Two weeks later found the company in St. Louis on its way to New York. Squatty coaxed John and Gene to scout around a little with him between trains. Some minutes later, they were in the bust section of the city.

"Where do you want to go in particular?" Gene asked Squatty.

"To this address," he pulled a dirty, wrinkled envelope out of his pocket.

"Call a cab and give him the address," John suggested.

Squatty told the driver to stop on the corner nearest to that address and in no time, they were out in the residential section, which proved to belong to the middle class of people. The driver was given the order to wait, while the three walked up the sidewalk. They saw the house number that corresponded to the one Squatty had on the envelope. Sure enough, there was a small boy in the yard, playing with a little red wagon. He looked to be about four years old. The boys saw at a glance that the child had a long bulging nose, very similar to Squatty's, but his neck was not so short, in proportion to the rest of his body.

"Ain't he cute?" Squatty grinned, as they walked on past the house. "John took out his watch.

"Boys," he exclaimed, "We've got to step on it or we will miss the train."

They turned around and walked back. When they were straight in front of the house again, Squatty stopped and tossed a quarter to the little boy, watching them from the side of his little red wagon, "Here, get you some candy with this, son." A pleased grin continued to play about Squatty's mouth.

When they reached the station, Corporal Hopkins was excited and somewhat angered. "Snap into it, you bozos, this train pulls out of here in less than five minutes," he growled at them. "We might have all been delayed here on account of you." Soon the train was speeding on its way.

"It is time for chow at the next stop," Hopkins announced when they had passed through several towns on their way. "We'll draw to see who goes to buy the coffee this time," he was holding a five-dollar bill in his hand. It fell to Squatty Carter to buy the coffee for the whole squad, but he seemed to have forgotten that they were allowed only so much a meal for coffee. When the train stopped, he went for the steaming beverage, soon he returned with a cook helping his lug gallons of coffee.

"You Fathead, how much did you get?" Hopkins snarled at him.

"All you sent for," Squatty said meekly, he hardly seemed himself after he had had a chance to see his son. He had spent all of his money that should have bought coffee for several meals.

"I meant for you to bring back the change, you dumb ox," Hopkins said in disgust.

"Well, be more specific next time," Squatty spoke half to himself as he made a care-free gesture.

At last, they reached New York and their new home, Madison Barracks. There, life became one round of vaccinations and being quarantined for first one thing then another, but they were drilled to the limit every day, it would not be long until they would be sailing to France to help the Allies drive back the Huns.

Squatty seemed to have developed an incurable habit of waking up about three o'clock in the morning, unable to go back to sleep again. The boys told him it was because he went to bed with the chickens and that he had to wake with them. One morning, he was lying awake when a thought came to him, a plan for a good joke on Gene. He did not dare make much noise as he slipped over to Gene's cot where the tired private lay relaxed in deep sleep.

"Hey! Hey!" Squatty said in a hoarse whisper, shaking Gene's arm gently.

"what's the matter, what's the matter?" Gene sat up with a start.

"Calm down, buddy, calm yourself, I just wanted to tell you that it's only three in the morning and you've still got three hours to sleep," Squatty said with a sheepish grin as he crawled back into bed.

"You darn little shrimp, I hope the Germans plunk you," Gene said drowsily and tried to reach for his number eight, hob-nailed shoe. Lucky for Squatty, it was too far out of reach.

Gene rolled and tossed for two hours, unable to go back to sleep. He could see Laura Mae's smiling face and wished he could get a letter from her. At last, he gave up trying to sleep so he got up and wrote a long letter home to his Uncle Everett.