and so trying on
account of the great heat, that they used this as a punishment for
anything that was done wrong in the mines. This is what the German who
could speak English told us. The morning we were put on, he lined us
up and read this to us, "If you Englaenders does not do your work right
beneath the mine, we put you on coke ovens, and there, if you shall not
work, you shall die." We all laughed at this, and he said, "You
England Schweinhunds!" and went away.

But it was sure a punishment. The regular hours through the week was a
twelve-hour shift, and each man was obliged to shovel thirty-two tons
of coke, wheel it from ten to twenty yards along the platform, and dump
it into railway cars. On Sunday the shift was twenty-four hours long,
and each one had to handle sixty-four tons of coke. If you were not
through when your time was up, you must keep at it till you did the
required number of tons and then start back to work again with your
shift.

It was on the twenty-four-hour shift that we started our work. We went
on at 7 A.M. on Sunday, and we worked from that until 7 Monday morning.
Almost as soon as I went on the ovens I met two of my old pals,
Nickelson and Macdonald. They had been put here for attempting to
escape from the mine, and had been at this job for a week before we
arrived. We were mighty glad to see each other, for we all belonged to
the same "school." But a "school" in a German prison camp does not
mean the same as it does in America. We got the idea from the British
Tommy, only he calls it "mucking it." It is made up of a bunch of boys
who put all their parcels in together and go fifty-fifty on everything.
Sharing with each other brought us a little closer together than we
otherwise would have been.

Well, these were in our little "school" and had also shared in our
rest-cure up to the time of their attempted escape. So when they saw
us come on the ovens, they knew exactly what had happened. As I passed
Nick, he said, "Which would you rather do, Jack, work on the coke oven
or go to church?" I laughed and said, "Well, I guess, the church has
it this time." After awhile I happened to be beside Mac, and I said,
"Speaking of baseball, Mac, do they serve afternoon tea here?" He
said, "Well, they used to, but you know tea has gone up, and as a
substitute they serve out a little hell." And believe me, I hadn't
been there long before I found that this was literally true.

I was fe