July 10th, 1917
Somewhere in France
Dear Marion

I am writing this letter in a box car great life seeing the country and not paying for it, after rough or smooth I get through and I am not unhappy at all yours truly has knocked around too much to let little things bother him but this is a hard job writing as there does not seem to be any springs on the car and as there are 32 of us in it it is a little crowded but the sun is shining and it is a glorious day and the trees and the flowers and the fields look fine. It is certainly beautiful country but not like B.C. Well Marion we jolted along until the afternoon when we arrived at a little town not so far from the front and we marched to our billets where we are now I wish you could see us now we are in an old stable with holes all over it and manure on the floor we have no blankets but with my ground sheet and overcoat I bet that I shall keep warm I have been down the town and it seemed fine to be free to ramble around of course we could not go far but I enjoyed myself the first thing we did was to go and have something to eat we had two eggs and coffee and bread but one meal was not enough so we had another it cost us 60 cents The people over here don't seem to know what a good meal is Rags does better at home but maybe someday I'll get back and get a deer and have a square meal I intend to finish this tomorrow when I get to my Batt as I hope to get a big pile of mail from you all and I shall be glad to hear from you We are going to have a long march tomorrow and if you could only see what we have to carry you would wonder how we did it I have carried more when I was in the woods but then I had it packed where it did not bother me and I went at my own pace. Well Marion I am writing this by degrees this is the 12th and we have had a march to another place we were switched away to this camp and we were to stay here for 10 days but they thought we were trained enough so we go on tomorrow morning to join our Batt we will have to be up at 3 in the morning so we will have not have much sleep We are in a dandy place now I'm the grounds of an old Chateau I don't know how to spell it but it is a gentlemans house and everything is lovely no signs of war only we can hear the guns. I hope that you got the handkerchiefs that I sent you. I do hope that our mail has not been sent down here as if it has we may never see it again We had a lovely hot bath at a mine and the afternoon off so I am feeling good we will not have any blankets to night but I bet I will sleep good Well Marion I have not much more to say Remember me to everyone and give my love to Dorothy and and Pearl and Flossie and Father and Mother and so long for now with best love

Andy
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you can divide these up
I have caught up to Mae again