Norwich bulletin., 1918-08-31
MARRIED AND HApPYs FAMILY.


 Dear Social Corner Sisters: Such an appeal as was sent in by three writers in Saturdays paper for a let ter from me cannot be denied.
 Twas sorry not to be at Aunt Mary's picnic. It certainly is delightful place to go.
 Old Sol pays me a compliment; thank you; and Samantha wants to know about my war work: We'll, it continues along the same lines. Have three from yo3r-town on my register. one in naval band, and two yeo- men.
 On a recent Sunday evening we (the church.. entertained by invita- tion a number of the French sailors stationed here in town. One, of our To- cal citizens spoke to them and they sang the Marsellaise for us. As they only spoke French, we had some spe- ciar guests talk to them. I told our church people that the only way to to smile in French, and provide cake for them to eat in English and would guarantee we would get on all right, and we did, though I felt a lot easier in my mind when it was over.
 A sailor lad who instructs in Amer 1 icIn devices on French boats was to speak for the church; but the navy has no regard for social engagements ] and at the moment he was supposed l to be speaking he was being taken on 1 a ship mid stream So we had to get alorsg without his help.
 I could tell you of so many inter esting things, but you all know how little along this line you can write about and as this town is in the war zone it applies here as well as else where.
 A pleasant feature of my years work is that now 1 am getting so many l letters from overseas, from boys who i were a part of our church life in the past months, thanking the church through me for what the friendship of these people here has meant to them.
 Today, Sunday, a lad who has been here since last November thanked me for what he had received in the. way of friendship these past months. He is leaving tomorrow for overseas.
 Then that wonderful day, August 9th. When The 6Sth Regiment, Field Artillery from one of our island forts 1 manouvered on Plant Field, one looked at those 1900 men, as they l swept around that field singing: There's a Long, Long Trail" with 8 sense of admiration and sorrow. There indeed is a long trail! May home on. American shores be at the end. Three of our Sunday School boys went off with that regiment, and an
 other lad-and my heart strings pull when I think of him-an English boy without home or near of kin in this country. A young lad. I took him in
 just to hs hospitable, then as he
 came again and again, because we loved him. The Saturday night before he left, or as the boys say, My last
 Sunday on the Map" he stayed with
 us. He said to me: Great Aunt Love,
 (his name for mel. do you think a
 bullet will get me-"
 I laughed and said:
 If the bullet should go up or down
 Che is six feet three and very slim. in
 fact the boys called him Slim Jinn),
 you might get hit but if it should go
 sideways, you could sidestep it."
 You know going on the iuntet
 doesn't disturb me in the least till I
 think what 8 long time it is going to be till I hear from you; and indeed
 if report is true. they have gone Ion a long, long trail and the only thing
 to say is: May God go with them
 and bring them back"
 Life in the war zone has brought
 me something I have always wanted , and never had a really truly family
 who stay all the time. so nov I have five: a sailor. soldier and a young
 lady from Michigan. whose husband , is q patient at the Naval hosrital. The sailor came in one night and said: q
 have come to stay all night-a shift
 left no bunk in the barracks for me. F hardly looked up from my work tc say: ."All right! Glad Z: it" ] I have heard it so many times. Ther ? he went on to say: "It was a question
 at the barracks where I would slekn, ] and ! said: "Oh. I know the Wal 2 Register at the church I go to vii ? do something for mel" He only stayed , nights then had breakfast. the dinner
 and now three meals a day. He is in.
 structor on the foreign ships. as h,
 speaks the language and knows tn,
 devices. I feel any service I can rende
 him is of small consequence compared X to what he has done. One of twenty | two hundred men to go overseas al | the Princess. Pat Regiment in tn Canadian service. He is also one of tn , , twelve that were left in that regi | ment at the end of the year. four o
 whom have since been killed. He returned to America and enlist . ed in the American navy and has beel . . over and back eleven times in the A T. s. His two sisters, both Red Cros z nurses, havs been killed, one when a a French hospital was bombed, tn : other when returning to France iron = furlough, her ship was torpedoe, :, and she was drowned.
 $ Besides all this, he has travelled al = over the world. He and Slim Jim tol
 at the dinner table about some plac e in India where they both had eater q The world grows smaller every da7 and Vyifh 2 II he ho5 |
 take an M. D. degree and practice y He was born in Texas and lives i a New York and California. By birth d days he is some older than many lad = l have known, but by spirit he is tn 2 same age.
 It My Michigan girl was so forlorn i l. the place she was staying, when sh al came to me she said she knew ho, s good l was to ali the boys, pernar a l would be good to lonely little gir N She plays and sings and is quite a To addition to our family life.
 '- My soldier is one of the few sta 'e tloned here in town. He was up on of night to supper and said:
 er If this bunch are having thre g meals per here shall come to break se fast tomorrow myself, the foresoin is Is true account of how I got m to family.
 n l believe in an equal distribution (
 labor and we have it in this famil, le You should see the wash my sailc le can hang on the line. I do the cook 10 ing and from two people who didn
 eat much to five who eat everythin re in sight is some jump, for Daddy Ma 'n keeps up his end and is in bette n health than for long time. 10 Etta Barber: I was glad to hea 't. about your nice trips I. too. went c