becomes second nature.

All the country is covered with snow--it's brilliant clear weather,
more like America than Europe. I'm feeling strong as a horse, ever so
much better than I felt when on leave. Life is really tremendously worth
living, in spite of the war.




XLII

January 28th.

I'm back at the battery, sitting by a cosy fire. I might be up at
Kootenay by the look of my surroundings. I'm in a shack with a really
truly floor, and a window looking out on moonlit whiteness. If it wasn't
for the tapping of the distant machine guns--tapping that always sounds
to me like the nailing up of coffins--I might be here for pleasure. In
imagination I can see your great ship, with all its portholes aglare,
ploughing across the darkness to America. The dear sailor brothers I
can't quite visualise; I can only see them looking so upright and pale
when we said good-bye. It's getting late and the fire's dying. I'm half
asleep; I've not been out of my clothes for three nights. I shall tell
myself a story of the end of the war and our next meeting--it'll last
from the time that I creep into my sack until I close my eyes. It's a
glorious life.

Yours very lovingly,
CON