As a recuit waiting for battle in the seemingly directionless marching,Henry at first believes that the night sky is sympathetic to his experience:”There was a caress in the soft wind;and the whole mood of the darkness,he thought,was one of sympathy for himself in distress”Homesick and despondent before his first battle,Henry feel as though he will fail as a soldier.The laughter and jokes of the war veterans around him do not relieve his mood.Only the sky,with the “liquid stillness of the night”and the “moon…lighted”and “hung in a treetop,”gives him solace.He soon learns that Nature is not that caring.