Part of the army was stationed in Coblenz, but many thousands were placed in the fortress itself, which was henceforth to serve as American barracks.
Then for the first time since they had landed in France the American army really rested. Their main work was done and well done. They had fought the good fight. They had kept the faith.
Not that the army discipline grew lax. The men were kept in shape for any emergency. At a day’s notice if necessary they could resume fighting. But there were many hours every day that they had to themselves and they were as full of high spirits as so many colts turned out to pasture.
On one such day after they had had some good wrestling and boxing matches Billy’s effervescence found vent in an offer to sing them a song “so pathetic that it will bring tears to your eyes.”
“Oh, cut out that stuff,” chaffed Bart. “Isn’t there enough trouble in the world without your singing songs to make us weep?”
“Aw, this isn’t going to be the kind of a song you think it is,” protested Billy. “This song isn’t aimed to make you shed tears of sadness, the one and only idea being to double you up with spontaneous and irresistible laughter. You’ve heard the old saying, haven’t you, ‘to laugh till you cry’? Of course you have, and that’s what I have in mind.”
“I never knew you had a gift for singing comic songs,” said Tom, suspiciously, “and what’s more, I don’t mind going a little further and saying I didn’t know you could sing any kind of a song at all.”
“That just goes to show how ignorant you are,” retorted Billy, “you just wait till you hear me sing this song, and see if it isn’t every bit as good as I say it is.”
“What’s the name of this wonderful composition?” asked Tom.
“The name?” said Billy. “Why, I don’t see any real reason why I shouldn’t tell you. The name of this song is: ‘I Want a Good Egg, and I Want It Bad.’ The accompaniment will be rendered——” but this was as far as he got, as a shout of laughter went up, and he became the target for whatever miscellaneous objects happened at that moment to be closest to hand.