Do come quickly to your
Vera.
Private Godwin’s First Hike Letter
West Beekmantown, N. Y.
Monday the 25th, 3 P. M.
Dear Mother:—
How glad I was, at the end of today’s hike, to march into the big field (where the cook tents already stood with smoking fires before them) to have the two halves of the company line up facing each other, and to hear the captain command, “Form for shelter tents!”
The file-closers scurried round and got into the vacant places. Every man gave an anticipatory hitch at the pack that had gradually grown so heavy; and the front rank men, if they thought the captain was not looking, loosened their bayonets in their sheaths.