The Seed of Empire by Fred M. White

For some not very apparent reason the forthcoming football match between the Musketeers and the battalion who had christened themselves the Hard Nuts was occupying a good deal of attention in the base camp. It seems almost impossible for people far remote from the scene of that awful strife to understand how a body of men with so stern a task before them could forget the perils and privations of their position and concentrate their attention upon a mere game. But this is a rule that works both ways, and there are thousands of Englishmen at home to-day who have not yet grasped, or perhaps do not want to grasp, the true inwardness of the position. If men of military age can follow sport at home and devote themselves almost exclusively to such a pastime as racing when their country is in danger, every allowance should be made for the man who has taken his share in the fighting line and is only too willing and ready to go back to it again.

The Musketeers had done their share, and more; they were glad enough of the rest and change; they had not asked for it, but now it had come their way they meant to enjoy it to the utmost.