Aug 22 1916 Dearest Mother I'm quite aware it's a long time since Ive written home, the field postcards are all Ive been using lately simply because there is nothing to say. Hardly anything happens which I havenot seen before and what does happen that is interesting is mostly what cant be written about. We were out on rest for awhile 6 or 8 days to be exact, away from the noise and lice, slept in a field, luckily it didn't rain, lots of hard work cleaning horses, leather and brass and felt better for it. Orvil's billet happened to be quite near so saw him frequently. My old battalion played a huge joke on Fritz the other day. During the night some of the men went over and tied ropes to his barb ware, and at a signal all pulled together in our own trenches. Fritz hearing the noise, thought a raid was coming, vacated his front line and turned on his artillery in his own trenches, heavy stuff 5.9s etc. thinking of course to teach these raiders a lesson. I can well imagine how are fellows would laugh and roor, lie down on the trench mats and tie themselves in knots with glee and mirth. The last huge joke was the time the airmen got his balloons which I told you about. The only redeeming feature of our present position is a station near a pond about the size of Grenadier, in which two days out of four are spent and where we can have a good swim. If it werent that the war was not a great distance off we could spend two weeks vacation near it. However its "no [?]" when the balloon is up which means we go in at dusk or when its raining. Your parcels have been coming quite regularly as far as I know but recently Ive been thinking hard of any other place I might have left 32 cents before I came away. With best of love to you all. Your affectionate son John