So I abide by what I said , although you may notice that I am careful not to use such expressions when young Rilla is about . And I maintain that the papers have no right to say that the Kaiser has pneumonia and raise people 's hopes , and then come out and say he has nothing but a boil . A boil , indeed ! I wish he was covered with them . '' Susan stalked out to the kitchen and settled down to write to Jem ; deeming him in need of some home comfort from certain passages in his letter that day . `` We 're in an old wine cellar tonight , dad , '' he wrote , `` in water to our knees . Rats everywhere -- no fire -- a drizzling rain coming down -- rather dismal . But it might be worse . I got Susan 's box today and everything was in tip-top order and we had a feast . Jerry is up the line somewhere and he says the rations are rather worse than Aunt Martha 's ditto used to be . But here they 're not bad -- only monotonous . Tell Susan I 'd give a year 's pay for a good batch of her monkey-faces ; but do n't let that inspire her to send any for they would n't keep . `` We have been under fire since the last week in February . One boy -- he was a Nova Scotian -- was killed right beside me yesterday . A shell burst near us and when the mess cleared away he was lying dead -- not mangled at all -- he just looked a little startled . It was the first time I 'd been close to anything like that and it was a nasty sensation , but one soon gets used to horrors here . We 're in an absolutely different world . The only things that are the same are the stars -- and they are never in their right places , somehow . `` Tell mother not to worry -- I 'm all right -- fit as a fiddle -- and glad I came . There 's something across from us here that has got to be wiped out of the world , that 's all -- an emanation of evil that would otherwise poison life for ever .
It 's got XXXXX be done , dad , however long it takes , and whatever it costs , and you tell the Glen people this for me .
So although at for near of than that to with