Pte. Melville Mellis, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Mellis, town, under date of March 4th, wrote to his mother here as follows from France:

Just a few lines hoping to find you all well, as it leaves me at present. We are back in billets for a few days' rest and a little drill. At present our billet is a big barn built in 1770, but very nearly as good as the day it was built. The walls are built of brick. It has a very steep slate roof with lots of holes in it for ventilation. It is not too bad excepting that a pigeon has its nest right over my head.

The grub we get here is pretty good some days. We lived pretty high yesterday. We got bread, butter, one blood orange, jam, three packages of cigarettes, cheese, tea, and bacon for breakfast, tea for dinner and stew for supper. We have the same for to-morrow, but no bread or orange, we have hard-tack, big biscuits, instead of bread.

I have not seen any Cobourg fellows out here yet. Dick is a long way from where I am. He is with the 4th Division. I am with the -----, I have not learned to speak French yet, as I guess I won't be out here for a hundred years. We do all of our talking by signs. If you want button polish you rub your buttons, or if they have it in a show case, point to it. I guess this will be all for tonight, Love to all.
MELVILLE.