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-- All bets off -- [[underline]] mail [[/underline]] just arrived - my first letter from home - [[underline]] 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 [[each number with increasing number of underlines]] [[/underline] !!! letters from Ruth - a letter from Cecile Morrisette that has been chasing me from Boston since January the 19th - now for a feast!
............................ (meaning about five hours)
I've been living in Framingham and Northampton for a glorious time with those who are always with me. // Mail from home; the best treat for the soldier; the balm for his homesickness; the storehouse of courage. For my part I'd rather read over and over again wee bit of news from home than half a dozen ^[[favorite]] stories. To know that I am thought well and happy, and that I am the subject of so many sweet prayers and good wishes is the antidote for the strong longing for the homeland and the source of the inspiration to bang away the harder. The merest scrap of detail concerning the doings "over [[underline]] there [[/underline]]" is worth oodles. When a batch of mail arrives there is a great hey-day, and then pandemonium, bragging, mutterings, monosyllabic answers, cries of, "Hey,