P.S. I wish you would send me some Gillette Razor Blades dear, as I cant get any here that are any good. J.

France.

June. 24th 1915

My darling Wife.

I have just received your letter dated June 3rd & right glad I was to hear from you & to hear that you are all well, I am writing this in the reserve trenches where we have been for the last two days, & we have had a very quiet time of it, we expect to go back to the base very soon to be re-organized & if we do we may be out for some time, I am happy to say that I am still keeping well & in good health, but I would love a couple of nights sleep in a good bed, sleeping on the ground all the time is not very good for the rheumatism nor is it very restful, still on the whole I make out pretty good, the only things I miss & miss badly is cigarettes & candys, I know you will be surprised when I mention candys, but somehow everyone else is the same, we all seem to take a craving for chocolates or something sweet & every time we get any money we spend the most of it on sweet stuffs, as for cigarettes we get an issue every Sunday but there is never enough to last more than two or three days, most of the boys have friends & relations in England & they get them to send out cigarettes & stuff to them, it makes me feel ever so much more lonely when I see them getting such a lot of stuff sent out to them. I am only getting paid $8 a month here, that is $4 twice a month & as everything is dearer here now than in Canada you may guess how far that goes, the balance of the money will be paid to us when we get back to England.

I am not very much surprised about the Vernon boys getting cold feet when it comes to leaving home & loved ones behind, still, they should do their duty, when they signed on for active service they should go through with it & not act the coward by drawing out of it at the last moment, I am sure they will not have the respect of their friends & those of us who are out here doing our bit, will have something to say to them when we get back, I can assure you we will not spare them one bit. It must have been very amusing to see Bob Stevenson carring the Germans poodle, I’ll bet he lost quite a bit of his dignity, does he still wear a white collar with his uniform.

I have never come across your brother yet, in fact I have not heard of his regt around here yet, but this is a big place & it may be some time yet before I come across him. The next chance I get when we get to a town I am going to send the children some postcards, they have some very pretty ones here & I am sure you will like them, the weather here has been awfully hot lately & it is very hard to stand, it is bad enough when we are lying around, but it is much worse when we have to march in it & the water is so bad too that it is nearly impossible to get a satisfying drink, as for the beer here is it awful stuff, they sell it a 1d a glass & it would be dear if they gave it away. I am glad you are writing to Ottawa about your money, there is no reason why you should not get it, the same as the others, well dear, I must close now as I want this to go out with to-days mail, beside I dont think there is anything more for me to say just now, except to send you & the dear children all my love, kiss George & Eileen for me, dear, & give them a great big love from their daddy & with all kinds of kisses & love to you, my sweetheart

I remain your loving husband

Jack -

You say in your letter that if you had a big love from me you would be a lot better satisfied, so would I, love, & every night I feel the same & I only wish I could have you here beside me & you can bet, dear that I would love you as much & more than ever I did, It is starting to rain now, dear, so I must close.

Your J.

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