“Lemme go, lemme go,” cried the girl. Men leaning out of the other windows of the car cheered and shouted.
Fuselli kissed her again and then dropped her.
“Ye're too rough, damn ye,” said the girl angrily.
A man from one of the windows yelled, “I'll go an' tell mommer”; and everybody laughed. The train moved on. Fuselli looked about him proudly. The image of Mabe giving him the five-pound box of candy rose a moment in his mind.
“Ain't no harm in havin' a little fun. Don't mean nothin',” he said aloud.
“You just wait till we hit France. We'll hit it up some with the Madimerzels, won't we, kid?” said Bill Grey, slapping Fuselli on the knee.
“Beautiful Katy,
Ki-Ki-Katy,
You're the only gugugu-girl that I adore;
And when the mo-moon shines
Over the cowshed,
I'll be waiting at the ki-ki-ki-kitchen door.”
Everybody sang as the thumping of wheels over rails grew faster. Fuselli looked about contentedly at the company sprawling over their packs and equipment in the smoky car.
“It's great to be a soldier,” he said to Bill Grey. “Ye kin do anything ye goddam please.”
“This,” said the corporal, as the company filed into barracks identical to those they had left two days before, “is an embarkation camp, but I'd like to know where the hell we embark at.” He twisted his face into a smile, and then shouted with lugubrious intonation: “Fall in for mess.”