The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-07-03
CRANITEVILLE
J, William Donald Writes from French
Coast Town.

NVdot AOWhs
Miss Margaret Donald of Graniteville
recently received from her brother, j.
William Donald, a letter written June
Is, which will be of interest to many.
1t is as follows:
Dear Sister: We have permission now
to tell where we are and | thought
would write and let you know. | wrote
to Fred and / thought probably you
might open his letter, so | was not in
much of hurry to write to you.
| received letter from Bill Boyce to-
day and just finished answering it. am
going to write to Alfred Lawson and
some other friends of mine. / am enjoy
ing my usual good health, but am not,
as you thought, any fatter. In fact, !
lost weight at Camp Greene, but have
regained it since | left there.
! am in small city on the Bay of
Biscay, called st. Nazaire. / guess be-
fore the war the greatest thing that ever
happened here was someone catching an
extra large fish. There is scarcity of
wooden houses here. Even the poorest
houses are built of some kind of mason
ry. | have not been outside of the city
much, but what have seen of the coun-
try is pretty. l guess ] will probably
see more of the country before | get
home.
| hope to hear from Jane soon. | wrote
to her and also to Bob and Annie. How
is everybody? Is Agnes keeping well
enough to teach? How are the McKen
zies? | ought to write to them, but /
have such hard time finding anything
10 a. I orlxr
the same letter to everybody and ! get
very tired of putting the same thing in
every letter. Somehow or other, | am
able to write more to you than anyone
else.
/ have received only one answer to
letters | have written from here and |
tell you / would be ticxled to get letter
from some of you now / guess / will
have received more by the time this
reaches you. ! don't know how many
letters | have written, but you ought at
least to receive one every two weeks.
Our officers want us to write home
often. In fact, we get the deuce if we
don't ! think there ought to be someone
TO make the people at home write often,
too.
| thanked you for the box you sent
me in Agnes letter, but there were some
things | wanted TO say about the con
tents, so will say them now. When
opened the package, ! saw the box of fig
Newtons and | said TO the fellow that
sleeps next TO me, "There is box Of
chocolates" and was very much disap-
pointed until came across the real box
Then / saw the box with the raisins in
it. / said, II wonder if they heard that
had a bad cold at Camp Greene" You
see the package was addressed to Camp
Greene, and when / came across the box
labeled ''Nyal's Cough Tablets" | never
dreamt that there were raisins in it.
The cookies tasted fine in spite of the
time they were in getting to me. / fig
ured that they were a little over two
months on the way and in spite of that
the fig Newtons tasted fresher than the
ones bought the day left Camp
Greene
The fellow that sleeps next to me land
by the way, he is from New Orleans, so
with us sleeping side by side, one might
well say that the North and the South
two DAYS time.
Ilhs 1eOIBe 1TultkSndHk Oeen drafted
have reformed. | don't even smoke
now and that is going some in this place.
Here it is not like the states. A soldier
can get all the light wine and cider that
he wants here.
How are Angus and Jane getting along
on the farm? i would give five francs
1--WE don't say "a dollar" any more) TO
see the kids now | saw two French
kids about their age playing and it made
me think of the way they play. The
oldest would chase the youngest around
and the youngest would laugh just like
Helen laughs when Catherine and she are
playing.
Did father plant the garden this year,
| hope if he did that he did not have as
much trouble as we did last year. ! was
just thinking that il was year last
Wednesday since ! registered. little
dreamed that / would be in France two
months year from that day.
Bill Boyee tells me that Joe Bowles is
in the Second cavalry over here. guess
] will look him up, as | don't think they
are far from here Are the mulberries
ripe yet?
] guess have about exhausted all my