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Billets at La Maison Blanche

JULY, 1915.

Hopes dashed -- La Bascule was the weighing machine! Sleep in a shed with la bascule, but too near the pigs - the good lady at the house gives me a pile of sacks for a mattress

Paid 25 francs -- Company drill & route march -- Half holiday Harry, Kenny, & I get our photos taken - Maurice Dere - Rue de l'Hospice, Steenwerck - 16 francs for 2 dozen -- Have the inevitable payday feed at l'Estaminet du Cerf -- Mme Chieux attend concert in barn at La Blanche Maison - Regimental Minstrel troupe very comical - One song, improvised for the occasion "I stand in a land of roses, but dream of a land of snow", "Old Black Joe" best quartet. Sleep under a cherry tree, but am bothered badly by mosquitos & half frozen - sacking for blanket. Pay back 10 fr. to Tucker & 2 to Jack Ensch

Findley, Bateman & I have our photos taken at Maurice Defer, Rue de l'Hospice, Steenwerck - Prints to be mailed to me - Paid 16 f. for 2 doz.

Taken to Bailleul - Light marching order for a bath - Tubs in an old brewery - Men run wild on English ale & the march home is terribly straggly - Muster parade at 9:30 catches the latecomers --

BC Archives, MS-0392 Box 1, Volume 4 / FRANK SWANNELL PAPERS, Diary and enclosures, 1915.