Friday, February 1, 1918

Got up at six and had breakfast in the kitchen. The men signed the payroll in the hut, and it is an interesting time. Lt. Clarkson was in with them.

The cook told Cadet and I that we could use the stove, so at ten we had our donuts finished. The Adj. came up to the hut and was a little better. Then one of the men came from Menacourt, his name is Bell, he is a very fine boy from Co. L. 26.

I was talking to a man from the Supply Co. and he was telling me about the fine trip they had coming over. There was a large number of them and the boat was the Fatherland; all the boys were from Minnesota. He is a Christian and has been for three years and is keeping good over here in France. He don’t like the life here. Their first billets were in a place called Chartiers, the place were seven hundred Prussians were shot by the French. In the place where the men slept, the building was riddled with shots and splashed with blood, and our men slept in there for three nights. The place where they buried the dead was an old trench, and the guns that were used were Mitralleuse.

We had our usual family take us home as guard, Irish friends. The same man put out the lights. Dan came and took some supplies of tables and chairs to the front.