“Did you ever see anything like it, Buzz? Just look at the different uniforms. There–look over there! A bunch of American Blue Jackets. Wonder how they got here?”
“Humph! Wonder how all of us got here? That’s what I’ve been thinking about. This is just a moment snatched from the lives of all these fellows. What went before? What homes did they come from, and who is waiting for them? And what comes to them to-morrow? Gee!” He shook his head, slowly. “It doesn’t do to think about it. You want to find out about them ... and you get to wishing they could all go on back home to-morrow. Say, who started this talk, anyhow? Come on, let’s go back in.”
65“Wait a minute!” McGee seized his arm and turned him around. “There’s plenty of time before the curtain. Look, Buzz. See that black fellow over there in French Colonial O.D.? Came from Algiers, I guess, or Senegal, maybe. What brought him here, and what sort of stories will he tell ... when he gets back home? Will he tell about what he did, or will he talk about what he saw and what others did?”
“Dunno. Why?”
“Well, this has set me to thinking. We’re all here on exactly the same business. The uniform doesn’t count so much, nor does the branch of the service. It’s just a question of getting the job done–a sort of ‘Heave Ho! All together, now!’ Get me?”
“Yes–I guess so. What are you driving at?”
“This. See that American sergeant over there–the one who carried the flag down the aisle and jumped up on the stage?”
“Yes. Big fellow, isn’t he?”
“You said it! The biggest duck in this puddle, in more ways than one. And I want to get into the uniform he is wearing. Understand, Buzz? Oh, I’m proud enough of the one I’m wearing, but when he started the national anthem, and they all came in on that chorus, ‘Oh, say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,’–well, I felt cold shivers running up and down my backbone. None of the other songs did that to me. Do you get me, Buzz?”
66“Sure. I felt it, too.” He put both his hands on Red’s shoulders, holding him off at arm’s length. “You want back under the old Stars and Stripes, don’t you? ... you little shrimp!”