The next morning, Miles asks if he should go to bed. He's studying, and he's going to build his own house. He wants to know when he'll be able to build it. He asks if the rooms will be made of fairytales, so he can eat them anytime he wants to. He also wants to ask if he really wants to be a commissioned officer. He says he'd rather be a soldier than a noncommissioned officer, but he doesn't want to be an officer just because he was a soldier. Miles asks about the current state of affairs in the army, and the commander tells him it's not good because of the "damn red" . Miles says that even though he feels bad about the situation, it was better when he only had a "nasty personality" like that. Now, he says, she's just "dead inside" , and she needs to learn to have fun, because that's the only way she'll hold out. He tells the commander to step aside and let Miles read a magazine, because he needs to "reinforce our power" in the war.