began to consider himself an authority
in such matters as baseball, horse racing, drinking and going about with
women. He began to tell of a night when he with two men from Winesburg
went into a house of prostitution at the County Seat. The butcher's son
held a cigar in the side of his mouth and as he talked spat on the
floor. "The women in the place couldn't embarrass me although they tried
hard enough," he boasted. "One of the girls in the house tried to get
fresh but I fooled her. As soon as she began to talk I went and sat in
her lap. Everyone in the room laughed when I kissed her. I taught her to
let me alone."

George Willard went out of the pool room and into Main Street. For days
the weather had been bitter cold with a high wind blowing down on the
town from Lake Erie, eighteen miles to the north, but on that night the
wind had died away and a new moon made the night unusually lovely.
Without thinking where he was going or what he wanted to do George went
out of Main Street and began walking in dimly lighted streets filled
with frame houses.

Out of doors under the black sky filled with stars he forgot his
companions of the pool room. Because it was dark and he was alone he
began to talk aloud. In a spirit of play he reeled along the street
imitating a drunken man and then imagined himself a soldier clad in
shining boots that reached to the knees and wearing a sword that jingled
as he walked. As a soldier he pictured himself as an inspector, passing
before a long line of men who stood at attention. He began to examine
the accoutrements of the men. Before a tree he stopped and began to
scold. "Your pack is not in order," he said sharply. "How many times
will I have to speak of this matter? Everything must be in order here.
We have a difficult task before us and no difficult task can be done
without order."

Hypnotized by his own words the young man stumbled along the board
sidewalk saying more words. "There is a law for armies and for men too,"
he muttered, lost in reflection. "The law begins with little things and
spreads out until it covers everything. In every little thing there must
be order, in the place where men work, in their clothes, in their
thoughts. I myself must be orderly. I must learn that law. I must get
myself into touch with something orderly and big that swings through the
night like a star. In my little way I must begin to learn something, to
give and swing and work with life, with the law