ndleton is
here every day, very gay but very desperate. I use the Colonel all I can
against him, and the innocent old man will talk shop with him by the
hour. But sometimes the lieutenant manages to get me alone, and only my
best cold-storage manner has saved me so far.

But if the lieutenant is the kind that takes you by storm, Captain Kirby
is one that will lay siege. He doesn't come so often as the other, he
doesn't stay so long, he doesn't say so much; but he is the kind that
sticks. I may be able to stave off the lieutenant, but I shall have to
have it out with the captain.

I wish you were here. You would be such a help! Can't you manage it? Oh,
Frances dear, I don't like army life. Why couldn't I be satisfied with
Dick? Come and help me!

VERA.

FROM PRIVATE RICHARD GODWIN TO HIS MOTHER

Plattsburg, Friday, Sept. 22, 1916.

DEAR MOTHER:--

It rained in the night, and between showers I went out and fixed the cap
of the tent, loosening also the cords. If we don't attend to these latter
as soon as rain begins they are likely to shrink and tear the canvas, or
perhaps pull up the tent pegs. And if everything holds till morning, then
the job of loosening the ropes, even with three men to each, is
considerable. But I was in time. In the morning it was cloudy, but we had
dry weather for our baths and breakfast, and for making up our packs.
Then the rain began to patter, and we to groan. The bugle blew, and we
stood expectant at the doors of our tents, waiting for the whistle. We
awaited the order, "full equipment, ponchos over all," but the call came,
"non-commissioned officers, with their drill regulations, at the head of
the street." The corporals and sergeants went, the privates in the tents
cheered madly, and now we are awaiting what may happen next.

So in the interval, just a few words about our proficiency, and our
partial failure so far. We haven't done very well, and that's a fact. We
march badly, losing distance, interval, and alignment; we dress slowly,
we fall in with much delay, and our various manoeuvres are done with much
hesitation and uncertainty. For all this the captain has, as the boys
say, plentifully "bawled us out," constantly working us more than any
other officer has done in the battalion. We can't deny that we are ragged
and slovenly, but why is it?

To begin with we are tryi