4.10.14

Dear Gracie,

Thanks awfully for your letter, which was most acceptable, especially as it was quite the first I had received for some time. Please thank Mr. Mansford for his kind invitation for Friday. I am going to try my hardest to get leave for that week end, and if successful I will be up at the school as early as possible, but I do not think it will be punctually at 6 o'clock, as that would mean starting fairly early from here and the adjutant would sure to be adverse to that. We are kept very busy dawn here from 5.30 in the morning until about 6. I5 in the evening, nevertheless I like my work tremendously and now I have sampled the life I feel as if I should not mind remaining in the Army. One thing I have forgotten. Please excuse me for writing to you in pencil, but I brought only the absolute necessities away to camp with me as I had very little time to prepare my luggage thoroughly and apparently a fountain pen was one of the things I forgot to bring. And now, as time does not permit me to write any more, I can only look forward to Friday, hoping that day will find me once more in Dartford. P.smith.