26th Battery, 7th Brigade,
London, England.

November 29, 1915.

Dear Win,

Thanks ever so much for the socks - they are fine and warm and need to be these days! I thought that they never had snow and very little frost in this country, but we have had two snow storms and frost evert night for a long time.

How is everything and everybody at the Grove? I wish I were going to be there this winter, but instead I will be enjoying "Winter sports in Flanders", i.e. dodging the Jack Johnsons and Little Willies, digging gun pits and trenches. Quite a programme, isn't it?

We are working like Hadley reading a book on trying to make himself comfortable, and I think our days in the land of our fathers (which they wisely vacated) are numbered. Cheers! Then we will have a chance to get at the Germans. Loud Cheers! And show the world what stuff Canadians are made of - Loud Cheers! and much hand clapping and great excitement - and how much they can stand and how well they can run (silence) at war (inten[?] applause).

After that little speech, I'll confine myself strictly to facts and describe the usual day's work. We work, we eat, we work, we swallow, we work, we eat, we sleep. How would you like it if you had to do all that in a day?

I have been promoted to bombardier now, not that I throw bombs or am bombastic, but it is a rise upward, and therefore the bomb (bringing to mind uprise and upheaval) - a dear (term of affection or appreciation); bombardier; quite simple, isn't it?

Next Friday I am going up to London for the weekend, so I expect I'll have a pretty good time. I'm going to feed the animals at the zoo, ride on a bus and eat peanuts, smoke cigarretes and paint the town red. After that I'll come back to camp and feel sorry for being such a devil!

Really it was good of you to send me the socks, and I'll wear them until they wear out.

Give my best regards to your mother and father, and remember me to the boys at the school.

Sincerely yours,

Eldred Cumberland.