I am getting more and more settled down. But I won't be quite right until my things come. Fagging starts for us next Teusday. It is run on the same principle as the Gallic councils that tortured and killed the last man to arrive; here one fagmaster calls and all his fags run the last to arrive getting the job. You have to have cold showers in the morning here like cold baths at Marlborough. We have tea at 6.30 here on Mon., Wed., Frid. I manage to go without food from lunch to then. … The general strike had a part of it as a printer's strike the result of that is that 'Bennetts' booksellers had none of the books ordered and I am without a lot of them. As in most public schools new boys have to sing some song. The time has not yet come. I am not sure what to sing anyhow it won't be 'buttercup'. … The amount of work we are given for Hall here is sometimes absurdly small e.g. Read Acts chapters 3 and 4 and that is for 3/4hr.

我越来越适应这里了。但行李还是没到，所以我也好不到哪去。下周二我们要开始沉闷吃力的工作了。在这里，折磨迟到者的手段，就跟高卢委员会一样，老大一喊小弟们就赶紧跑最慢的人就得去干活。这里早上要冲冷水澡，就像马尔伯勒的冷水澡一样。我们每周一三五6: 30吃茶点，所以我从中午就憋着不吃饭……印刷工人也罢工了，结果伯纳特书店没有我们订的书，所以我缺很多书。跟别的公学一样，新来的男孩必须唱些歌。不过现在还没到时候。我还不知道要唱什么，反正不是《金凤花》……我们的作业极少，比如读《使徒行传》第三章和第四章，只要45分钟。

Yr loving son Alan

爱你 艾伦

There was indeed a song-singing and another ceremony in which he was kicked up and down the day room in a waste paper basket. However, if his mother read between the lines, she subordinated sympathy to her sense of duty. Her comment on this letter was that it displayed Alan's 'whimsical sense of humour'.

唱歌确实是有的，还有一些别的典礼，但是在这种时候，艾伦往往是被踢来踢去扔进纸篓的角色。艾伦的母亲对这封信的评价是，这显示了艾伦「古怪的幽默感」。然而，如果她能读出言外之意，她更应当感到一种责任，而不是同情。