me
to Britain.

After lying upon this bare straw for three months we were given some
coarse sacking and were peremptorily ordered to fill these bags with the
straw. This task gave the sand and dust a spirited opportunity to
penetrate our systems. Had a stranger outside the building heard our
violent coughing he would have been pardoned had he construed our loft
to be a hospital for consumptives.

We had been lying for quite six months upon this straw when we were
suddenly paraded to receive the order to re-appear a quarter of an hour
later with our beds. Re-parading we were commanded to empty the sacks to
form a big pile, and it was a repulsive-looking accumulation. But we
observed this straw was collected and carted away very carefully,
although at the time we paid little attention to the incident.

Naturally we concluded that we were to be given a supply of new straw,
and not before it was wanted. But we were not to be treated as milksops.
We were marched off to the railway station where there was a quantity of
wooden shavings which we were told to pack into our sacks. When we
attacked the bundles we recoiled in horror. The material was reeking
wet. The authorities might just as well have served us with soddened
sponges.

What could be done? Visions of rheumatic fever and various other racking
maladies arising from sleeping upon a wet bed haunted us. However, the
day being fine we rapidly strewed the bedding material out in the hope
that the sun would dry it somewhat. This precaution, however, was only
partially successful. Our couches were damp that night.

We thought no more about the straw which we had been compelled to
exchange for the shavings until we learned that a German newspaper was
shrieking with wild enthusiasm about Teuton resourcefulness and science
having scored another scintillating economic triumph. According to this
newspaper an illustrious professor had discovered that straw possessed
decidedly valuable nourishing qualities essential to human life, and
that it was to be ground up and to enter into the constitution of the
bread, which accordingly was now to be composed of at least three
constituents--wheat-meal, potato flour, and straw. Some of us began to
ponder long and hard over the straw which had so suddenly been taken
away from us, especially myself, as I had experienced so many of the
weird tactics which are pursued by the Germans in their vain efforts to
maintain their game of bluff.