"Sargent make a note of that." An then the Sargent rites somethin in a
little book. Next time just the same. The Captin says wheres my shirt an
the sargent makes a note. I guess theres somethin in the drill
regulations what makes him say that cause I aint got no other
shirt yet.

Well Mable Im gettin hungry again now. Guess Ill have to stop an buy a
couple of pies. We dont get nothin to eat for an hour yet.

yours till the ice cracks in the pale,
_Bill_.

P.S. I had to borrow a stamp for this letter. I went down town yesterday
an spent my last sent on a money belt. Its a good one though.

_Dere Mable:_

Rainin today. No drill so Im going to rite you. If I dont get no
exercise I go all to pieces. Im back from the artillery into the
infantry. Captin an I had different ideas about runnin things. One of us
had to leave. Hed been there longest. I left. Hot headed. Thats me
all over.

Were doin baynut drill now. I cant say nothin about it. Its not for
wimens ears. We have one place where we hit the Hun in the nose an rip
all the decorashuns offen his uniform all in one stroke. Then theres
another where you give him a shave an a round hair cut an end by
knocking his hat over his eyes. Then the wiperzup come over with a lot
of bums an do the dirty work. I an the rest of the fellos go ahead an
take another trench. I havnt been able to find out yet where we take it.

Its all worked out cientifick. The fello who doped it out had some bean.
The principul of the thing is to get the other fello an not let him get
you. If the allys bad doped out some skeme like this the war would have
been over now. There wouldnt have been no Huns left. It takes us Uncle
Sammies. Eh Mable?

[Illustration: "ONE DAY IT'S OUR TEETH"]

There gettin up a thrift campain now Mable. First they sell us enough
Liberty Bonds to buy a brand new army an let us go home. Then they cram
a lot of insurence at you what wont never do you no good after your
killed. Then I guess they found that someone still had a couple of
dollars left so they made us send that back home. Now there gettin up a
thrift campain Mable. They dont want us to spend our money foolish sos
we can buy the Singer Buildin or a Ford or somethin like that when the
war is over.

Some one say that we was the highest payed army in the world. Besides
all this money we get our bed and board. I guess they dont know that in
the army bed and board mean the same thing. Eh, Mabl