17 A Fight at Camp

CHAPTER 17 A Fight at Camp When Henry woke up it seemed to him that he had been asleep for a thousand years. An icy dew had chilled his face, and he stared for a while at the leaves that blew around overhead. In the distance he could hear the sound of fighting. Around him were groups of sleeping men, motionless, pale, and in strange positions. For a brief moment he thought that they were all dead. Then he saw Wilson warming up by a small fire. A few other figures moved in the fog, and he heard someone chopping wood.

Suddenly there was the rumble of drums, and a distant bugle sounded faintly. The men around him began to get up. Wilson saw that Henry was awake and asked, "Well, Henry, old man, how do you feel this morning?" Henry yawned. His head felt like a melon, and his stomach hurt. "Oh, I feel pretty bad," he said. Wilson fixed the bandage on Henry's head, and then prepared some food for both of them. Henry remembered how differently his friend had behaved before their big battle. He was not a loud young soldier anymore. He was quiet and sure of himself, and he didn't get upset at the little things other men said to him. Henry wondered when this change had come over his friend. Wilson balanced his coffee cup on his knee and said, "Well, Henry, what do you think our chances are? Do you think we'll beat them?"

Henry thought for a while and then said, "The day before yesterday, you would have said you could beat them all by yourself." Wilson looked amazed. "Would I have said that?" he asked. "Well, maybe I would. I believe I was a pretty big fool before all this." Henry tried to apologize for embarrassing his friend, but Wilson waved it away. After a while, Wilson said that they had the enemy right where they wanted them. "I don't know about that," Henry said. "From where I was yesterday, it looked like we were getting hit pretty hard." "Do you think so?" Wilson asked. "I thought we handled them pretty rough yesterday." "Not a bit," said Henry. "Why, you didn't see anything of the fight." All around them were other small fires surrounded by men. From one of these

suddenly came sharp voices. Two soldiers had been teasing a huge, bearded man, who had become upset. It looked now as if there would be a fight. Wilson stood up and broke the men apart. "Here now, boys," he said. "What's the use of this? We'll be fighting the enemy in less than an hour. Why fight among ourselves?" One of the other soldiers reminded Wilson that he had been in a fistfight a few days ago and had lost. "You just don't like fighting since you lost that one," the soldier said. "Besides, this is none of your business." Eventually the men's argument quieted down and Wilson returned to his seat. Soon, all the men were joking with each other like old friends. "I hate to see the boys fighting among themselves," Wilson said. Henry laughed and said, "You've changed a

lot. I remember when you would have fought anyone without even thinking about it." "I guess I used to be that way," Wilson said. "I'm sorry if I'm embarrassing you," Henry said, after a moment. "Oh, don't worry about it, Henry," Wilson said. He thought for a while, and then said, "We thought the troop lost over half the men yesterday. I thought they were all gone, but they kept coming back last night until it looked like we only lost a few. They had been scattered all over the place, fighting with other troops, just like you did." "Is that so?" Henry asked.