noon
Fortune played them a kind stroke , for the farmer 's wife , a voluble little French woman , who had a husband and three sons in the army , on learning that they were actually American boys , insisted on their settling down while she cooked them a fine dinner . It turned out that Madame had herself spent several years in America , and even then had relatives living in the French Quarter in New York City . She asked them a multitude of questions , and was especially anxious to learn if the great republic across the sea would align itself with the Entente Allies , who were now , she insisted , engaged in fighting the battles of the whole world for freedom from military domination . Taken altogether , the boys quite enjoyed that hour at noon . They learned considerable about things that interested them , especially the lay of the land ahead , and where they might expect to come upon trouble in meeting some of the troops engaged in the fighting . Josh was especially tickled when she assured them that the dull throbbing sound they heard almost constantly was indeed the fretful murmur of big guns . Being a French woman , and very sanguine with regard to the valor of her countrymen , the farmer 's wife could already in imagination see the beaten Germans fleeing in mad haste before the invincible soldiers of the republic .