Well, to get back on the track, we eventually found ourselves members of le-dit Esc. SPA 84--one esc. of a _groupe de chasse_, which means that we will have patrolling work to do mainly and not protection of observation or photo machines--which they tell me, is fortunate. Also we have good machines--the best there are, which might not have happened had we been sent to another type of _escadrille_--purely good fortune. The much advertised Lafayette Esc. No. 124, is a member of the same group, is located near us and does the same work, which makes it much pleasanter for lone Americans. We use their stove and tea of an afternoon quite freely as our quarters are new and not fixed up. But say, when we do get going, everybody will be in to see us. We’ll have a cosy, beautifully wallpapered room clustering around a stove.... The men of 124 are a rather good crowd--not much different from any crowd of Americans, a bit rough but most of it affected because they’re away from home, very hospitable, rather daredevil or hard-hearted (whichever you wish to call it--the way they talk about each other’s narrow escapes, coming falls, the mistakes or misfortunes of departed brothers, and there have been several) and very mixed, centering around Lieutenant Bill Thaw, of the French Army, who impresses me as being very much of a leader and an unusually fine type. There is one tough nut from a Middle Western Siwash-like college, who was probably still ungraduated at 27, and a quiet, innocent looking kid who seems to have just got out of prep school; of course, the tough guy tears the little one. Then there are a couple of old Légionnaires--rather superior and terribly tired of war, quite unenthusiastic, but I dare say congenial when one gets under their hide or fills it full of booze. And Jim Hall, the author chap--quiet, reserved, almost simple in his lack of affectation and boyish in his enthusiasm. (Gad, how he wants to get his Boche and he almost thinks he did the other day, but it wasn’t verified. He followed him down from 1,500 to 200 metres, shooting all the time, and thinks he must have brought him down)....