Feb. 5th, 1917.
My dear Lulu
I was most fortunate last week in getting two of your letters; one registered, and dated Jan 8, and another unregistered, dated Jan. 10. That is fine indeed, and I was delighted. By this time you will know that I am receiving mail more or less regularly; it takes about twenty three days to come from Digby.
Lest I forget, you might notice that now all that is needed in addressing mail to me is: No. 252656, Pte. Thos. W .Johnson, 102nd Canadian Battalion, B.E.F., France. That is the way P.O. people ask to get it, so perhaps that will be the best. Any further change I will send you. Another thing. The length of your letters need not trouble you for I like them better the longer they are. No censor will trouble about them, for letters to us are never censored - at least I never heard of one being opened. It is ours that must be brief, for ours come strictly under the censor's eye, and if they should contain any information that should not be sent, or if they are too long, or if we post more than a certain number per week, may be returned to us, or destroyed altogether without our knowing of it. So let your mind be at rest about your letters being seen by anyone but myself. And the more they are "just Lulu" makes them more welcome.
You need not worry about my safety, Lulu. I have moved to about three places since I came to France and expect soon to go to a fourth; but so far I have been in comparative safety. The sound of the guns is mostly from our own weapons, so every bang is welcome. The lights to are pretty at night, but I have seen very little of them. I snore away in glorious peace, conscious that Fritz has to do a great deal of mischief before he can reach me. It only made me laugh when a man came to me yesterday to say that he had just received a letter from his mother near where my parsonage was, saying that it was reported there that "Rev." Johnson had been killed.
You were right my dear Lulu about the date we left the first stopping place in France. It was just a few days after the time you stated. But while I am glad that mental telepathy tells you some of the things I feel, yet I hope it does not tell you all. When I come back to you, and sit in your room there, where everything is at peace, where it is warm and cozy, & where there is no censor, we shall have many a laugh over my "feelings". Sometimes the men will come to me and laughingly tell me that that is the first time they have seen a "Parson" do this, or that.
Some of the uses to which I have put some of the things you have so kindly sent me would make you laugh. That "Tommy Cooker" for instance was invaluable, because we cannot buy any here. We made "mush" at night before going to bed. I bought some Quaker Oats and Condensed Milk, and we had something "hot" - just what we love when it is so cold. Then when I left a sick man in our billet (the ink in my pen has frozen) he fished out our cooker and made himself some hot Oxo. We often laugh about it, for the old timers know the "cookers", but our boys don't, for we cannot buy them. If there was plenty of inflammable material it would be splendid, for the rest lasts forever practically; unless sometime I am forced to "ditch" my whole kit, as sometimes happens.
Another letter has just been handed to me, - and it is from you! Oh, Lulu, never think that I shall misunderstand you in writing me without getting one from me. I seem to have time just to look forward to the next letter from you, and think of little else. I am more than pleased that you wear the 209th badge and that the 'Le Havre' broach is not despised. I sent you some time ago some needlework of a French peasant near here, I hope you like that as well. We shall have jolly times talking of the circumstances under which I got hold of various little souvenirs I hope to get hold of.
But I am sorry about the suffering you undergo about your teeth, and hope you will soon be well again. Try not to go out too much in the cold, even to meetings, for it is needless to suffer in that way. I hope your health will steadily improve so that when the train brings me to Digby we may have a fine time together.
No camera is allowed here at all. I should love to take views of things here, for they are fine, and typically French . The Roads, Schools, Trees, Houses, Chateaus, etc, are so different to anything we have in Canada. I am sending you a snapshot of myself & a little boy I received from one of my late "parishioners." If I could get you a proper photo I would, I have one which I saved of my "graduation pictures" - but that is stowed away in my trunk in Western Canada.
Now I must stop for I can scarcely think. It is too cold when the night closes in, and I must be spick & span for parade.
Accept my best love and give my kindest remembrances to your mama & papa
Yours as ever
Tom.
Thos. W. Johnson., No 252656.
