April 24/44

Dear Mother and Dad,

I received your letter today, the first one I have received yet. The letters you addressed to Chippawa must be going the long way round. It is sure good to get news of home and I have read the letter through about 20 times so far.

It is raining here again today and the place is pretty mucky. It will likely be fine tomorrow and then rain again.

They have a real good library and I was over their last night. There is a good reading room with the latest books and magasines. I guess I won’t have much time for reading when I begin my coarse which will be next Monday, I hope. The Morse Pool is pretty crowded and we have to stay on C and M. until there is room for us. (Care and Maintenance). The work is not bad, but it gets monotonous.

In answer to your questions:

1. I took my parcel on the train and got some socks from Uncle Campbell’s.

2. When they gave us our tickets at Chippawa, just before we left, we got also meal tickets and sleeper ticket. We got 4 - 75¢ tickets and 2 - $1.00 tickets. Breakfast and lunch were 75¢ and dinner was $1.00. The meals were all right but not much. The dinner was the same as a 35¢ dinner in a café.

3. We can lie on our bunk any time we want to and we can go to bed as soon as we finish work if we want to.

Your loving son,
Malcolm

P.S. I am getting dish-pan hands. I should use Oxydol.

[Drawing of washing dishes and placing them on drying rack, captioned: “(all I do now I put the plates in the racks) R.MM”]

P.P.S. I noticed by the Minnedosa Tribune that I have been promoted to an Able-Seaman. That is fast work for only 1½ months.
R.MM