Dear Friend:
I suppose you will be surprised at hearing from me, but I also was surprised and glad to receive The Cobourg World.

Well, how are you getting along? I suppose Cobourg is awful quiet now. What kind of a hockey team have they got this year? You cannot imagine how much I would appreciate being back in Old Cobourg rink instead of being here. If I could only tell you where and how we are. I have not seen any of the Cobourg boys yet but two of the Cobourg Batteries are right near us now - only you know we are not allowed to wander about. I met one of their fellows the other night who was going on leave, but he was from Winnipeg. He was telling me of some of the boys - Joe Gormley, Milan Carley, Young 'Doc' Ivey, Jack Burnet, Asa Lapp, and a lot more whom I know. This fellow was quite surprised when I told him that I put in four years with that Battery and with most of those fellows too. He said the reason Lt.-Col. Odell was left in England was because he was such an efficient mathematician.

I have just got out from putting in six weeks in the hospital. I was pretty bad with influenza and bronchitis. I was on liquid diet for eleven days and that certainly took some fat off me. I am feeling pretty 'bum' yet. I guess I have lost all Christmas parcels, as they were sent to the hospital and I never received them. Parcels do not very often return from there if the patient has returned to duty.
Well, I am glad you took the trouble to send The World, as I would rather get it than a Toronto paper. Remember me to all the boys - and girls too.
WILL SINGER.