Page:Frank Owen - Rare Earth, 1931.djvu/160

 helped to pass many an otherwise monotonous hour.

"Watchin' you fellas fight," he drawled, "has special attractions. No matter who wins, I'se satisfied."

Enoch was glad when his regiment was shifted to France, new sights, new scenes. There was so much to do it took his mind off home. Still there were times when he wanted his mother so badly he almost felt like sitting down by the wayside and crying. After all he was little more than a child, utterly without worldliness. How his companions would have derided him if they had known the true state of his feelings.

Once he was walking along a country road in France. For the moment all was peace. It was far back of the lines of fighting but still usually the roar of the big guns could be heard booming out sonorously in the distance. But now for a moment there had come a hush. It was autumn and the leaves of the trees, russetgreen, yellow, brown, were falling to the ground as the wind stirred the branches. How