"Go to it, fellow," he said. "Send your first messages to the home-folks. They'll be looking for a word from you, you know."
Might Be Six Months
You might have thought the soldiers had been gone from home six months instead of a few hours. They didn't exactly ask "Have you still got the same old cat?" like the boy in Riley's story, but they did indicate by the general tenor of their messages home that it seemed to them a long, long time since they had taken that morning train. They said, too, that they were well, and hoped the folks at home were the same, that they were having some ride and meant to put up some fight, and sent lots of love.
How Checkers Helps
After that the secretary passed around checker-board,—a great game, checkers! If you don't want all your kings jumped off the board, you must put your whole mind on your play, to the exclusion of feeling homesick. What with the unexpected moves forced upon them by the train, and the comradeship of the game, the men began to feel better.
The 'Y' man won their hearts by passing around hot coffee for them to drink with the lunch the government had provided. They began telling him how they felt about things.
Old Woman and the Kids
"War? Hell! It ain't war I mind, it's going away and leaving the kids and my woman to look out for themselves!" said one.
"If we could play the game on our home field, with our own bunch around to root for us, it wouldn't be half bad," summed up a  Young college fellow. 