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- home, Tout considered large enough to accomodate 20 of us. It is surprising how little space a fellow really needs to occupy in this life. What to you folks would he considered overcrowded, to us represented a fine billet with plenty of elbow room. The fact that quite a large hole decorated, the ceiling, the the window, sash and all had disappeared, being "replaced" by a blanket, merely meant more fresh air. Must confess though, that the presence of a sheet of corrugated iron on the roof, said sheet being insufficently fastened down, thus oausing it to make an unearthly racket when the wind blew, hadin' t exactly a soothing sleep-producing effect. One fellow made the suggestion that we should take turns in using our heads as a buffer, but as he objected to being the first victim, the scheme fell through. To add to the comforts of horst, we had a fine open fireplaoe, with plenty of fuel, there being all kinds of wood to be obtained from the ruined houses in the village. You've no idea hOY* different an aspect is put onlife by a big warm fire in an open fire-place. If we felt in a singing mood, why we'd sing, hymns, ragtime, sentimental anything and everything. By and by the homesteaders, of whom there ere plenty, would start swapping experiences, every man Jack of them wishing they were back home to get in on the $2, oo wheat.
Then the talk would hit off at an entirely different tangent, politics maybe, or what we intended doing "apres le guerre",but as a rule steering clear of "shop". By this time the bunch will be thinning out, as the fellows one by one crawl into their bunks, leaving finally two or three around the dying embers. Then they too join the sleeping throng and all is silence, excepting of course the unearthly racket raised by that sheet iron on the roof, and the stentorion snores emanating from a few of the"gang". Then your eyes close, sleep creeps upon you, and another day's work has come to a finish,
Now,, Mother mine,another little lecture. You seem to be worrying a great deal over the fact that, as you put it, "you are doing so little to.made our path easier". Just how you come to. that conclusion is more than I oan figure out, What more can you do. than you. are doing now for our comfort. We get clothes from the government. You can't help us there. We are paid enough to have a little spending money, all that is necessary. And you keep us plentifully supplied by parcels of eats. So what more could we want? Of course we don't have all the comforts of home by any means, but then we don't expect it. So when, you hit the hay tonight, instead of imagining that we are "wet, cold and hungry", try to realize that we are in all probability in a good warm bed, lousy of course, but comfortable in spite of it. Get me?
The kid is sitting nearby reading the Colonist, eight copies of which came in tonight's mail. Haven't had a chance to lookst them yet, but will do so some time tomorrow. Am always glad to get them, even if the news is a month old. Was amused to sec in one copy an editorial eulogizing Bonar Law, "England's new Prime Minister". Lugrin sure pulled a bone that time. Doubtless he
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