France June, 22/17

Dear Bee,

Your letter and mothers’ arrived a couple of days ago and I certainly was pleased to get them as it was a long, long time since I had gotten any before.

And so there is another young man around the Blott family now eh! I was very glad to hear that I had a brand new nephew and you are both feeling so well. He seems to be the black sheep alright as Jack & Don are so fair & he is so dark. I suppose the all engrossing topic is what shall we call him. If you can find as good a name for him as you did for the other boys you will be doing alright.

Was very sorry to hear that Harry was not feeling well, especially when he was so busy, & hope that he is alright again.

You mentioned that you had been reading M. Vivianis’ speech in the house at Ottawa and was telling me what you thought of it: now it is rather a coincidence that in the same mail as was your letter was a Toronto Globe that Maggie Brown had sent me and the speech happened to be in it. It was a forcible speech alright and seemed to touch even some of those hardened old politicians.

Maggie has moved to 24 Garfield Ave. S. now, their other house was sold. She says that Mrs. Dickson has left Gardiner and gone to keep house for Will Clelland. There was a little more news of the Carluke people but I guess it did not amount to much as I have forgotten it.

You had been thinking of the old times when you writing, we sure had some good doings then. We will have some more good times too I hope when I get back even if the old ones would not be enjoyed the same. We used to have our spats sure enough but that was only on the surface. I don’t think that many brothers & sisters got along together any better than we did.

The weather has been a trifle showery lately but we cannot kick as we had such a long spell of sunshine.

I had just written this far when I had to move out of the tent I was writing in and have just about time to wind this up to get it into the officer to be censored tonight. Would have liked to have written a longer letter to you this time but will try and do better next time. There is so little to write about as I cannot tell you what we are doing every day as we are not allowed to write about military matters. I do not see why myself as the papers are full of war news every day but I supposed “powers that be” have good reasons.

Am feeling fine these times myself and often think of you people so write as often as you can. Tell mother to take good care of herself and to be sure & get anything she wants. Best of love to you all from your loving brother Bruce McLagan.