What will surprise you most, perhaps, will be the quiet, unexcited, normal aspect of things. No one seems tense. There is no outward sign to indicate the desperate move ahead. You may even think that very trivial incidents occupy attention, and that silly chatter is all we talk about. If you do reach such a conclusion, you will be nearer to understanding the true texture of War. Trivialities trip over momentous crises. Fun and tragedy, gripes and groans and laughter are all intermingled on the surface, and the careful plan beneath is altogether blotted from view. As for the ideal of a patriotic motive--it's up there where the flag floats. We walk every day beneath it, without consciously giving a thought to it. It is never under any circumstances, talked about; but inwardly, and perhaps unconsciously for many, it is the one motive which keeps every man here.