_In the Trenchs, May 19._

FRIEND AL: Well old pal don"t say nothing about this not even to Bertha what I am going to tell you about as some people might not understand and a specially a woman and might maybe think I wasn"t acting right towards Florrie or something though when a man is married to a woman that he has been in France pretty near 4 mos. and she has wrote him 3 letters I don"t see where she would have a sqawk comeing at whatever I done but of course I am not going to do nothing that I wouldn"t just as leave tell her about it only I want to tell her myself and when I get a good ready.

Well I guess I told you we was only supposed to stay here in the front line 10 days and then they will somebody come and releive us and take our place and then we go to the rest billets somewheres and lay around till its our turn to come up here again. Well Al we been in the front line now eight days and that means we won"t only be here 2 days more so probably we will get out of here the day after tomorrow night. Well up to today we didn"t have no idear where we was going to get sent as they"s several places where the boys can go on leave like Aix le Bains and Nice and etc. and we didn"t know which 1 it would be. So today we was talking about it and I said I wished I knew for sure and Jack Brady stands pretty good with 1 of the lieuts. so he says he would ask him right out. So he went and asked him and the lieut. told him Cologne.

Well Al I hadn"t no sooner found out when 1 of the boys hands me a letter that just come and it was a letter from this baby doll that I told you about that"s in Cologne and I will coppy down the letter so you can see for yourself what she says and here it is Al:

_Dear Sammy Boy_:

I was tres beaucoup to get your letter and will sure be glad to see you and can hardly wait till you get here. Don"t let them send you anywhere else as Cologne is the prettiest town in France and the liveliest and we will sure have some time going to shows etc. and I hope you bring along beaucoup francs. Well I haven"t time to write you much of a letter as I have got to spend the afternoon at the dressmaker"s. You see I am getting all dolled up for my Sammy Boy. But be sure and let me know when you are going to get here and when you reach Cologne jump right in a Noir et Blanc taxi and come up to the house. You know the number so come along Sammy and make it toot sweet.

Yours with tres beaucoup,

MARIE.

So that"s her letter Al and it looks like I was going to be in right in old O. D. Cologne and it sure does look like fate was takeing a hand in the game when things breaks this way and when I wrote to this gal the first time I didn"t have no idear of ever seeing her but the way things is turning out it almost seems like we was meant to meet each other. Well Al I only hope she has got some sence and won"t get to likeing me to well or of course all bets is off but if we can just be good pals and go around to shows etc. together I don"t see where I will be doing anything out of the way. Only as I say don"t say nothing about it to Bertha or n.o.body else as people is libel to not understand and I guess most of them women back in the U. S. thinks that when a man has been up at the front as long as we have and then when he gets a few days leave he ought to take a running hop step and jump to the nearest phonograph and put on a Rodeheaver record.

Your pal, JACK.

_In the Trenchs, May 20._

FRIEND AL: Well Al just a line and it will probably be the last time I will write you from the trenchs for a wile as our time is up tomorrow night and the next time I write you it will probably be from Cologne and I will tell you what kind of a time they show us there and all about it. I just got through writeing a note to the little gal there telling her I would get there as soon as possible but I couldn"t tell her when that would be as I don"t know how far it is or how we get there but Brady said he thought it was about 180 miles so I suppose they will make us walk.

Well talk about a quite section and they hasn"t even been a gun went off all day or no areoplanes or nothing and here we thought we was going to see a whole lot of excitement and we haven"t fired a shot or throwed a grenade or even saw a German all the wile we was here and we are just like when we come only for those poor birds that went on that wild goose chase and didn"t come back and they"s been some talk about sending another patrol over to get revenge for those poor boys but I guess they won"t nothing come of it. It would be like sending good money after bad is the way I look at it.

