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- where. So much for the family. I hope I’m not boring you with ell these detailp, but this is the first opportunity I’ve had to describe the carrying on of whet I suppose is a typical French family. The kid, unfortunately, only 'spent one night with us, having to leave next day as guard over a prisoner to headquarters. When he left I was the only linguist left, snd what I don’t know* about the French lingo would fill a good many volumnes. Still Julie oould speak a little English, so we got along fairly well.
If ever §. girl worked hard, she did, Up at four every morning to get the miners off to work by four-thirty, and from then till nine at night, ehe always seemed to be doing something. They do washing for the army baths at a penny a garment, doing one day no lees than 2C0 shirts and drawers, All hard work of course. But in spite of it all Julie was always laughing end smiling. She’s some kid all right.
Before we had been in the house an hour they were calling us by our first names. "R-e" was the nearest they could come to the kid’s monicker, but I was "Fredericque" from then on. There was quite a, ceremony every night when the kids retired, , they having to , "Bon soir" everybody and shake hands all around.
In the morning we had to have a cup of coffee, then a tub of warm water to wash in. No such a thing as taking our towels up stairs again,, they had to be hung up in the kitchen to dry. Also they were washed twice in the six days we spent there. Nov/ Finn is notoriously careless as to the condition he keeps his equipment in,, and his mess tin, having been used to boil w&ter in more tha„n once isn’t overly clean. We came down the next morning and Finn started looking around for his tin. Couldn’t find it anywhere.
Had just decided to go to breakfast without it,when the Mother yelled to,Julie, who was in an outhouse washing, apparently asking her if she had seen it. Julie came in and picked, up a. brightly shining tin from the window ledge and handing it to Finn said "C’est a vous, me shine it ce matin*'. You could have knocked*Finn down with a feather. After that we were careful not to leave any of our stuff down stairs at night.
You may be sure that: we repaid them for their kindness. Bully beef, no bon to us, ie a luxury to them,, and we saw to it that they were plentifully supplied. We also kept the kids supplied with candy every so often. Taking it all in all, it sure was an enjoyable week, end we hated like the devil to leave.
One night-later.
Couldn’t finish last night, as I was interrupted too often. Will finish her up this trip though.
Have just received the photos we had taken a couple of weeks ago, and am enclosing one. Bo you still think that I'm thinner than I used to be? The kid had a rotten cold when the picture was
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