My dear Mother,

Well Musie, now for a little confession. I have been in bed for four days with a cold. It was more like the grippe than anything. I am up again today and feeling fine so you needn’t worry.

The battalion has been at the ranges for two weeks now and still at it. The range system isn’t as good as at Camp Hughes or anyways nearly as large. Both Fred and I have shot and did fairly well all things considered. It has rained practically every day since we came back from London. The light is awfully poor for shooting. In fact, we could hardly see the outline of the targets when we were shooting at the 400-yard range.

You say don’t forget Manitoba and to hurry back. Mother dearest, if the Atlantic was frozen over the boys would all be skating back. You may be sure that we will all be back as soon as possible. Canada looks better than ever to the boys.

You needn’t worry about Fred and I not looking after each other. He is the baby boy of the family but is far from being a weakling. The boys all know that.

Regarding the rough seas the papers reported on Nov 19th and 20th, the “Devil’s Stole” is in the Irish Sea and is always rough at any time of the year. I didn’t notice the Olympic rolling any more the 19th than any other day. As far as I can tell, the night of the 14th, our first night out from Halifax was by far the roughest. One thing I didn’t mention before. It surely is grand to see the phosphorous in the water at night.

I told you how we slept. We all fed (that is the men below a full sergeant) in the Second Class dining compartment. Everybody sat down. There were two sittings for each meal. We were in the second sitting. I sent you my meal card. Did you get it?

Will write you again in a few days.

Love to all and kisses galore

Your loving son,

James