Several of the boys has been calling me Sammy Boy today and I signed my name that way in 1 of the notes I wrote that little gal and I suppose who ever censored it told some of the boys about it and now they are trying to kid me. Well Al I don"t see where a censor has got any license to spill stuff like that but they"s no harm done and they can laugh at me all they want to wile we are here as I will be the 1 that does the laughing when we get to Cologne. And I guess a whole lot of them will wish they was this same Sammy Boy when they see me paradeing up and down the blvd. with the bell of the ball. O you sweet Marie.

Your pal, JACK.

_In the Trenchs, May 22._

FRIEND AL: Well Al its all off and we are here yet and what is more we are libel to be here till the duration of the war if we don"t get killed and believe me I would welcome death rather then stay in this he--ll hole another 10 days and from now on I am going to take all the chances they is to take and the sooner they finish me I will be glad of it and it looks like it might come tonight Al as I have volunteered to go along with the patrol that"s going over and try and get even for what they done to our pals.

Well old pal it was understood when we come up here that we would be here 10 days and yesterday was the 10th day we was here. Well I happened to say something yesterday to Sargent Crane about what time was we going and he says where to and I said I thought our time was up and we was going to get releived. So he says "Who is going to releive us and what and the he--ll do you want to be releived of?" So I said I understood they didn"t only keep a regt. in the front line 10 days and then took them out and sent them to a rest billet somewheres. So he says what do you call this but a rest billet?

So then I asked him how long we had to stay here and he said "Well it may be a day or it may be all summer. But if we get ordered out in a hurry it won"t be to go to no rest billet but it will be to go up to where they are fighting the war."

So I made the remark that I wished somebody had of tipped me off as I had fixed up a kind of a date thinking we would be through here in 10 days. So he asked me where my date was at and I said Cologne. So then he kind of smiled and said "O and when was you planing to start?" So I said "I was figureing on starting tonight." So he waited a minute and then he said "Well I don"t know if I can fix it for you tonight or tomorrow night, but they"s some of the boys going to start in that direction one of them times and I guess you can go along."

Well Al I suppose Alc.o.c.k and Brady and them has been playing another 1 of their gags on me and I hope they enjoyed it and as far as I am conserned they"s no harm done. Cologne Al is way back of the German lines and when Sargent Crane said they was some of the boys starting in that direction he meant this here patrol. So I"m in on it Al and they didn"t go last night but tonight"s the big night. And some of the boys is calling me Sammy Boy and trying to make a monkey out of me but the smart Alex that"s doing it isn"t none of them going along on this raid and that"s just what a man would expect from them. Because they"s a few of us Al that come across the old puddle to fight and the rest of them thinks they are at the Young Peoples picnic.

Your pal, JACK.

CHAPTER VI

SIMPLE SIMON

_In the Trenchs, May 29._

FRIEND AL: Well Al we have been haveing a lot of fun with a bird name Jack Simon only the boys calls him Simple Simon and if you seen him you wouldn"t ask why because you would know why as soon as you seen him without asking why as he keeps his mouth open all the wile so as he will be ready to swallow whatever you tell him as you can tell him anything and he eats it up. So the boys has been stuffing him full of storys of all kinds and he eats them all up and you could tell him the reason they had the bob wire out in front was to scratch yourself on it when the cuties was useing you for a race track and he would eat it up.

Well when we come in here and took over this section this bird was sick and I don"t know what ailed him only it couldn"t of been brain fever but any way he didn"t join us in here till the day before yesterday but ever since he joined us the boys has been stuffing him full and enjoying themself at his expenses. Well the 1st. thing he asked me was if we had saw any actions since we been here and I told him about a raid we was on the other night before he come and we layed down a garage and then snuck over to the German trenchs and jumped into them trying to get a hold of some prisoners but we couldn"t find head or tale of no Germans where our bunch jumped in as they had ducked and hid somewheres when they found out we was comeing. So he says he wished he could of been along as he might of picked up some souvenirs over in their trenchs.

