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The snowball fight was becoming larger as news of it spread
throughout the Army of Northern Virginia. Boys from
the Virginia regiments had come in to re-enforce George’s but
some other soldiers from Texas and Georgia had joined the
opposition.
"It’s becoming everyone against
Virginia!" George cried.
"I’m gunna try to make it across the
field to Bobby," Eric said suddenly. "You cover
me."
"But," George argued as Eric darted
out from the cover. Instantly a mass of snowballs descended on
Eric and he fell backwards a few steps.
"Cover me!" He yelled back to George.
"I am," George said laughing, "I
am."
George threw as many of the snowballs as he
could at the other boys. Three or four were hit and stopped for
a second but it made no difference. Eric was bombarded from all
sides by snowballs. They hit him in the legs, in the stomach in
the head and even on the butt. George couldn’t help but laugh.
"Stop, stop!" Eric cried out, waving
his hands as he stood.
Ten, twenty, thirty snowballs all fell upon Eric
as he collapsed in a heap. A cheer went up from the other side
while Eric lay on his back in the snow.
"We ain’t giving up yet!" George
heard Bobby yell. "Fire!"
Snowballs from George’s side of the field flew
out at the other side. The boys staggered and started to fall
back but not before three of them had grabbed Eric by the feet
and dragged him towards their side.
"We got ourselves a prisoner," they
said laughing.
"George, help!" Eric screamed as he
was being dragged. He arched his neck and looked back towards
George. "Don’t let these awful boys take me. Save me!
Save meeeee!"
George laughed at Eric’s antics.
"I suppose I should help him," George
thought to himself. "Besides it will be fun sneaking behind
‘enemy lines."
George walked backwards slowly with his head
down so no one could see him then turned deeper into the woods.
He decided that the best way to help Eric was to swing out a
little into the woods then come out behind the South Carolinians
and surprise them. He began to walk slowly at first, being
afraid that people would hear him but then he picked up the pace
when he realized that the snow was hiding a lot of the noise of
his movement. "If only his feet weren’t so cold," he
thought.
George heard a noise up ahead. He stopped
suddenly. Was another soldier out here too?
"Crack," a twig snapped and a figure
moved.
"Gotcha!" George yelled as he hit the
figure in the head with a snowball.
Whoever it was must have been surprised because
he fell down almost immediately. George rushed forward.
"Uhhh, ah-uh, ah-uh," George heard. He
stopped and listened some more.
"The person was crying! What kind of a
soldier was this?" George thought.
"Hey don’t cry," George said in an
annoyed tone as he approached the figure. "It was only a
snowball."
The person continued to cry. George knelt down
beside him. He was quite small. Too small to be a soldier.
"Perhaps a drummer boy," George thought.
"I said don’t cry," George repeated
as he turned the figure over from his crouched position.
"Huh?" George exclaimed as he fell
backwards in surprise and stared open mouthed at the small girl
who was slowly backing away. She was dressed in what looked to
be a dress but it was so torn and tattered that her skin shown
through and her body vibrated viscously in the cold.
"You’re a girl?" George said slowly.
She said nothing to George but the look of
terror on her face and in her deep blue eyes told George that
this was no ordinary girl.
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