Making wrong choices
Jeff “related the whole incident” that had happened to his family. The young man “concluded by telling John” he was “on his way to Fort Leavenworth to enlist.” Suddenly, “an idea” came to John, “excited” he began “to blink his china-blue eyes.” “Believe I’ll go with you, Jeff,” he said. Though Jeff was “glad to have company,” but he worried about John’s folks and the fact that John wasn’t going to tell them anything. “So I’ll jest go without askin’ him,” stated John. “I’m eighteen year old now an’ I want to see the world,” the young man continued. “And dropping the armful of wood on the chip-strewn ground at his feet,” John brushed the shavings off his shirt and “joined Jenn on the military road.” The irony is that it is easy to take the military road, but it is difficult to leave it.
The truth
“After being sworn in,” the three “Linn Country boys” were sent “to the military hospital to take their physical examinations.” On the way they passed “hundreds of soldiers” in “blue blouses” matching on “the spacious green drill fields.” “Bugles were tooting.” Officers were “crossing the parade grounds, saluted smartly as they passed one another.” Jeff felt happy as he watched “with excitement” the scene around him. “Apparently” everybody was “getting ready to fight.” The irony is that Jeff is awfully mistaken about the approaching fight. Weeks of military drills, fatigue, and homesickness are the things that await him in the nearest future.
Dreadful end
“At the hospital the three boys” were asked to “strip to the waist” while “a gruff old army doctor” with “a fat paunch and tired eyes examined them,” so Jeff “lined up with the scores of other men and boy awaiting their turns.” “Come on, kid,” the old doctor said, “you shall have all the war you want.” He tapped Jeff’s chest “roughly” with his “dirty, horny knuckles” and “grunted again.” “That’s a pretty good chest,” the old man said, making Jeff beam “modestly.” “Just right for the rebels to shoot Minie balls through,” the man added. Jeff “stared at him, feeling strangely depressed.” The irony is that lots of young men dream about military fame, but they rarely think about a more common outcome such as death.