That"s 1 of his bugs Al is getting souvenirs as he is 1 of these here souvenir hounds that it don"t make no differents to him who wins the war as long as he can get a ship load of junk to carry it back home and show it off. So I told Johnny Alc.o.c.k and some of the other boys about Simon wishing he could of got some souvenirs so they framed up on him and begin selling him junk that they told him they had picked it up over in the German trenchs and Alc.o.c.k blowed some cigarette smoke in a bottle and corked it up and told him it was German tear gas and Simon give him 8 franks for it and Jack Brady showed him a couple of laths tied together with a peace of wire and told him it was a part of the areoplane that belonged to Guy Meyer the French ace that brought down so many Dutchmans before they finely got him and Brady said he hated to part with it as he had took it off a German prisoner that he brought in but if Simon thought it was worth 20 franks he could have it. So Simon bought it of him and wanted to know all about how Brady come to get the prisoner and of course Brady had to make it up as we haven"t saw a German let alone take them a prisoner since we was back in the training arears and wouldn"t know they was any only for their artillery and throwing up rockets at night and snipping at a man every time you go out on a wire party or something.

But any way Simon eats it up whatever you pull on him and some times I feel sorry for him and feel like tipping him off but the boys fun would be spoiled and believe me they need some kind of sport up here or pretty soon we would all be worse off then Simon and we would be running around fomenting at the mouth.

Well Al I wished you would write once in a wile if its only a line as a man likes to get mail once in a wile and I haven"t heard from Florrie for pretty near a month and then all as she said was that the reason she hadn"t wrote was because she wasn"t feeling the best and I suppose she got something in her eye but anything for an excuse to not write and you would think I had stepped outdoors to wash the windows instead of being away from her since last December.

Your pal, JACK.

_In the Trenchs, June 4._

FRIEND AL: Well Al nothing doing as usual only patching things up once in a wile and it would be as safe here as picking your teeth if our artillery had a few brains as the Germans wouldn"t never pay no tension to us if our batterys would lay off them but we don"t no sooner get a quite spell when our guns cuts loose and remind Fritz that they"s a war and then of course the Dutchmens has got to pay for their board some way and they raise he--ll for a wile and make everybody cross but as far as I can see they don"t n.o.body never get killed on 1 side or the other side but of course the sh.e.l.ls mess things up and keeps the boys busy makeing repairs where if our artillery would keep their mouth shut why so would theirs and the boys wouldn"t never half to leave their dice game only for chow.

But from all as we hear I guess they"s no dice game going on up on some of the other sections but they"s another kind of a game going on up there and so far the Dutchmens has got all the best of it but some of the boys says wait till the Allys gets ready to strike back and they will make them look like a sucker and the best way to do is wait till the other side has wore themself out before you go back at them. Well I told them I have had a lot of experience in big league baseball where they"s stragety the same like in war but I never heard none of the big league managers tell their boys to not try and score till the other side had all the runs they was going to get and further and more it looked to me like when the Germans did get wore out they could rest up again in the best hotel in Paris. So Johnny Alc.o.c.k says oh they won"t never get inside of Paris because the military police will stop them at the city limits and ask them for their pa.s.s and then where would they be? So I says tell that to Simple Simon and he shut up.

Speaking about Simple Simon what do you think they have got him believeing now. Well they told him Capt. Seeley had sent a patrol over the other night to find out what ailed the Germans that they never showed themself or started nothing against us and the patrol found out that Van Hindenburg had took all the men out of the section opp. us and sent them up to the war and left the trenchs opp. us empty so Simon asked him why we didn"t go over there and take them then and they told him because our trenchs was warmer on acct. of being farther south. I suppose they will be telling him the next thing that Capt. Seeley and Ludendorf married sisters and the 2 of them has agreed to lay off each other.

Well Al I am glad they have got somebody else to pick on besides me and of course they can have a lot more fun with Simon as they"s nothing to raw that he won"t eat it up wile in my case I was to smart for them and just pretended like I fell for their gags as they would of been disappointed if I hadn"t of and as I say somebody has got to furnish amus.e.m.e.nt in a he--ll hole like this or we would all be squirrel meat.

Your pal, JACK.

_In the Trenchs, June 7._

FRIEND AL: Well Al here is a hot 1 that they pulled on this Simon bird today and it was all as I could do to help from busting out laughing while they was telling it to him.

