ment I
must shift it as I move my hand along the line.

The boys are gathering for a feed--the apples, Some honey, bread,
shredded wheat, cream from the local creamery (Knudsen's inspiration),
the first such feast since the hike began. We have invited our neighbors,
Squad Nine. So, since there is no more to tell, I will close this.

"Pass up your cups," says Clay.

Love to you from

DICK.

PRIVATE GODWIN TO HIS MOTHER

On the road to Ledger Corners.
Tuesday the 3d October.

DEAR MOTHER:--

I write on my back in the usual roadside ditch, our column having halted
after firing has broken out in our rear. My pack was on wrong this
morning, hanging too low, so that the straps cut me; I was glad to stop,
so as to adjust it. Usually it is no trouble: in fact in some of the
skirmishes I have not thought of it at all except to remark how little it
cumbered me.

But the pack can be, I have found, a detriment in case of a fall.
Yesterday, going through a boggy wood, with rocks and slimy fallen trees,
I slipped and plunged forward. Without the pack I could have saved
myself; but the heavy roll, shooting ahead, was just enough to
overbalance me and bring me down among the stumps and boulders. To
protect my face I twisted as I fell. This brought the pack under me, my
head was lower than my hips, the pack wedged in a hole, and I should have
had difficulty in rising had not the boys yanked me up.

Our feed at bed time was a success. We were warned of a hard day to
follow, the march being extra long, and the road being so unsafe for
trucks (on account of weak culverts) that we must carry our own dinners,
which we must eat cold. In consequence we were given this morning an
emergency ration, consisting of a slice of Bologna sausage, two pieces of
dry bread, and two hard boiled eggs. These we put in our meat cans, with
such chocolate as we could get from the buzzards; we are carrying them
now, and are wondering if the cooks will get to camp in time to give us
coffee.

Behind me, after quiet, the fire has broken out again. The boys listen
critically. "We shan't have to go back for that." There is a whole
battalion behind us that can stand off any attack.

(_Later._) The hike today has been steady plodding, halting at the
regular intervals, also at times of attack