thing on over here.

A bunch of prisoners came in last nite. They must have surrounded half
the German army cause it looked like a decorashun day parade when the
M.P. brought them in. If they make another hawl like that well have
about as much to fire at up at the front as we did back on the range.
Id never seen any Fritzes so Angus an I went down to the pen this
afternoon to see if they were breakin the child labor law or had any
wimmin with machine guns tied to them like you read about.

The pen is just a bunch of barracks not much better than the place
where we sleep. They got a lot of barb wire an an M.P. around it. The
Fritzes didnt look very wild to me. More like a bunch of stashun
porters out of a job. We tried to argu the M.P. into lettin a few of
them go at a time sos we could catch them agen but he took the war
awful serious.

I got in wrong with the Captin agen today. This army is something like
gamblin. Whichever way you decide your bound to lose sooner or later.
Youd think that the only reason a fello would give you food was
because he expected you to eat it. Thats because you dont know the
army. The other day they ishued each fello what they called Irun
Rashuns. That means a can of petrified crackers an a can of gold fish.
Its not a bad name for the crackers. Your supposed to tote around your
Irun Rashuns with you wherever you go. The only thing is that you
mustnt eat them.

When they handed them out the Captin said we wasnt ever to eat them
unless we absolutely had to. As if anybody in his right mind would. Im
all for obeyin orders tho when it dont conflict with my duty. Joe
Balderose ate his half an hour after breakfast and then wanted me to
split with him on mine. I says "No. Not till I absolutely have to. An
then Ill be so far gone that you wont have a look in." I waited till
hap past ten tho I was gettin awful weak the last half hour. Youd
ought to have heard the Captin when he saw me. Youd have thought I was
eatin some of his old harness.

As far as I can see, Mable, its just another of his ways of passin the
buck. If General Perishing should happen to find one of us starved to
death some mornin he wants to be able to show him we had plenty of
food on us when we slipped away. Hes smart all right, that fello.

You cant tell what may happen before I have a chance to rite agen but
we wont cross any bridges before we leap as the poets say.

Yours to the last crum
_Bill_

_Dere