Well Mable Im gettin hungry again now.  Guess Ill have to stop an buy a couple of pies.  We dont get nothin to eat for an hour yet.

     yours till the ice cracks in the pale,
          Bill.

P.S.  I had to borrow a stamp for this letter.  I went down town yesterday an spent my last sent on a money belt.  Its a good one though.

Dere Mable:

Rainin today.  No drill so Im going to rite you.  If I dont get no exercise I go all to pieces.  Im back from the artillery into the infantry.  Captin an I had different ideas about runnin things.  One of us had to leave.  Hed been there longest.  I left.  Hot headed.  Thats me all over.

Were doin baynut drill now.  I cant say nothin about it.  Its not for wimens ears.  We have one place where we hit the Hun in the nose an rip all the decorashuns offen his uniform all in one stroke.  Then theres another where you give him a shave an a round hair cut an end by knocking his hat over his eyes.  Then the wiperzup come over with a lot of bums an do the dirty work.  I an the rest of the fellos go ahead an take another trench.  I havnt been able to find out yet where we take it.

Its all worked out cientifick.  The fello who doped it out had some bean.  The principul of the thing is to get the other fello an not let him get you.  If the allys bad doped out some skeme like this the war would have been over now.  There wouldnt have been no Huns left.  It takes us Uncle Sammies.  Eh Mable?

[Illustration:  “One day it’s our teeth”]

There gettin up a thrift campain now Mable.  First they sell us enough Liberty Bonds to buy a brand new army an let us go home.  Then they cram a lot of insurence at you what wont never do you no good after your killed.  Then I guess they found that someone still had a couple of dollars left so they made us send that back home.  Now there gettin up a thrift campain Mable.  They dont want us to spend our money foolish sos we can buy the Singer Buildin or a Ford or somethin like that when the war is over.

Some one say that we was the highest payed army in the world.  Besides all this money we get our bed and board.  I guess they dont know that in the army bed and board mean the same thing.  Eh, Mable?  Still the same old Bill.

There always inspectin us.  I feel like a piece of prize beef.  They never inspect a man all the way through.  I guess the inspecters get payed by the day durin the duration of the inspecshun.  One day its our teeth an another our heart an another our lungs.  The other day we was all lined up in the company street and the Sargent says “Inspecshun arms.”  I lays down my gun an rolls up my sleves.  Just to show you how tecknickle the army is he didnt want to see my arms at all but my gun.  Hows a fello goin to tell, Mable?

I went up for thirds at breakfast the other morning as usual an the cook said “You seem to like coffee.”  Right away without stoppin to think or nothin I says back “Yes thats the reason Im willin to drink so much hot water to get some.”  Eh, Mable?