noon
The sergeant ran back to the front of the car and climbed on . With a delicious feeling of leadership , Fuselli divided up the bread and the cans of bully beef and the cheese . Then he sat on his pack eating dry bread and unsavoury beef , whistling joyfully , while the train rumbled and clattered along through a strange , misty-green countryside , -- whistling joyfully because he was going to the front , where there would be glory and excitement , whistling joyfully because he felt he was getting along in the world . It was noon . A pallid little sun like a toy balloon hung low in the reddish-grey sky . The train had stopped on a siding in the middle of a russet plain . Yellow poplars , faint as mist , rose slender against the sky along a black shining stream that swirled beside the track .