Milford chronicle., 1918-12-27
Somewhere in France.
November 10, 1918.

My dear Mother:
For the I.at time in five weeks
have a place and time TO myself. and
| am going 10 use il in writing to you
in answer 10 your two letters received
recently. Now, / certainly was more
than pleased TO hear from you and to
know that You are keeping well where
there is so much sickness everywhere.
| have been worried about you not 4
little. for you said in your other let
ter that Harry's family had been sick.
Well, ii has been one of the worst times
for sickness that l have ever known.
and so many have died from il very
suddenly. Part of my work here is
visiting the sick il the hospitals and
7 have seen many OF them who died
very soon after gong to the hospital.
Fortunately, / have kept very well all
the probably too busy 10 get
sick. but have not had SO much as
a bad cold the whole fall
Now mother, / must tell you about
my work here. ! really was never so
busy or so happy in my work in my
life. II is a great privilege and plea
sure to be here. l would not trade
places with an man in this whole
American army. l am with the same
outfit thar / have been with for seven
months. and while we have a great
many more of them now than ever
before. yet I know most of them per-
sOnally and they all, from the highest
ranking officer TO the private hold me
and my work i'm the highest regard
NTr-arf-fttsIf.- . 20.
about q thousand in the whole outfit
Now. that is some family and really
love them all Besides this fine fam
~ there are hundreds and thousands
passing through here every day. We
are serving in my canteeu fully four
thousand every day I have six sol
diers detailed to me by the Major and
they are kept very busy all the time
Our sales amount TO about a thousand
dollars every day. Now you can
imagine about how busy / am Besides
doing all of this, there being no Red
Cross here, ! visit about one hundred
and fifty Of our boys in the hospitals
and take them cigarettes. candy and
magazines; and what / enjoy most, I
have a regular church service every
Sunday evening in a regular Protes-
tant church. and / even preach in a
beautiful long black gown. So you
can see it is regular pastoral work for
me. My work has grown so fast that
now we are going to have another Y.
NJ. c. A. secretary and two American
women TO assist me, but l will be the
head of it all. have just taken a very
fine room in the town with a fine
French family, so now will take a lit
tie time OFF TO myself to write letters
Honestly. l have written only three
letters in five weeks l have been
sleeping on a cot in one of my can
teens all the time.
Now about Fred. I have heard from
him twice and written him once. 1
expect to spend a week or ten days
with him soon; that is to say, if I do
not succeed in getting him transferred
to this place and assigned to me, which
IS very probable. That would be fine.
The Major is trying to have him sent
here. He is in the southern part of
France where it is as warm as down !
n Florida. He is really better off |
here than up here where il is much |
colder. He is also very well and en-
husiastic over his work. He is more |
han fortunate, compared to other SOL |
liers.
Well. mother, the war news is al
most too good 10 be true. It will |
end tomorrow and in a short
ime we will be going back home.
Didn't tell you in my last letter that
'ou had better begin to get that
hicken dinner ready for Fred and me
Well, we will surprise you one of these
lays. Perhaps be home for Christ
mas. knew a long time ago that It
would end soon. Now, don't worry
ver us, for we are safe and having
wonderful experience.
Well, 1 must close and hurry back
0 work as am having a fine Y. hut
uilt and must be there Also I must
repare my sermon for tonight Give
~ love to all. It will be only short
ime nov before we viii be home
gain. What a great day that viii be ;
With love and prayers, | am.