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The retreating column, which has been making orderly progress, stops, starts again briefly, and then stalls. Henry goes off to check on the traffic jam and comes back to find his group increased by two sergeants of engineers and two terrified girls the drivers have picked up.
The vehicle column seems permanently stalled although troops continue to march by the ambulances. As fatigue overcomes Henry, Hemingway launches into another stream of consciousness (or unconsciousness) passage. Note the free associations: the cause of the holdup, rain, peasant carts, the girls, Catherine in bed, a couple of lines from a poem, and then a dream where he sees himself back with Catherine, comforting and reassuring her.
The column starts again; the rain slackens. The road is jammed with fleeing peasants. Henry decides to take a side road to make better time and to avoid possible air attacks if the rain should stop.
They turn off the main road and stop at a farmhouse to eat. After eating some wine and cheese, they get rolling, leaving the \"fine farmhouse\" with its \"good ironwork\" behind--in effect, leaving the security and peace those simple words seem to imply.
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