5:30 in the morning
But life in the training camps was no holiday . It was hard , steady , strenuous business , carried on under the most rigid form of discipline . Yet the men were well clothed , well fed , had comfortable quarters , enjoyed regular periods of recreation , and were content with their lot , save that their eagerness to complete their training and get to the firing line inevitably manifested itself in expressions of impatience . To get up at 5:30 in the morning and drill for an hour before breakfast was no great task , nor two successive hours of fighting with tipped bayonets , nor throwing of real bombs and hand-grenades , nor was the back-breaking digging of trenches , nor the exhaustion from long marches , if only by such experiences they could fit themselves eventually to fight their enemy not only with courage but also with that skill and efficiency which counts for so much in modern warfare . It was ten days after Pen 's enlistment that , being off duty , he crossed the parade ground one evening and went into the large reading and recreation room of the Young Men 's Christian Association , established and maintained there for the benefit of the troops in training . He had no errand except that he wished to write a letter to his mother , and the conveniences offered made it a favorite place for letter writing . There were few people in the room , for it was still early , and the writing tables were comparatively unoccupied .