FRANCE, JUNE 1, 1918.

DEAR TOWNIE:

This is all about the trip we made in big trucks across a lot of France to stop the wicked old Germans from coming to Paris. You never could have dreamed there were so many trucks in the world, and there must have been easy more than a thousand. They came to our four pretty little towns at four o'clock in the morning. It was a beautiful day, and yet it sounded like thunder when they rolled in; so we lined up all the Marines along the road, and, as soon as the first truck rolled in, it turned right around and started back till it came to the end of the line; and then the first twenty-two Marines hopped in, and then the next, till a whole battalion of a thousand had hopped in, and away they went. They were great, big, heavy trucks with a long wooden seat on each side, but most of the Marines sat backward, with their feet hanging outside, so they could see things, and the old trucks looked like big, gray spiders with forty-four brown legs. And they all had funny marks and pictures, about as big as a big watermelon, painted outside in gay colors, near where the driver sat. The one we had first had big grasshoppers, blue and red, and there were camels, soldier heads, a big cannon on a snail's back, and a donkey's head, a clock face, flowers, a funny old darky with great, big, white teeth, and a rooster, and all sorts of funny things. And Daddy rode in a little automobile with a French officer who had been wounded in Belgium and could n't fight, but who could boss the trucks; and he was just like a man running a big circus, because sometimes a truck would break down, and then we'd fly down the line and bring up a little truck with tools; and when it was all fixed he 'd blow his horn, and we 'd fly back and he 'd yell "En route! En route!"—and that 's just the way the old horn would sound. "En route!"—and away we'd go! And pretty soon we came to the prettiest towns,

with gardens full of roses and all sorts of pretty flowers; and the French ladies and girls would run out and throw the flowers into the trucks, and bring milk and red wine and cheese, and loaves of bread as long and round as the biggest bat that Ty Cobb has; and the dear little old ladies would smile and wave their handkerchiefs, and the little bare-legged boys would come flying out to the road and hop up and down and yell, "Les Americains! Voila les bons soldats!" So everybody was happy and smiling, because they knew the Marines were going to kill and capture all the Germans they could and stop them from coming to Paris. And as far back as you could see on all the roads were trucks and such dust that pretty soon all the Marines and the infantry and signal corps and artillery were just gray, like mummies. But they were all happy and having a fine time. And we came to some big towns with rivers, and pretty soon to the nicest little towns we'd seen in all France; and we were only 15 miles from Paris, and you could almost see the Eiffel Tower. And the nearer we got to Paris, the gayer the people were; and of course the Marines were smiling at the pretty French girls and having a time, and the old trucks rolled along, and pretty soon we saw some bad sights. The Germans were driving back the French soldiers, and all the French

people had to leave their homes, where they 'd lived all their lives, or the Germans would have whipped all the little children, and made their mothers work for them, and burned their little towns; so they were coming into Paris. Some of them were walking, and they had little donkeys hitched up to little carts, and great big horses with wooden collars painted in red. and blue, and big white oxen-all pulling big loads, with beds and chairs and mattresses and things piled away up. And the dogs were walking along; and under the wagons were chickens and ducks and geese in crates covered with chicken-yard

wire. And nearly all of them had goats, because it's easy to feed goats on old tin cans and paper and get good goat's milk. And there were little tow-headed boys and fat little girls with curls and blue eyes and such short little legs that every time their mothers took a step they had to take four. And they were going away to find a new home. And at night their wagons would stop and they'd camp alongside the road. And Daddy never saw one of them cry, although they were very unhappy. And it made the Marines terribly mad to see them so sad, and they just wished they could find those Germans and drive them away. And there was one big wagon piled up so high that it looked like the big ladder that Jack the Giant-killer climbed (or maybe it was a bean-stalk), and right on top was a beautiful old lady all dressed in her nicest black dress with a little white lace cap on; and her hair was white as snow and just like silver, and she must

have been just one of the kindest and pret

tiest grandmothers in the world. And

the French and American armies and generals flying by in cars. And every road that we crossed was full of soldiers and horses, all hurrying up to stop the Germans, and so much dust that you could eat it. It was getting late, but it does n't get dark over here until nearly ten o'clock. So everybody was tired and sleepy, for the old trucks bumped and bounced because

