"Murrnong"

8th August

You did send me a nice long letter; many thanks for it, and please thank the children for theirs. I wonder if Alex will be chosen for the N.C.O. school. Constance would be rather sorry she missed the "hike" when it was not so long. I got the silver beet plants at Barry & Roberts. Hadley said he would get Miss McL. to get more.

Molly must have been very uneasy about his part in the play. I wonder what his mother said to him.

The weather here is perfect, there was a heavy frost this morning. I spent most of the morning listening for the telephone, as mother was busy with the shearers' stores. I read to Lou. he is recovering from a bilious attack. I finished his book for him this afternoon, sitting in the sun most of the time. The two magpies sat on my knee and tried to pick the glass buttons from my jersey.

I have been reading Sir John Monash's "The Australian Victories in France in 1918". I never thought I could read a book about the war. He writes so clearly you feel you just want to go reading. He says of Gen. Glasgow:- "Glasgow succeeded not so much by exceptional mental gits, or by tactical skill of any high order, as by his personal driving force and determination, which expressed themselves upon all his subordinates. He always got where he wanted to get, was consistently loyal to the Australians and intensely proud of the Australian soldiers."

Of General Blamey, he says:- "He possessed a mind cultured far above the average, widely informed and alert. He had an infinite capacity for taking pains. One achievement of one corps in an illustration which should become classic, of the maxim that in war, the moral is to the material as three to one". I must read the book again.

George arrives tomorrow morning, John has a small lump in the side of his face and has been worrying about it. It feels to me like a piece of grit or muscle, however John worries so he's glad George will see to it. It seems strange that it should happen to John, after Muriel.

I had a letter from Auntie; she has been in bed with bad rheumatism. Great talking at the telephone: Jim is ringing from Melbourne. Jim is coming home on Saturday night, George is going back to Sydney that night.

Much love

Anne

Alex and Constance Foxton- Anne's children in Brisbane

Jim and George Bell- brothers

Hadley - gardener at Murrnong

Muriel - sister-in-law who died of cancer

John Bell- brother who is to die from a melanoma

Lou Bell - nephew living at Murrnong

NCO - Non-commissioned Officer