"Let's have the song again! Come on!"
"Yes, the song! The song!"
"No; hold on!" cried Tom. "Not because men are killed!"
"That's right, that's right!" said Stransky. "After all, they're our brothers." It was the first time since he had undergone the transformation which the war had wrought in him that he had mentioned any of his world-brotherhood ideas. "I still believe in that. We're fighting for that!" he concluded.
With the ready change of subject of soldiers who have been long in company, they were soon talking about other things—things that concerned the living.
"Say, wouldn't I like a real bath—an altogether!"
"And plenty of soap all over!"
"A welter of lather from head to foot and blowing bubbles from between my lips!"
"And to shave off this beard!"
"Think of the beards that are going when the war is over!"