p.

4.
time pretty well filled in, in writing to you, my sweet. And
if & when I have any more free time. I must read - I
have hardly read a word in the last two months. And then
there is an odd invitation from time to time. And so the
days pass, ina kind of a way. Don't, my darling, look upon
Air Mail as an extravagance. Quite apart from the pleasure
your letters give to me, they keep me up to the mark
in writing to you - & when I am writing to you, I can
only smoke a few cigarettes & drink a little beer - so writing
is a great pleasure & a great economy.
Tuesday Mar 18th That was as long as I could stay awake last night.
I think that is everything about money, my darling. I hope you think I
am being thrifty too? I certainly haven't spent less since I was 20.
You are being marvellous sweetheart. But please do not be too
skimpy with yourself - youmust have what you want as well as
what you need.
Now, my other bits of business. Will you please ask my mother to
send out my blues - jacket, trousers, wellington boots, those funny
collars, & the two white shirts. This place is lousy with regular
army, & they all wear them - & so I might as well have
mine. And I most certainly will not usethem again after the
war. Besides, they are a change from khaki - drab. And will
you ask Ahlquist to make another pair of trousers - same
material as the jacket he made in Sept - but not cut
straight across the back, as I had my present pair altered
in Sept. And to be sure & put leather pieces at the bottoms
of the trouser leg at the back. And exactly the same
& by the time the new ones arrive, will be definitely shabby.
It is impossible to obtain this material out here - they