10/9/16
Sunday

Dear Mother & Dad

Ethels letter and yours Mother came just yesterday morning to late to be answered before going out for the days work. Please Dearest People do not worry about me. There is really and truly very little danger here if a chap takes ordinary precautions. And you may all depend that I am doing that on every possible occasion. and the Hun get very few chances at me. After all when you consider how close the trenches are to each other the possibility of heavy shelling without great danger to your own men is very small so that that is one big danger reduced.
There is only the sniper & the machine gun fire to look out for and as long as one is down behind the parapet there is almost no danger from this. So please do not worry.

There is very little to write about since my letter to Ethel. If we were allowed to keep diaries up to date they would be interesting reading for you in the future but we can only write them up after ten days have elapsed and of course by that time everything is gone stale or forgotten in the multiplicity of detail coming up daily for attention, so that when you want to you can't write about it or it is all gone.

We have organized our Company Officers into a mess which costs each one of us 85 francs a month . and as a franc is worth about 20 cents you can see that it is not costing us as much as we are supposed to spend on it as we receive a messing allowance of about a dollar a day. We have lots of trouble getting stuff to eat for of course the ration issued to us does not begin to make a real meal. Usually we have porridge & condensed cream, bacon & eggs & bread & jam & tea for breakfast. Roast beef, vegetables, potatoes & onions, cabbage or carrots, some sort of easy pudding to be made & tea bread & jam butter, for dinner. Canned fish or eggs for lunch or supper. So that we really live very well.

For almost the last week we have had beautiful weather but it is getting wet again and we may expect the usual muddy weather in the works.

In fragments of France which I sent you you will find a picture entitles " I am staying at a farm" Eto. which is something after our present situation only this farm house seems to bear a charmed existence. There is only one shell hole in it and even that did very little damage. Some people say it belongs to Hennessy of Thrustar brandy fance and others say it belongs to a german count but in any case it stands almost untouched amid ruins on all sides.

Well Dear People there is not much more to say and its not worth saying. Thank you for your prayers and bless you all.

Yours Lovingly
Gordon