[Note: The date is January 16th, 1916 – Dean continued to write the previous years date of “15” throughout most of January 1916.]
January 16/15
Morley – 601 Miles from Vanc
Dear Mother:-
Well we are near Calgary, expect to be there in less than an hour, We reached Kamloops last night at 8.30. After that we went to bed and woke up this morning at Field. We saw all the new tunnels this morning the last one on the up climb took 4 ½ years to build. It is in the Yoho valley. You go in a hole and come out almost right above it a good distance higher up. The train goes in the mountain turns a complete circle in the tunnel and comes back out just a few feet from the place only way above. It is an awful job to write here. We are in a colonist car but have bunks same as tourist except that we have no mattresses. However I had a dandy sleep last night. I am on orderly today washing dishes and serving food etc.
As I said in my postcard Mr and Mrs Crawford are going to Toronto Tourist, I go in there two or three times a day for an hour or so. We are not supposed to go in there and sit but they don’t say anything to me.
Everybody is well in our bunch. One woman is train sick in the tourist and one of our boys is doctoring her up.
Well I guess I will see Jessie tonight if she gets the telegram in good time. It gave her about 5 hours to get it that should be enough time. It only cost 26¢. We are supposed to have a man get on the train to change our money into English silver before we go on the boat.
Well I guess I will close and get supper. If I cant get a letter back on the sea I will write from the old soil so Bye bye
Harold
Tell everybody that did or didn’t hear from me I send best regards. H.
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