Dear Florence & Betty,

     I hope this will reach you by Christmas tho' it should have been mailed before, but I didn't know where you were staying until I received Mom's letter yesterday telling me you were moving in the Marlone.  It was mailed Oct. 15 & I got it the 27th of November.  I wish I could be home to go down & see the rooms in which I first saw the light of day.  It would be quite a thrill.  I suppose you can remember them better than I, since you were there many times.  You could probably tell me all about my christening too, since you were my godmother.  When I was small I always used to think I was the luckiest kid in the family to have you for a godmother.  I can remember that you never forgot me on my birthday and I could always be sure of a present from you even when things weren't going too well for you, and I'll always be grateful to you for your thoughtfulness.  What hopes and plans of what I would do & be when I grew must have revolved in the minds of Mom and Dad about that time.  I wonder what they really thought.  I'm afraid I must have been an awful disappointment to them.
     Things have certainly gone well with me since I came to England thirteen months ago with the CTC.  I have seen places I had always hoped to see but didn't really ever believe I would.  When the Dulleas used to talk of Ireland I never thought I'd live to see the day I'd kiss the Blarney stone, but I have.  And visited all the principle cities of Ireland, England & Scotland.  Who knows how much more of the world I'll become familiar with before its all over and I come home again to a world of peace.  It's an ill wind that blows nobody good.
     My life here now is all any one could hope for in a country where nearly 80% of its people, even women & children are doing war work and where more than seven and a half million homes, as dear to their owners as any of ours, have been damaged or destroyed by bombs.  I live in a quiet part of the country, do work that is intensely interesting and for which I am well paid and at the same time know that I am playing a very definitely important part in the war to destroy facist tyranny.
     I hope you and Betty are both well & enjoying life in your new home, the first you really have had, I believe since the one on Afton.  My best wishes to you both for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year too, from your godson, who has never really grown up.