Chapter 7

The boys are still very naïve about the war; they speak about "brothers in the service and requirements for enlistment and the futility of Devon" during their train ride home, but no war issues of real significance (89). Quackenbush, who is probably more realistic than the rest of them about needing to get a high school diploma and not just rush into the war, is attacked by the other boys in their jingoistic fit; Brinker and the others think that the only right way is to enlist immediately and rush off to the glorious war, and are too young and blind to consider that they might not be correct.