Early Days

There was a youthful private who listened with eager ears to the words of the tall soldier and to the varied comments of his comrades. After hearing discussions concerning marches and attacks, he went to his hut and crawled through an intricate hole that served it as a door. He wished to be alone with some new thoughts.

He lay down on a wide bunk that stretched across the end of the room. On the other end, cracker boxes served as furniture. They were grouped about the fireplace. A picture from an illustrated weekly was on the log walls, and three rifles were paralleled on pegs. Equipment hung on handy projections, and some tin dishes lay upon a small pile of firewood. A folded tent served as a roof. The sunlight, without, beating upon it, made it glow a light-yellow shade. A small window shot an oblique square…