Have received several letters from you lately and was very glad to hear that everything is progressing satisfactorily.

By now if everything has gone well Mother ought to be home once more.  Lets see April 25th.  The snow ought to be pretty well gone.  You will soon be picking May flowers on the beach.  Over here the dandylions are out in full bloom and violets and daisies are in blossom.

I ment to bring a few in with me but I forgot so the next letter I write I’ll have to send you a few flowers from the Trenches.

Its now twenty five days since Leslie was wounded.  I received your telegram saying that you had received news about Leslie and that Mother was fine.  I was glad to hear that because I was worried as to whether Mother would be the better for hearing it or not.
I received a letter from him the other day but hang it all I have lost it and forget which hospital he is in.  However I expect another letter from him any time now and he will let me know where he is.  I met Capt. Pugsley the other day.  You remember he saw Leslie at the base.  He says that Leslie will be quite O.K.  As I said before I hope he makes Canada upon it.  That sure would be Tres bon eh!

The last letter I wrote I told you that my address would be changed.  Well you can now address my letters to –
No. 3 Company, 2nd Cd’n Machine Gun Batt’n.  You see there has been a general change in organization so this is my new address.  I also told you last time that I was 2nd in command to a M.G. Battery  (There are four batteries to a company)  Well now I am in command of one and have been ever since the last time I wrote to you -  About twelve days ago.  I was given command of one on that very day.  If I have any luck I will get my captaincy out of it any day now.  I have been hesitating about telling you about it in case I wasn’t given a Captaincy.  Well there are four of us and I’m the junior one of the bunch as far as being in France is concerned but the Colonel has given us batteries over the heads of a lot who have been out here a much longer time.  If what he says goes I shall get my captaincy immediately but if division or any higher authority butts in I may be out of luck as I have only been out here six months and they may insist on somebody else getting the job.  If they do I have made up my mind not to feel bad about it as I figure it is really coming to some of the others first.  However if I am offered a captaincy believe me I’ll just hop right to it.  At present I’m in command of about one hundred and twenty men.

So this isn’t bad for your baby eh?  I sure do hope I get it you know – I’d get more pay and so on.  You know its only natural for a fellow to want to go up.  I have been working hard and I think everything is O.K. so far.  I only hope that I come out of this affair O.K.

Well besides this I haven’t much news for you.  I have been working so hard of late that I haven’t seen two newspapers in a month.  So I guess you know just about as much of the world wide war as I do just now.  That is taking it on the whole.

It is pouring rain just now and getting cold.  I’ll have to have Radcliffe put on a fire and take the chill out of the air.  Am living in a pretty fair spot considering everything.  The Engineers built it and its “tres jake”.  It is actually thundering just now and it reminds me of Canada.  I don’t believe I’ve heard thunder before since I left.  That seems a long long time ago now – Lets see about nineteen months.  Well that is a long time alright.  But thank God that we are all alive yet anyway.

Please don’t mention my job at all – at least till I can say something for sure as I don’t want to count my chicken before they are hatched.

Well goodbye dear Mater and Pater – I sure hope that you are getting along well.  And I hope Dad has discovered the family plate or something worth great coin.