Her mother had taught her to read, which was acceptable to Nuggan, and her father made sure that she learned how to write, which was not. She'd learned to read and write after a fashion because the inn was big and it was a business and things had to be tallied and recorded. That is, it talked about killing foreigners. Several copies of the pamphlet seemed to have reached every home, even so. And this was odd, because the mothers in the town had not seemed keen on the idea of their sons going off to war, and positively tried to drag them back. It was headed "From the Mothers of Borogravia!!" The mothers of Borogravia were very definite about wanting to send their sons off to war Against the Zlobenian Aggressor!! and used a great many exclamation points to say so. The lucky ones were missing only one arm or one leg. Sometimes, now, smaller parties of men came back.
That'd been almost a year ago, when any recruiting party that came past went away with the best part of a battalion, and there had been people waving them off with flags and music. Paul had wanted medals, because they were shiny.
It was in a careful hand, the excessively clear and well-shaped writing of someone who had to think about every letter. er says not to worry, it'll be all over by. It had been opened and heavily mangled by the censors, and bore the stamp of the Duchy. Taking care not to rustle too much, Polly pulled out the much-folded, much-read, much-stained last letter from her brother, and read it by the light of the solitary, guttering candle. Once, coasting in and out of a troubled dream, she thought she heard someone sobbing. Once or twice she heard people stagger out into the windy darkness in theory, for the privy, but probably, given male impatience in these matters, to aim much closer to home. That seemed to inspire greater effort on the part of the other sleepers, to the point where the roof rattled and dust fell down, before everyone subsided.
Occasionally, someone belched or expelled wind noisily, and Polly responded with a few fake eructations of her own.
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