m well. Love.

Second postscript, written in the margin

I find I have written you a letter that will show you my difficulties in
getting time to write. It is merely typical of my usual day.

DEAR MOTHER:--

I begin this letter in the tent at about 5.30 in the morning, expecting
the first assembly, yet trying to snatch a little time while the rest of
the camp is still dressing. My hand no longer aches, but the wrist is
plain stiff from yesterday's exercise at trail. I have just conned over
fifty paragraphs of the drill book, getting up early for the purpose.

Free time is scarce. When the captain yesterday told us to put fifteen
minutes a day on our study of the rifle, and especially in learning to
squeeze (a mystery which I will expound to you when I myself have
mastered it) the whole company groaned. Our time is so cut up that it is

(_The bugle and the whistle! Five minutes for assembly._)

hard to find many minutes at a stretch which you can devote to any one
thing. And yet I think it quite right that yesterday, after returning
from the open order drill, squad after squad of us should of our own
accord go down to the drill field and practise the new tricks, especially
in preserving the squad formation while following the corporal over
whatever ground and through whatever angles. Those fifteen minutes will
help us today. Bannister tends quietly to his job, an amusing fellow with
his little imitations of a farmer (which some day he means to be), his
chuckling Yankee wit, and his interest in telling all about his wife and
children at home.

Speaking of corporals, Corder has brought out new facts regarding
Knudsen. Yesterday, when the tent was empty but for us three, Corder
stopped Knudsen from going out while at the same time he beckoned to me.
Lucy, coming in just then, stopped and listened also. "Knudsen," said
Corder, "you've drilled before." "Not infantry drill," answered Knudsen.
"Recently?" demanded Corder. Knudsen admitted, "All last winter with a
troop of cavalry." "Then why," demanded Corder, "didn't you say you had
had experience, and try to be a corporal yourself?" "Because----"

(_Bugle again, and half an hour for breakfast. Having a little time
before morning drill, I go on._)

"Because," said Knudsen, "I didn't want to be corporal. I came here tired
to death from a long hard worrying year in getting that factory of mine
in good running order. I don't want to have anything more to