Posters in Kansas City adorned the Army Recruitment Center: Join up and be in France in 60 days.  Working as a soldier on the railroads in war-torn northern France during World War I, Hubert Kelley found his vocation as a writer and poet.  This is the story of one boy's journey into adultood told through his letters home written from 1917 to 1919.  The Weeping Angel (L'Ange Pleureur) statue in Amiens Cathedral came to symbolize the sadness and futility of war to Kelley and his fellow soldiers; they visited it often.  His poems and selected writings are included in this book.