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[Camp La Beholle, near Verdun] |
| Dear Bess: | January 7, 1919 |
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Such a joyousness--two letters from you last night, one from home, one from Boxley, one from Morgan, and one from some uneasy papa of one of my irresponsibles to know if his son is shot or not. He isn't and never has been over half-shot since he's been over here. (I should be shot for saying that, because the kid's one of my best corporals.) You've no idea how this muddy spot brightens up when letters come. I was so glad to get yours because I have been scared to death, ever since you told me Frank had the "flu," that either you or your mother would get it. I'm so glad you're getting well. It had been almost two weeks since I had received a letter and I was certainly uneasy. Mary was down with it too so you can imagine how I felt. George Arrowsmith was in to see me yesterday evening and I told him you had been sick, and he said yes he knew it but wasn't going to tell me if I didn't know it. Considerate man, isn't he? Mary says she is much better and I hope that by the next mail I'll hear you are both in excellent health. I thought perhaps you'd like to see how I am wasting away, pining to get home and out of the armee, so I'm enclosing you a Kodak picture of me made by Captain Paterson. I am supposed to be engrossed with a letter to you but inadvertently I am holding a pencil instead of a pen. I am thinking of you anyway because Paterson remarked that he'd flatter me as much as the camera would admit because he knew you'd like it that way. Don't you think I am getting thin? It took Pat nearly five minutes to get me posed so my double chin wouldn't show! The colonel says I'm getting thinner. I'm not so obese as I was a week or so ago and I'm still wearing my American uniforms, which by the way are better than any that can be bought over here now. I do hope you are well and that all danger from that dreadful flu is past. I am hoping for another letter later than the ninth. I'm glad you like the 77s. They don't amount to much as a present but they are worth something for their associations and the Vosges, Saint-Mihiel, Argonne-Meuse, and Verdun are the fronts the 129th worked on. Yours always, Harry |
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