France Mach 2/1916 Dear Frank, I rec your letter the other while at our past billets but have moved nearer the firing line since that. At present we are only three or four miles from the firing line and can hear the big guns booming very plentiful. The aren't going [?] for a few days as the battalion that we are going in with are out resting at present. Two of our companies went in last night and I guess Mac Woods was in when he came back from the hospital they put him in a different company and he hadn't time to transfer. George Money got back from the hospital at Bramshott the same night as he came away and so is attached to the base company. The last place we were in barns but we have tents now and it isn't too bad. It is very muddy here but the worst of it is over as the trenches are beginning to dry up a little. It is rather hard to write good when you are sitting on the tent floor writing by candle light. We are going into the trenches with the Ross rifle I thought before that we would have to Lee Enfield as we did our target schooling with it. Eatables are very dear in France here and about all you can get are eggs and chops. We only draw a Franc a day now that is about twenty cents but we don't need much money. Is there as much snow as ever in Manitoba? By the time you get this letter you will be nearly finished your college course. Well this is about all the news now. From you loving brother Jim