Somewhere-in-France
Sunday April 1st/17

Mrs N. Coultis
R. R. No 3 Exeter
Ont. Canada

Dear Sister:- Received Nels letter the other day. and also one from you. I hope this finds you all well as it leaves me in the best of health. We have moved from our very comfortable billets back near the line ( 2 or 3 miles) into little tents. They are about 3 ft. high in the centre, built something like this with two rows of sand bags on one side to keep the side high enough so that it does not rest on our face. We have to crawl in on our hands and knees We arrived here about 5:30 yesterday after noon found our tent lying flat on the ground so we got some sandbags filled them uo built a wall and fixed her up before we could go to bed. One end of the tent is open so we could see the fireworks from the front line but that did not keep us awake long. After a few selections on a mouth organ from one of the fellows in the tent we fell asleep as we were very tired as we had come a long ways yesterday. We had one bad scare coming in just before we struck camp. It started to rain there was a bolt of lightning struck right near us, all of a sudden, every body thought it was a shell and said they were shell shocked it made a big cloud of smoke I thought some one hit me on the top of the head with a mallet it run down my legs every body felt the same it sure was close. I saw Jim Howe to day he is in the Ent.(Entrenching) Battn. the same one I was in they are near us so I went down to see him this afternoon. Earl Parsons is also quite near so they say, I have not seen him yet. We run across quite a few fellows that we know. The Canadians are around close. They hold a certain part of the line and keep changing around to different places so one often meet friends. I guess seeding will be in full swing by the time you get this. It won't if the weather is anything like it is over here it rains every day more or less and stays cold. One can wear mitts all the time. I am a mess orderly to-day so did not have to go on working party. Its not a bad job just dish out the grub and wash out the tea, hash, dixies and fill them with water for the next meal. We are camped in a beech wood bush the trees are big and nice shaped its on the side of a hill. Fritz shells it ocassionally but has not to-day so far. Well I must close for this time as it will soon be supper time. With Love

From Earl.