it 's hard to catch in the roar of everyone else 's noise , even james 's , which is thinking about how he used to live upriver with his pa and his brother and how he joined the army when it marched past cuz it was either that or die fighting and now here he is , in a war with the spackle , but he 's happy now , happy to be fighting , happy to be serving the president- `` are n't you , soldier ? ''