Three days and nights of rest they had and then were packed into tiny
freight cars with a space so small that they had to take turns sitting
down. Men had to sleep sitting or standing, or wherever they could find
space to lie down. So they started across France, three days and awful
nights they went, weary and sore and bitter still. But they had air and
they were better fed. Now and then they could stand up and look out
through a crack. Once in a while a fellow could get space to stretch out
for a few minutes. Cameron awoke once and found feet all over him, feet
even in his face. Yet these things were what he had expected. He did not
whine. He was toughened for such experiences, so were the men about him.
The hardness merely brought out their courage. They were getting their
spirits back now as they neared the real scene of action. The old
excitement and call to action were creeping back into their blood. Now
and then a song would pipe out, or a much abused banjo or mandolin would
twang and bring forth their voices. It was only when an officer walked by
or mention would be made of the captain or lieutenant that their looks
grew black again and they fell silent. Injustice and tyranny, the things
they had come out to fight, that they would not forgive nor forget. Their
spirits were reviving but their hate was there.
At last they detrained and marched into a little town.
This was France!
Cameron looked about him in dismay. A scramble of houses and barns, sort
of two-in-one affairs. Where was the beauty of France about which he had
read so often? Mud was everywhere. The streets were deep with it, the
ground was sodden, rain-soaked. It was raining even then. Sunny France!
It was in a barnyard deep in manure where Cameron's tent was set up.
Little brown tents set close together, their flies dovetailing so that
more could be put in a given space.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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