somebody else; but
we didn't care, and got some patients' stretchers from the depot and lay
down on them in our wet clothes just as we were. In the middle of the
night the "somebody" for whom the room had been kept arrived, strode
into the room, and turned up the electric light. The others were really
asleep, and I pretended to be. He had a good look at us, and then strode
out again grunting. We woke up every five minutes, it was so dreadfully
cold, and though we were so tired, I was not sorry when it was time to
get up.

We had breakfast at a dirty little restaurant in the town, and then got
a message from the Red Cross that there would be nothing for us to do
that day, but that we were probably going to be sent to Radzowill the
following morning. So we decided to go off to the Factory Hospital and
see if we could persuade the Matron to let us have a bath there.

Zyradow is one very large cotton and woollen factory, employing about
5000 hands. In Russia it is the good law that for every hundred workmen
employed there shall be one hospital bed provided. In the small
factories a few beds in the local hospital are generally subsidized, in
larger ones they usually find it more convenient to have their own. So
here there was a very nice little hospital with fifty beds, which had
been stretched now to hold twice as many more, as a great many wounded
had to be sent in here. The Matron is a Pole of Scottish extraction, and
spoke fluent but quite foreign English with a strong Scotch accent.
There are a good many Scotch families here, who came over and settled in
Poland about a hundred years ago, and who are all engaged in different
departments in the factory. She was kindness itself, and gave us tea
first and then prepared a hot bath for us all in turn. We got rid of
most of our tormentors and were at peace once more.

As we left the hospital we met three footsore soldiers whose boots were
absolutely worn right through. They were coming up to the hospital to
see if the Matron had any dead men's boots that would fit them. It
sounded rather gruesome--but she told us that that was quite a common
errand. The Russian military boots are excellent, but, of course, all
boots wear out very quickly under such trying circumstances of roads and
weather. They are top boots, strong and waterproof, and very often made
by the men themselves. The uniform, too, is very practical and so strong
that the men have told me that carpets are made fro