My Darling Heart:

I wonder where you are & what you are doing? Somehow when one is travelling, time seems very long. It seems like a week instead of only two days since I left you & yet your sweet smiling face is as vivid in my mind as if I were still looking from the train at Vancouver. You are a brave little girl Dearie I so were the others who were being left behind. If the 72nd men are as brave as their womenfolk, no one will need to complain. Every man on the train is elated at the splendid send off we got. It was such a bright cheerful crowd, which cheered us for a quarter of a mile down the track.

Now I must talk business. Auld is apparently in Vancouver threatening serious things. I enclosed a wire received from Taylor Harvey. I am answering it simply "am writing" & I am going to write saying that Auld can have possession & other matters must stand in obeyance till I return. In the meantime Auld can do nothing, except that he might try to attach money lying in the bank. You had better draw enough out for your ticket & travelling money, get your passage & then get a [?] Draft payable to yourself for the balance. Draw the balance in the savings Bank at Nanaimo as well, & if we do not want it in England we can bye a war loan with it. Don't delay doing this. If there has been any difficulty over those cheques I drew on the Merchants Bank at Nanaimo, you had better take a trip over there, take your Power of Attorney with you & see Ross. He will give you any advice you need & he understands the position re Art[?] Tell Mackae to send any money paid in by Ross to your credit at the Royal Bank Branch in London. There is about $159 in the Royal Savings at Nanaimo & $16 or $17 in the current. There will be a few dollars in the Merchants at Nanaimo, but you need not bother about that. Just before I left I drew three cheques on the Merchants as follows: one for about $150, the balance of the Auld farm [?] one for $150 about the amount of my [?] when I left & one for $250, to cover amounts Ross agreed to pay in for me. Of this last is not fair[?] it is because Ross or Miss Waugh had forgotten to do this or had not done it in time. See them about this, if so, Ross will rectify it. See that those Nanaimo taxes are paid also. If you know what boat you will be on, write one addressing to 72nd Battn C.E.F. on board CPR train. If you do not know till after I have sailed, cable me to England, from your port of sailing. One word will do, or two, say the name of the vessel & date. eg "Tuscania Sixth".

We are just passing Hargreave[?] & V[?], where I spent my earlier days on the prairie - it looks much the same, [?] some new houses & farms. I asked Pug to meet me at Brandon, & will post this letter there. We should be there in about an hour. The CPR are feeding us in great style & the men also. Eleven officers have the Pullman amongst them - though we are sharing with some of the sargts]?] so it is not too hoggish.

Unfortunately it will be nearly 10 o'clock when we reach Winnipeg, so we can have no march out there. We had quite a time collecting Elder. The wire was sent to the 172nd, who, not knowing who he was, left it lying in their orderly room. I did not know for certain whether his sister would have reached him, so got Col [?] to send his regimental car in hot haste, to get him in time for the 2nd train. I hear he is on board all right, & I believe his sister had brought him into Kamloops, but there was such a crowd there, I could not see him.

There is a lot of grain still lying out in stock around here. I don't suppose it will be hurt much, but it will delay seeding.

Now I must go & see my men at supper, so good-bye for this time, my little Pal. Love & Kisses from your own Arthur.