rning, only
I hadn't any soap." He said, "Never mind, I'll wash you with shaving
soap." So he went to work, and really I didn't know whether he was
shaving or skinning me. As a matter of fact he did a little of both,
for he had six patches of skin off when he finished and the only remark
he made was, "This razor is not quite as sharp as I could wish," but he
told me to be sure and come again.

But I have spoken mostly of food, or rather the lack of it. Now I will
try and give you an idea of how we put in our time. They didn't work
us very hard in this camp; usually we were only taken out three times a
week. When they wanted us, German guards would come in, line up about
twenty of us, and take us out to work in the fields. The first job
they put us at was planting potatoes and we worked faithfully the first
day, but when we came in that night I said to "Snipe," the new pal I
had made, "By golly! Snipe, I don't like the idea of producing food
for these 'square-heads,' let's see if we can't put one over them."
"All right," said Snipe, "I'm game, but how in hell are you going to do
it?" I said, "Well, how would this do? Next time we are sent out,
I'll take the hoe and you the bucket of potatoes; as soon as we get a
little piece away from the guard, I'll keep on making holes, but you
just go through the motions of dropping in potatoes, then when we reach
the centre of the field I'll make an extra large hole and you can dump
in all the potatoes except a few that must be saved for the other end
of the row." "Gee, that sounds all right," said Snipe; "we'll have a
try at it anyway, and I believe it will work." The field we had been
working in was a long narrow strip containing about five acres, and
there was an armed guard stationed at each end. Well, next day we were
called out again and we tried our new plan. It worked splendidly; the
other boys saw what we were doing and they all did the same, so the
whole field was planted that way, and I wish you could have seen those
potatoes when they came up.

The next thing we were given to do was putting out cabbage plants (of
course they had not yet discovered the trick we had played with the
potatoes). In planting cabbages the first man was given a small sharp
stick instead of a hoe, and man number two had a box of young plants.
A hole was made, but before the plant was put in the roots were nipped
off. In three days the cabbages were all wilted or dead and the
Germ