(Ed note: postscript in top margin) I got your wattle blossom & the violets thanks for them they think a lot of them over hear (sic) as the boys used to get a lot of them sent last spring.
France
August 29. 1917
Dear Colina
I received your welcome letters and was pleased to hear (sic) from you. I also had letters from Doll & Jess also (sic) We have had some fine weather lately but we are getting some heavy rains now & it won’t be many weeks now befor (sic) we will have winter on us again as it was very cold & wet hear last Oct so it won’t be long befor its good by to the sun for a few months But we can not always expect fine weather. We will have to get our goat skin coats again. Or I will have to get Mick to run a old Billy down and send me the skin to make a coat of. We used to look tricks last winter when we would come out of the trenches we used to have boots up over our knees & the big goatskin coat & the steel hats & whiskers about six inches long & would of liked to of got our photos taken you would laugh to see us sometimes in the winter.
I had the luck to see Charlie last week & he is in good nick & he is good enough for a good few things Huns yet it was raining the night he came to see me & so I got him to stay for the night & all day Sunday. They have shifted from were we are now so I wont see him for a few weeks. I have not seen Tom yet but he is not very far from were we are but a little to far for me to walk. Rube is on a rest camp now and I had a letter from him & he said that we was all right again so a spell wont do him any harm as he was lucky to get over it so well as he did. I told you that I saw Son Spence & Frank Holden in my last letter but I did not see Chris but I may see him any day as his Batn is never far away from ours Frank Holden saw him a few days ago & said that he was looking well.
I have just received your chronicles & I was pleased to get them I will send them on to the boys so thanks for your kindness you said in your letter did I get a holiday on my birthday well I never gave it a thought till I red (sic) your letter so its to late now to think of it now at times we don’t know one day from the other & Sunday is just the same to us as any other day. I will be going on leave to Scotland in a few weeks so I am looking forward of having a good time then I may get my photo taken Charlie had his taken over hear.
The French people hear are a lot better to us then were we was befor they could not understand a word you said to them if you could not speak French We give them a hand with the harvest of a night when there is nothing doing & we have great fun with them as they are a hundred years behind the times they put me just in mind of old Charlie ploughen your garden as they only have one horse in the ploughs & they will yell out to there horse just the same as he used to. I often have a good laugh at them & give them a hoy. The women do most of the harvest as there is just the old men left but there farms are only the size of a good cabbage garden & they put in a few acres of wheat & oats. Then the rest of there land with peas & beans & clover. You can see the Australians every were of a night given (sic) the people a hand with there crop and its great fun to watch the girls on the binders (?) & they do all the carting in & they can put on a load of hay just as good as a man & they seem to enjoy it to.
You asked me if we get enough to eat well its our own fault if we go hungry as there is plenty of farms about & we play the fox pretty often as eggs are 4 (some sort of currency sign) each so thats a bit over the fence for us but they would have to keep a guard on the fowel house door to beat us. We get fried bacon every morning for Breakfast so a stray egg or to don’t go bad with it. My mates are very good scouts & we always keep our old tucker bag full why we even had some red fins for tea the other night we took a lot of bombs down to the river and threw them in the water & we soon got some fish but we had to swim in after them but they were nearly all little red fins & a few pike but they went all right. But we would of got hell if we would of got caught but they would have to get up early to catch us as old fritz cannot get us but if he does we will give him a good run for his money as my mates they will stop at nothing when it comes to the point & if we happen to lose some of them we always see that they are cared for as we always bury them at night if things are quiet as we stick to one another till the last they seem to want peace well we will give them it every time we go into the trenches as we want some of own back Yet I may not be in the chase till the finish but I would have a few bob on myself that I will be there the day the whips are cracking & if I don’t well then I have done a bit for the old iron bark hills if nothing else or I can push up daisys the same as our good old cobbers are & we would sooner be left hear now on no mans land than come home without a victory.
I got a hun one day and he told me he had been to Melbourne & Sydney & he new a lot about Vic & he had been wounded three times so he is near fish for the war now we always get there rum when we get them & it don’t go bad to warm you up but we get rum every night in the winter & it don’t go bad to warm you up of a cold night.
I sent you some war postcards last month & some to Doll so I hope you have received them by now but they were not the best I will send you some from Scotland some of the boys have just came back from there & they said they had such a bonny time so I hope the weather is good when I go. Tell Lucy that her old boy is all right again and he just came back last Saturday he as been in London since he was wounded & we got a surprise to see him back as he was never sent us word to say how he was getting on so he is in for a rouse up from us for not sending us word how he was we all reconed (sic) that he must of kicked the bucket I am sorry to hear Jim Arthur & Jack Bren but we cannot all come out without a scratch can we. I don’t know what becomes of Micks letters as they never seem to get over this far as I have not got one from him since xmas I will drop a few lines to your dad when I am on leave and tell him how we like the war and the country. So now I cannot think of any more news as tea is at hand. We have roast beef and cabbage & a nice little chicken pie the cook made it for our tent. So look out for your fowel house of a night when I come home if you ever lose any you will know who to blame well now I will have to get in for my cut or I will get none so wishing you the best of luck
From
Don
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