Now I must get a wink or two, as I don't know when I may have to start
off.

Ever yours, with love,
CON.




XII

September 19th, 1916.

Dearest Mother:

I've been in France 19 days, and it hasn't taken me long to go into
action. Soon I shall be quite an old hand. I'm just back from 24 hours
in the Observation Post, from which one watches the effect of fire. I
understand now and forgive the one phrase which the French children have
picked up from our Tommies on account of its frequent
occurrence--"bl---- mud." I never knew that mud could be so thick and
treacly. All my fear that I might be afraid under shell-fire is
over--you get to believe that if you're going to be hit you're going to
be. But David's phrase keeps repeating itself in my mind, "Ten thousand
shall fall at thy side, etc., but it shall not come nigh unto thee."
It's a curious thing that the men who are most afraid are those who get
most easily struck. A friend of G.M.C.'s was hit the other day within
thirty yards of me--he was a Princeton chap. I mentioned him in one of
my previous letters. Our right section commander got a blighty two days
ago and is probably now in England. He went off on a firing battery