Children of no Man's Land by G.B. Stern

I

Patriotism, even more than bunting-deep, is largely a matter of habit. Before August, nineteen-fourteen, Richard had rather taken his country for granted. Now he awoke to an England that in return for years of security and a lazy pleasure at the sight of so many red patches on the school-map, suddenly exacted service-fighting service. Richard cursed his age; welcomed any indication in the trend of things "out there" that seemed to prophesy a minimum of three years' activities. "If only the war holds out till I can get to it! " He suffered from disturbing premonitions of a peace signed and ratified just one day before his eighteenth birthday.