Dear godfather, I make to you a list of words American I comprehend not, and I hope you will have the obligeance to explicate them to me.  What is, for example, gee whiz, felers, boy scouts, bum, home defence, kernel, getysberg adress, mebbe, pooh-pooh, bug-house, the dickens, pollywogs, and lick the stuffin out?  I effort myself very strong to find them, but it is not worth the pain to search any longer in the dictionary.

Your affeckshunate godchild,
Andree Leblanc.

Greenville Falls, N.Y. 
July 5, 1917.

Deer godchild,

How are you?  I dont see that their is enny fun in life enny more.  I erned $1.56 pickin cheries off the Burtons black chery tree and I thot that wood make 70 cents fer you and I would spend the rest on fire crakers, well Toby that is the Burtons mastif that is always chened up, broke loose and I guess he remembered when Johnny Smith and me had swiped some cheries last yere when he was chened up, becaus he give one yip and come and set rite under that tree, and he set their and grinnd at me all afternoon, and bimeby their was a thunder shower and I had on my blew pants that was made from dads that had got too tite fer him, and I thot when it begin to rain Toby wood beat it, but he just set their and didnt move till bimeby mister Burton come along and yankt him away by the color.  Well I had pickt the cheries al-rite but I was soked clear through and the color had come off my pants and on my legs.  It is feerce to have blew legs.  Well I thot I wood stop and boy a canon craker and a pistol and I wasnt going to fire them off before the 4th. but ole Max Dinkelheim was walking kind of slow in front of me and I thot I wood try the pistol just once to see if it workt, so I walkt a little faster and shot it off bingo and you shood have seen ole Max jump!  He give one flop in the air and hollered, A bom!  A bom!  I guess he thot I was a submareen, and when he saw it was me beat it after me and we run all the way home, and Max he run rite into dad and sed, Where is that boy I will teech him to molest a peaceful citizen.  And dad sed, What has he done?  And he told him and sed, I am going to give him the best lickin of his life, and dad rolld up his sleeves and sed, Not till you lick me first!  And Max kind of lookd at dad just like in the dream and I guess he was scart, so he sed, If you will promise to see he is punisht I will leve it to you, and dad sed, I promise, and Max left and dad he come up and was mad as ole get out, and he took my pistol and canon away and I had ruther he had give me a lickin because after too days you can set down and are al-rite again.  We have just herd the Yanks have landid somewhere in France.  Say, if you want to see a bunch of rele fiters you just go take a look at them, and you mite tell your brother Jules to take a look at them two as he might get some idees from them.  I cant tell you what all those words mean, gee whiz is just gee whiz and a feler is a guy who is about 12 or 18, and