about ten months and never get a poke at the Germans does not appeal to me in the least. If on the other hand the Kaiser should get a new lease of life by smashing the Verdun forts and breaking his way through to and entering Paris, then I will enlist right away, because I believe that in that case the British Empire will be nearer destruction than she has been for many years and it will be high time for every British subject to drop personal welfare and forget National finances and fight or help fight for all that is in them to save Britain from Germany and the devil. However I don't think Willie will ever see the inside of Paris with his army at his back because they have been hammering at Verdun now for over a month I believe and have had about 100,000 men slaughtered and are still on the outside looking in and Verdun is a long way from Paris and there are several fortified nuts to crack between the two.

Thursday March 30th

We hitched Queen and Joe up this morning and went out to Frank Crysler's. Queen went fine most of the way but got a little frightened going down the hill out here on the side road and nearly put us in the dir=tch, the roads were fierce and the frost is nearly out in places. Frank Crysler's mare was certainly in awful shapoe, she makes a terrible mosi e when she breathes hard and he let her out in the yard and chased her so that ashe would breathe hard h=kjust to show Dad. and it was awful, the distress she showed and Dda. said she bled at the nose. Frank Cryslewr said Burt. told him that he thought thee was a growth at the end of the windpipe, but Dad. looked at it with the speculum but he couldn;t see any growth, what he thinks is the matter is cause bu=y an incision they mad ein the windpipe last fall to put in a tracheaotomy tube when she had distemper healing and the edges of the cut turning in and blocking up the windpipe This afer noon Dad. went out and ipened up a ditch out of the barley stubble and I did chores. Vail the assesor was in this morning and raised the assessment about $100. Dad is pretty sore about it, but Vail said it was Hammond's fault, he was on the committee for putting a value on the land and he had charge of this part ofWoodhouse and he valued all these farms at forty