France, Aug 6, 1917

My very dear & only girl;-

I hung around the orderly room this afternoon waiting for a letter and I fortunate enough to pull down two, one written on July 30 and the other on Aug 1. You are a lovely letter writer and when I get one from you I’m “Frightfully bucked up dontcher know.” I love you all the more when you chide me about my tardiness in writing, but please remember, dear, that it is not always very easy for me to get off a letter. I have written to you every day since the unit came out of the line; that’s pretty fair isn’t it?

We have been doing our voting here to-day. I picked the same two candidates that you did and trust that they may be elected. It will be nice, will it not, if our tastes always coincide so accurately? It was quite hot this morning and I spent an hour looking around for our divisional A.D.M.S. in a neighboring village. Afterwards I found his office about a couple of hundred yards from our Bn. Hq. The A.D.M.S. wants me to transfer to a field ambulance and offers to make me senior captain in it so that I would be first in line for promotion. He says that I have done my share of front line work and the D.A.D.M.S. says that if I keep going up often enough I’ll get myself killed. Of course I am not in favor of that at all, I mean getting killed. Of course a field ambulance position is not a bomb proof by any means but it is much less hazzardous and less strenuous than that of an infantry battn. M.O. Do you think I had better make the change? I shall not decide until I hear from you.

The Canadian mail is in to day and I received several letters. Only one is from a lady and she is married with a family of four children. She and her husband are old friends of mine and are living in California. I had not heard from them for years.

I hope your dance came off successfully. Do you realize that I do not dance a little bit? My sisters made several attempts to teach me but the results never justified the effort. In the future years when we go to dances together you will be enjoying your self dancing while I sit off in a corner and glower. My lack of the social graces will be a constant source of chagrin and embarresment to you. I shall be like Old Jiggs in the Bringing up Father pictures. I am sure though that you will be able to sweeten my disposition somewhat if you take me well in hand.

If I transfer to the field ambulance I may have some difficulty in getting that month of leave in the winter. I know Col. Bell would get it for me if I stayed with the battalion but of course I shall be out of his jurisdiction if I make the change. Let me know what you think of it.

Yours very fondly

Harold W McGill