Same old Bill, eh Mable! | Page 4

proud of them
they set them right outside there windos sos they can sit an watch them
an never forget them. The bigger the pile the bigger man you are in
your home town. All I can say is Im glad the people we live with is
poor. Id hate to be bileted with the Mayor.
I got to quit now. The sensor cuts out most of this anyway. They say he
tears off half of every letter to lighten the mails.
au reservoir as the French say Bill
_Dere Mable:_
Id have rote you sooner only the sensor wont let me tell where I am an I
couldnt think of nothin else to say. This is the third letter Ive rote since
we landed. Im a little worried about the other two cause the Captin said
we couldnt menshun the names of no places. So I just addressed them
to Mable Gimp, nothin else.
In case you dont receive letters like that I wish youd let me know. Then
I wont be expectin any answer. Ritin letters from here is like talkin to a
fello over the fone that aint there.
Im having a little trouble with the languige. Its tricky. A lot of these
French words is the same as ours only they dont mean the same thing.
Like "Pan" an "We" an "Mercy" an "Toot sweet." As soon as I find
what the words stand for Ill be all right.
Some of the fellos dont seem to get onto the idear of this thing at all.
They think if they talk like they had an egg in there mouth an put in lots
of zs its French. Take Joe Loomis for instance. He talks like a German
thats lived with the French Canadians for a while. Hell go into a lunch
room an say "Geeve me ze beef stak rar, mit ze on-yon." Then he gets
sore when they put the wine list in front of him.
It aint the wine list that makes him sore of course. He cant get over the

American custom tho of eatin with his meals.
The first three days we was here we didnt have no guns nor horses or
nothin. I thought perhaps the Captin would give us a chance to get over
that rest camp, but he seems to have an idear tho that just so many of us
has got to be killed in the war an the quicker he gets it over with the
better. So every day he walks us about ten killen meters with the sun
hot enuff to boil eggs.
The guns came yesterday. There painted up like a ten cent sunset. They
call them Soizant Cans, whatever kind that is. They look pretty much in
the bean blower class to me. One of those guns we left back in the
States would take care of the four of them. But of course after polishin
those up last winter till I almost wore them out the Captin had to come
off an forget them. I guess now were stuck with these.
No horses came with the guns. I suppose we got to pull them around
ourselves for the rest of the war. I can just here the Captin tellin Gen.
Perishing, "No, no, General. My men havnt got a thing to do. Outside
of a couple of single mounts for the oficers I wont need a horse."
I wish your mother could see the wimmin wash close over here. She
might get more enjoyment out of that lawndress of hers. There is a lot
of summer houses down beside a creek behind the town. Every day
they go down there an stand in a barrel right in the creek. First they
take the close an drag them around the creek for a while. Then they lay
them on a wooden block an beat the buttons off them with a big board.
A button in a steam lawndry leads a life of quiet ease compared with
these.
[Illustration: "BEAT THE BUTTONS OFF THEM WITH A BIG
BOARD"]
After they get them hammered out flat they hang them on a barb wire
fence. In the evening they take home anything the cows has left in an
old wheelbarro. I guess by that time there dirty enuff to wash agen
cause there always washin and you dont see no results.
We spend all our time now drillin with those little guns. Of course there
different from those we had in the States so everything we learned over
there has to be forgot. As far as I can make out we might as well have
learned basket weavin for all the good it did us.
Well, Mable, have as good a time as you can at home. I know