. "Else how could them German aviators have known
that Battery A was on the road last night? They knew we was on the way
to the front and they tried to get us."

"Hire a hall," shouted the gruffy top sergeant. "We've got two hours to
unload. A lot of you fireside veterans get busy. Gun crews get to work
on the flats and drivers unload horses. No chow until we're ready to
move out."

The sign on a station lamp-post told us the name of the town. It was
Jarville. But it jarred nothing in our memories. None of us had ever
heard of it before. I asked the captain where we were.

"Just about thirty miles behind the front," he replied. "We are moving
up to our last billets as soon as we unload and feed."

The horses had made the ride wearing their harness, some of which had
become entangled and broken in transit. A number of saddles had slipped
from backs and were down behind forelegs.

"We're learning something every minute," the captain exclaimed.
"American army regulations call for the removal of all harness from the
horses before they are put into the cars, but the French have learned
that that is a dangerous practice over here.

"You can't unload unharnessed horses and get them hitched to the guns as
quick as you can harnessed horses. The idea is this. We're pretty close
behind the lines. A German air party might make this unloading platform
a visit at any time and if any of them are in the air and happen to see
us unloading, they'd sure call on us.

"The French have learned that the only way to make the best of such a
situation, if it should arise, is to have the horses already harnessed
so that they can be run out of the cars quickly, hitched to the guns in
a jiffy and hurried away. If the horses are in the cars unharnessed, and
all of the harness is being carried in other cars, confusion is
increased and there is a greater prospect of your losing your train,
horses, guns and everything from an incendiary bomb, not to mention low
flying machine work."

His explanation revealed a promising attitude that I found in almost all
American soldiers of all ranks that I had encountered up to that time in
France. The foundation of the attitude was a willingness to admit
ignorance of new conditions and an eagerness to possess themselves of
all knowledge that the French and British had acquired through bitter
and costly experience.

Further than that, the American inclination pushed the soldier students
to look beyond eve