22. 2. 19.
My dear Father,
Many thanks for your two last letters
and for one from Mother. I hope you will get
invited to the Shrove Tuesday function, but you
can hardly expect too much.
The snow and frost have gone and spring is
showing signs of coming on. This place ought
to be very pleasant when the leaves are out,
and I see no signs of a complete dispersal
yet awhile. I have still a 300 draft
waiting to go to Germany, and it is a little
difficult to know what to do with them till
they go, as the ground is too heavy for games
as yet and there is a general atmosphere of
slackness about everyone under present conditions.
We are beginning to send away some of our
animals, which go down in droves to the base
either for transport to England or in the case
of the worst of them for sale out here.
The farmers about here are beginning to get
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various beasts to do their work, and there are
one or two teams of ex-British army mules
working in the field and one at least of [illegible]
3 cows abreast. The French look after their
animals well.
They threatened to move us into Tournai
this week but have no changed their
minds and we stay, as the station here
is to be the one from which the Division is
to be demobilized.
The cadre of a Battalion, i. e. those who are
left to see the rest away, are included in the
new rates of pay, so I benefit to the
extent of 5/6 a day
Love to Mother.
Yours
Jack.
The cross for Arthur Taylor’s son is not yet
ready, but I will have it put up when it is.