under one roof--that is, cows, chickens,
kitchen, and living-room--and from the roof of the kitchen the hams
were hung. The kitchen stove had two or three lengths of pipe, just
enough to start the smoke in the right direction, but not enough to
lead it out of the house. Up among the beams it wound and curled and
twisted, wrapping the hams round and round, and then found its way
out in the best way it could. Of course some of it wandered down to
the kitchen where the women worked, and I suppose it bothered them,
but women are the suffering sex in Germany; a little smoke in their
eyes is not here or there.

The houses we saw had thatched roofs, with plastered walls, and I
think in every case the cow-stable was attached. Dairying was the
chief industry; that and the raising of pigs, for the land is poor
and marshy. Still, if the war lasts long enough, the bad lands of
Germany will be largely reclaimed by the labor of Russian prisoners.
It's cheap and plentiful. There were ninety thousand of them bagged
in one battle in the early days of the war, at the Mazurian Lakes!
The Russians are for the most part simple, honest fellows, very sad
and plaintive, and deserving of better treatment than they have had.

When the Russians had gone out to work, leaving only the sick ones,
and the English and French, sometimes there were not enough well
prisoners for "Suppentragen," for the British were clever in the
matter of feigning sickness. The _Revier_ was in charge of a doctor
and a medical Sergeant, who gave exemption from work very easily.
Then there were ways of getting sick which were confusing to doctors.

Some one found out how to raise a swelling, and there was quite an
epidemic of swollen wrists and ankles. A little lump of earth in a
handkerchief, pounded gently on the place, for twenty minutes or so,
will bring the desired result. Soap-pills will raise the temperature.
Tobacco, eaten, will derange the heart. These are well-known methods
of achieving sick-leave.

I had a way all my own. I had a loose toe-nail, quite ready to come
off, but I noticed it in time, and took great care not to let it come
off. Then I went to the doctor to have it removed. On that I got
exemption till the nail grew.

* * *

One day at Parnewinkel, Edwards and I were called into the
Commandant's office, whither we went with many misgivings--we did not
know how much he knew of us and our plans.

But the honest man only want