Well it seems like he must of been thinking that over what they told him about they not being no Germans in the trenchs over opp. to where we are at and it finely downed on him that if they wasn"t n.o.body over there why who was throwing up them flares and rockets every night. So today he said to Brady he says "Didn"t you birds tell me them trenchs over across the way was empty?" So Brady says yes what of it. So Simon says "Well I notice they"s somebody over there at night times or else who throws up them flares as they don"t throw themselfs up." So Brady says they had probably left a flare thrower over there to do that for them. But Simon says they must of left a lot of flare throwers because the flares come from different places along the line.

So then Alc.o.c.k cut in and says "Yes but you will notice they don"t come from different places at once and the bird that throws them gos from 1 place to another so as we will think the trenchs is full of Germans." So Simon says "They couldn"t n.o.body go from 1 place to another place as fast as them flares shoots up from different places." So Alc.o.c.k says "No they couldn"t n.o.body do it if they walked but the man that throws them flares don"t walk because he hasn"t got only 1 leg as his other leg was shot off early in the war. But Van Hindenburg is so hard up for men that even if you get a leg shot off as soon as the Dr. mops up the mess and sticks on the court plaster they send the bird back in the war and put him on a job where you don"t half to walk. So they stuck this old guy in the motorcycle dept.

and now all as he does is ride up and down some quite section like this here all night and stop every so often and throw up a flare to make us think the place is dirty with Germans."

Well Al Simon thought it over a wile and then asked Alc.o.c.k how a man could ride a motorcycle with only 1 leg and Alc.o.c.k says "Why not because you don"t half to peddle a motorcycle as they run themself." So Simon says yes but how about it when you want to get off? So Alc.o.c.k says "What has a man"s legs got to do with him getting off of a motorcycle as long as you have got your head to light on?"

That is what they handed him Al and they hadn"t hardly no sooner then got through with that dose when Brady begun on the souvenirs. First he asked him if he had got a hold of any new ones lately and Simon says no he hadn"t seen n.o.body that had any for sale and besides his jack was low so Brady asked him how much did he have and he says about 4 franks. So Brady says "Well you can"t expect anybody to come across with anything first cla.s.s for no such chicken"s food as that." So Simon says well even if he had a pocket full of jack he couldn"t buy nothing with it when they wasn"t nothing to buy. Then Brady asked him if he had saw the German speegle Ted Phillips had picked up and Simon says no so Brady went and got Phillips and after a wile he come back with him and Phillips said he had the speegle in his pocket and he would show it to us if we promised to be carefull and not jar it out of his hands wile he was showing it as he wouldn"t have it broke for the world. So Simon stood there with his eyes popping out and Phillips pulled the speegle out of his pocket and it wasn"t nothing only a dirty little looking gla.s.s that you could pretty near crall through the cracks in it and all the boys remarked what a odd little speegle it was and they hadn"t never saw 1 like it before and etc. and finely Simon couldn"t keep his clam shut no longer so he asked Phillips how much he would take for it. Well Phillips says it wasn"t for sale as speegles was scarce in Germany on acct.

of the war and that was why the Dutchmens always looked like a b.u.m when you took them a prisoner. So Simon asked him what price he would set on it suppose he would sell it and Phillips says about 8 franks. Well Simon got out all his jack and they wasn"t only 4 franks and he showed it to Phillips and said if he would take 10 franks for the speegle he would give him 4 franks down and the other 6 franks when he got hold of some jack so Phillips hummed and hawed a wile and finely said all right Simon could have it but he wouldn"t never sell it to him only that it kept worring him so much to carry it in his pocket for the fear he would loose it or break it.

Well Al Phillips has got Simon"s last 4 franks and Simon has got Phillips"s speegle and I suppose now that the boys sees how soft it is they will be selling him stuff on credit and he will owe them his next months pay before they get through with him and I suppose the next thing you know they will keep their beard when they shave and sell it to him for German tobacco.