The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-17
FROM THE BOYS IN SERVICE
Recent Letters Descriptive of the Life of the Boys
in Army and Navy

clothes look real white considering that
IT Is rather hard water. The people drive |
ln from the country to wash and market. |
Most of the mules are small, perhaps
they are donkeys, and used for driving
mostly as there aren't many horses. A
few horses are owned by the better
classes. They are about the size of our
Shetlands. | haven't seen four wheeled
French wagon yet The driving gigs
are like our trap bodies on two wheels
and higher in the air than a man on our
horse, with two dainty wheels like
lumber wagon. You can imagine how
funny it looks to see three or four peo-
rle back to back in one of these, driving
little mule which only measures as
tan as the hub, about like a yearling
] have not had that experience vet
| but | have been ON one of those bicycles
with one big front wheel. It's as high
rs our horses backs and not an easy
thing to control. Lord pity man who
had to learn on one of those things
| Wish | had one to ride to work after
| get back for if / don't get something
pretty high ! shall have to look up to
Willard.
The work wagons have two big wheels.
| some about six feet in diameter, and
heavy shafts. On some hog work | have
| seen two big horses, one ahead of the
other, but many times there is little
| donkey ahead of a big horse. Have seen
| one little donkey draw big load of
straw alone. 1t sure would be Joke
| if the front of the load should fall off
and hang the donkey by tipping the
wagon.
Saturday is market day. They all
| bring the products to the marketing
place. then when sold out carry home
| food for the next week
| We had one week while here in France
when it raned every half hour, but all
| the rest of the time has been fine. The
temperature is about l0J in the sun at
/ noon and nice and cool at night. like
| fall. ! haven't noticed any fog here at
| night The country seems like southern
| New England.
In the evenings we have band concerts
a few times a week. Other times we
spend learning French from the children
| and women who are left. OF course
most all are married. Ha! Ha They
/ like to hear us sing, too Don't know
whether it wakes them up or kills flies,
| but there must be some reason.
! When we got on the boat we were
| given cards to sign, saying we reached
here in safety. Those were held in the
United States until we got here, as it
| saved so much extra cabling and YOU
would hear a week sooner.
| ! have not cared at all about this trip
and am satisfied to come. Haven't
dreaded il one bit. And | presume you
feel il more than | do / don't care. be-
cause look at the returning part. If
couldn't do that | wouldn't like the
trip at all. 1t isn't pleasure by any
means or as ! should desire to travel,
but the life isn't all gloom either.
Misery likes company and if you look
for enjoyment you will get something
We are having fine times and see some
OF the country. | wish we could send
postcards of the places. but we can't.
have collected a lot already so when the
time comes that we can send them You
will get lots of mail
You spoke of dreading the nights on
board ship. II didn't bother me any
more when we were in the danger zone
to sleep. than at any other time We
slept with our clothes on and life belts
at our heads, and always carried them
about with rs in the daytime We had
boat abandoning drills every day and
every man had his own place to 90 in
case anything happened. But we didn't
jump over. ! was assigned to raft and
so would get wet anyway. One advan-
tage was that we could get it over the
side and away before the life boats
could. and not swamp them either
Now ! hope YOU won't worry over me
because am here, for il is the same as
if ! was in the states. Get all the
pleasure out of the automobile you can
Gasoline here is 81 per gallon.
Lots of love to all
HAROLD.