbr\u003esunlight, without, beating upon it, made it glow a light yellow shade.\u003cbr\u003eA small window shot an oblique square of whiter light upon the\u003cbr\u003ecluttered floor.  The smoke from the fire at times neglected the clay\u003cbr\u003echimney and wreathed into the room, and this flimsy chimney of clay and\u003cbr\u003esticks made endless threats to set ablaze the whole establishment.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe youth was in a little trance of astonishment.  So they were at last\u003cbr\u003egoing to fight.  On the morrow, perhaps, there would be a battle, and\u003cbr\u003ehe would be in it.  For a time he was obliged to labor to make himself\u003cbr\u003ebelieve.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47145328902384,"sku":"2940012317605","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012317605_p0.jpg?v=1763567259","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012317605","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}