CHAPTER II.

EN AVANT

THE departure from Boxford was our first experience in secrecy, but although the newspapers were silent, a fair-sized crowd was there to watch us entrain and give us what send-off the circumstances allowed. There was no cheering, no speeches, no flag-waving; the band discoursed wailingly of the long, long trail over which we were starting, and the temperature made overcoats and horse-collar rolls far from comfortable. Some of us, with visions of trusting relatives journeying to camp on the coming Sun­ day with all expectation of finding us there, managed to pass to the spectators notes which would avert such a calamity, but they were few. We merely marched down to the train and climbed aboard in a matter-of-fact way which took the edge off the whole proceeding. This was in the afternoon, Friday, September 7, 1917.

We rolled away past Lowell, past Ayer and half finished Camp Devens and through Worcester, slinking along in accordance with our orders to attract no attention and give no impression that we were other than a band of boy scouts bound for Chautauqua. Probably no one saw the collar insignia of our officers who paced the station platforms at our frequent stops!

It was three o'clock of Saturday morning, rainy and dark, when we reached Harlem River freight

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