In an earlier letter Pte. Mellis says:
I have just come back from the lines for my first time. Fritz did not get me this time and I guess he won't get me next time, not if I can help it. We are in billets about four miles behind the lines now. There are huts with bunks three stories high and big enough to accommodate a company each. We have just received our issue of cigarettes. These are sent here by the overseas Club Tobacco Fund. Each little bunch has a post card in it with the name of the person who sent the money to the club to buy them. The one I got had the following address on it, 'The subscription to the Overseas Club Tobacco Fund, care of the postmaster, Gores Landing, Ontario.'
I just had to break off to get my issue of rum, five table spoonfuls. It sure is a good dose. I got a letter from Father and one from TILL when I was in a dugout up in the front line. One of the other lads got the Cobourg papers so we had the Cobourg news right in the trenches.
There is so much of a racket in here I can hardly think what to write. They are singing and telling war tales and the experiences they have had. I will write again tomorrow night. Good-bye for the present.
Melville.
Pte. M.H Mellis, 814845, C. Co., 4th Bn, Canadians, B.E.F., France.