Same old Bill, eh Mable! | Page 9

time you get to sleep the horses has to be fed. And when your not
feedin them you got to get up an feed yourself. In the army a fellos
hungry when they tell him to eat an no other time.

After theyd blown a horn at me about eight different times I figgered I
might as well stay up an rite you a letter. Now that were gettin up near
the front Im goin to rite just as much as I can. Thats partly sos you
wont worry an partly so that if I get knocked off you will have
something to amuse you in case you go into a convent.
I had to leave all those sweters an caps an everything that you nitted me
last winter. You dont need to feel bad about that tho cause they wouldnt
let us wear them anyway. If everybody wore all the stuff thats been
nitted for them since the war started this would look more like an ice
carnival than an army. Its sentiment that counts, tho, not wool.
In the meantime still Bill
_Dere Mable:_
After travelin for three nites we dont seem to be any nearer the front
than we ever was. Ether the Fritzes are retreatin in trucks or were goin
the wrong way. The only reason were not marchin tonite is because
when we got into this town the Captin found a chatto for his P.C. P.C.
is military, Mable. It means a place for the Captin. Mike Whozis, the
Captins orderly, says hes got one of those limosine beds with a roof an
sides on it. Its so big it dont make any difference how you lie on it. If
all he says about it is true we may stick around for the rest of the war.
[Illustration: "MIKE WHOZIS, THE CAPTINS ORDERLY"]
Well, never mind. Sailor Gare as the French say. Thats some old pirate
they blame everything on over here.
A bunch of prisoners came in last nite. They must have surrounded half
the German army cause it looked like a decorashun day parade when
the M.P. brought them in. If they make another hawl like that well have
about as much to fire at up at the front as we did back on the range. Id
never seen any Fritzes so Angus an I went down to the pen this
afternoon to see if they were breakin the child labor law or had any
wimmin with machine guns tied to them like you read about.
The pen is just a bunch of barracks not much better than the place
where we sleep. They got a lot of barb wire an an M.P. around it. The
Fritzes didnt look very wild to me. More like a bunch of stashun porters
out of a job. We tried to argu the M.P. into lettin a few of them go at a
time sos we could catch them agen but he took the war awful serious.
I got in wrong with the Captin agen today. This army is something like
gamblin. Whichever way you decide your bound to lose sooner or later.

Youd think that the only reason a fello would give you food was
because he expected you to eat it. Thats because you dont know the
army. The other day they ishued each fello what they called Irun
Rashuns. That means a can of petrified crackers an a can of gold fish.
Its not a bad name for the crackers. Your supposed to tote around your
Irun Rashuns with you wherever you go. The only thing is that you
mustnt eat them.
When they handed them out the Captin said we wasnt ever to eat them
unless we absolutely had to. As if anybody in his right mind would. Im
all for obeyin orders tho when it dont conflict with my duty. Joe
Balderose ate his half an hour after breakfast and then wanted me to
split with him on mine. I says "No. Not till I absolutely have to. An
then Ill be so far gone that you wont have a look in." I waited till hap
past ten tho I was gettin awful weak the last half hour. Youd ought to
have heard the Captin when he saw me. Youd have thought I was eatin
some of his old harness.
As far as I can see, Mable, its just another of his ways of passin the
buck. If General Perishing should happen to find one of us starved to
death some mornin he wants to be able to show him we had plenty of
food on us when we slipped away. Hes smart all right, that fello.
You cant tell what may happen before I have a chance to rite agen but
we wont