There  is  n't  much  sickness  among  us  —
only  now  and  then  some  dysentery  which
I  mostly  treat  myself  (as  I  am  more  or
less  established  as  the  camp  "first-aider").
But  among  the  French  soldiers  there  is  a
terrible  amount.  The  French  army  sani-
tation even  in  the  infirmaries  and  hospi-
tals is  nauseating.  Vermin  are  omnipres-
ent, but  with  great  care  I  have  avoided
everything  but  fleas,  which  will  leave  with
cold  weather  and  are  not  very  annoy-
ing.
There  was  a  very  good  map  of  the  sector
we  are  in  on  page  13  of  the  July  28  "Lit-
erary Digest,"  a  copy  of  which  came  to
95


TRUCKING  TO  THE  TRENCHES

camp  last  night.  Look  up  Rheims,  Pouil-
lon,  Guyencort,  Berry-au-Bac,  the  whole
territory  along  the  Chemin  des  Dames,
Soissons,  Soupir,  Coucy,  and  the  territory
north  to  the  Oise  River  and  you  will  know
where  we  are  working.
Things  continue  about  the  same  —  we
are  only  under  shell-fire  about  three  nights
a  week,  but  it  is  hot  enough  while  it
lasts.  We  had  our  first  experience  with
machine-gun  fire  this  week,  but  it  was
passing  a  hundred  feet  over  our  heads
and  was  therefore  quite  harmless.  (It  was
missing  a  hilltop  artillery  road  just  ahead
of  us  and  coming  on  over  the  hill.)

I  suppose  we  will  move  camp  in  about
a  week,  as  the  Boche  planes  have  the  ten
American  camps  hi  the  town  pretty  well
spotted.  They've  come  close  to  getting
to  us  several  times,  but  have  been  beaten
off.  Apparently  the  French  are  unable  to
keep  them  from  crossing  the  lines,  for  we
96


THE  NEED  OF  AVIATORS

see  them  continually.  One  was  brought
down  a  mile  away  one  day  last  week  after
blowing  up  two  of  our  captive  balloons.
