person and I'll look after mine."

PRIVATE GODWIN TO HIS MOTHER

Altona Camp, Friday, Sep. 29.
Waiting for the start.

DEAR MOTHER:--

The night, in spite of its possibilities, was not bad. I went to bed in
the rain, Bann already snoozing by my side, and was put to sleep by the
sounds of men's voices murmuring. Roused by a smart shower, I heard Taps
blown, and the top sergeant going up and down the street. "Cut out that
talking, men!" Waking in the night I found the sky clear, the wind
blowing, and two pins out at my side, with the tent flapping. I put the
pins in, but when next I was waked by the rain in my face the side of the
tent was flapping heavily, and nothing but the fact that instead of a
rifle for the tent pole we used a stake, driven about six inches into the
ground, had saved us from a collapse. I held down the corner through the
shower, then opening my meat-can, used its long handle for a tent-peg. If
our little pins were a couple of inches longer this nuisance could be
prevented. The new peg held till morning, the clouds then gradually
breaking for a glorious sunrise.

On a hillside, near Ellenburg Depot.

We rolled our moist blankets, made up our damp packs, ate our hasty
breakfasts, and with I company were hustled into motor trucks, two squads
to a truck. For forty-five minutes we jolted and squashed over bad roads,
and finally bowled along over macadam. After eight or ten miles we were
turned out, and marched in the cloudy, windy morning three miles to
Ellenburg Depot. Here we left a man on each bridge, to notify pursuers
that it was destroyed, and turned into the fields, at last climbing a
ridge from which, to the left, we saw at a distance a high hill, its
wooded sides beginning to show the mottled reds of autumn, while just
below our steep slope lay a wide flat bottom, perfect green, with a brook
wandering through it. Here we rested, delighting in the view but
shivering in the wind, while the company officers and the major looked
over the ground. Then the orders were, "Off with the equipment, get out
your tools, and dig a trench." The front rank is working like beavers
now, and as our turn is nearly here, I must stop this scribbling.

In camp near Ellenburg Depot, Friday afternoon.

Again I sit in the tent while outside it rains. We h