THIS IS THE FRENCH OFFICER YELLING

river-just full of dams and bridges. And there was one bridge with a lot of dams running under it, and on top of the bridge were a lot of the funniest houses that were more than 400 years old. And the city had the queerest name, Meaux-like a pussy-cat. And the river was the most famous river in the world, because it was the river where Papa Joffre beat the Germans so bad that he is called the Hero of the Marne. And I guess the day you had on your navy suit and were with Grandma and saluted Papa Joffre in New York that you did n't think Daddy would be seeing his river so soon. And the city was full of the poor French refugees. We kept right on going and turned to the left, up the valley of the Marne; and we were only 20 miles away from the Germans. And the road was just as busy as Fifth Avenue the time Daddy tried to drive a Ford up it the night he did n't know how to run it; only instead of busses and automobiles and nice-looking people, there were trucks full of Marines and soldiers and big guns and ambulances and wagons full of food for

nearly all the rubber was worn off the wheels. And all the truck drivers were French soldiers who were too old to fight, and they had been driving nearly all the night before and all day long; and sometimes, when the trucks would stop somewhere down the line, we 'd go back to see if one of them was broken down; and there would be a truck with a red grasshopper painted on it, and the poor old Frenchman would be fast asleep; and you could hardly see his face for the gray dust on it. So the French officer would have to hop out and jump up on the truck and shake him, and then hop down and blow his horn. Only he did n't blow it, but turned a handle on it, like the one on a coffee-mill and just like the way they give the gas alarm in the trenches. And the horn would yell in French, "En route! En route! En route!" which meant: "Hurry up! Hurry up! Hurry up! The Germans are coming and the Marines are here to stop them!" So we 'd fly back, and the horn would go like mad, and he 'd holler,

“En route! En route! En route!" And the old drivers would wake up and rub their eyes, and the old truck wheels would groan and cry, "En route! En route! En route!" And the Marines would turn over and wake up, all packed like sardines in a tin can, some with their legs lying on another Marine's tummy and a drummer-boy all curled up with his head on the tummy of a nice old sergeant; and they 'd growl a little, because they 'd been up most all the night before and were sleepy. And all the time the poor refugees were

THIS IS A FRENCH CAVALRYMAN JUMPING A DITCH going by; and when we heard that our big trucks would give them a ride after they left us at the front we were glad, because they must have been so tired! And yet not one of them would cry, not even the little girls; so you know, Sonny, the bad Germans can never lick the Frenchers. And pretty soon a whole fine regiment of French cavalry galloped by, and then another; and the road was so crowded with trucks and guns and wagons and ambulances and refugees that the cavalry had to jump their horses across the ditches by the road and ride through the fields, because now we were only 7 or 8 miles from the fighting. And they wanted the cavalry right away. They all had little short rifles and long blue sticks, about twelve feet long, and on the end was about a foot of nice sharp steel. And then the little automobile Daddy was in went flying ahead to see the place where the Marines were to get off; and we just flew and went right past a big field where there

were about 200 of the biggest and gayest butterflies you ever saw. And most of them were still as could be, with their great blue and orange and green and red and gold wings spread so that the field looked like a fairy garden. And some were flying back to rest for the night; and they had the biggest eyes, and they just circled and dipped and stood on one wing and then on the other; and then Daddy could see that they all had big red-whiteand-blue circles under the tip of each wing; and they flew so fast that he just knew they were not butterflies, but French aeroplanes! And after we 'd gone about 2 or 3 miles Daddy saw the general and a lot of officers and orderlies sitting on the side of a little hill, looking at a map; and Daddy got out and saluted and told the general where the Marines were, and that the colonel was back of them, but coming up in a fast car. And the general saluted back, and said: "Major, our orders are changed. You go back just as fast as your little old car can run, because you must get back to the cross-roads ahead of the trucks, and send the Marines down the road to the right." And back we went, and saw lots of soldiers getting out of their trucks to march against the Germans; and it was getting dark, but we got back to the cross-roads in time to catch the 1st Battalion. And the 6th Regiment kept its trucks and rode in them, while all the other regiments walked; and it was about 10 o'clock when we saw some German prisoners on the road, and we could hear the big guns and see a few rockets; and we could look and see the sky light up where the big guns were firing. And then we saw a French town that we had passed burning like a big bonfire, and the Germans must have dropped a bomb on it. And it was exactly midnight when the trucks stopped just at the edge of a big town. So we all got out, and the 1st Battalion marched into a big field and went right smack to sleep; and the colonel and all the rest of us laid down alongside the road, and we all went to sleep and never heard any guns, because we were too tired. And in the morning all the Marines were

in, and we were on the side of a beautiful valley; and there was no one in the big town but French soldiers. And then came our orders to go in the line just behind the Frenchers, and we took the trucks again and jumped out of them a mile from the battlefield; and Tommy Holcomb, who had the 2nd Battalion, gave the orders to his captains while they were hopping out of their truck, so you see we were right on our toes. And the Frenchers are out in front of us. And they have had about 3

O, OODLES MORE!

Marine and praying every night with pretty little Mother that the Marines will win and that Daddy's tin hat will just bump off all the German bullets. And then when you see the general out at the club and give him a snappy salute he'll take you up on his knee again, and you can tell him all about the war. But when you salute him, you must look him straight in the eye, as the Marines do. And Daddy hopes that we 'll lick the old Germans so bad that you won't have to come over to

TO MOTHER AND TOWNIE