June 25th, 1915
France

We came back here three nights ago and are just simply having a real good loaf, For the first two days we cleaned guns, horses and harness and today it is raining a bit and we are all reading, writing and cleaning up.

Did you see the names of Ell and our Sergeant Major among those mentioned in despatches. I am so glad Ell and he were because they both certainly deserved it. Each battery commander was asked to recommend ten names and they pick from those and send them on to the General. Ell does'nt half realize what an honor it is, if he were going on with soldiering after the war it would mean a whole lot to him. But I guess we wont want any more soldiering except camp once a year at Petewawa.

We had a nice night march up here, but orders to move came so suddenly that we left without all our nose bags, buckets, etc., as it was pitch dark and we could'nt see the road at all on the way up. I took the waggon back next day and we cleaned up the billet and horse lines. Had lunch at my old billet and the old lady was overjoyed to see me.

At our present billet five sleep in the second kitchen. The Major has a bed in one corner. All is comfortable. The room looks like the dining room on Sunday morning, newspapers all over the place. There are two girls here about 20 and 25 and we try our French on them. The Major is now discussing a neighbour's baby and we have succeeded in finding out that it is a girl although the name does not denote this fact.

The Major has just come in from town ……) He was walking along in his raincoat and showing no rank, badges was taken by a junior supernumerary unqualified bumptious English subaltern for a "tommy". He became very indignant when asked why he did'nt salute an officer when he passed one. I wish we had all been there to hear his candid opinion of junior, supernumerary, unqualified English subalterns in general. He is a very staunch Canadian you know, and hates the bumptious over-bearing type one often sees in England.