greeted us in the
Belgian towns. The houses were closed, and even the children kept off
the street. A blind neutrality still prevailed in the duchy. Late at
night we entered Brouch, where we stayed the following week, over
Thanksgiving day.

The week was filled with foot drill, gun drill, grooming, cleaning
harness and carriages, and inspections. But there was ample time for
making the acquaintance of the townsfolk, with the ulterior motive of
securing "apfelkuchen," "wafflen," or a full meal. Food, it became
evident, was not so scarce as in Belgium, and could always be obtained
if the American soldiers were willing to pay the prices which the
natives, upon learning the extent of the demand, gradually pushed to
exorbitant figures. Not content with their gains through extortionate
prices, they asked the rate of exchange, from francs to marks, that had
prevailed before the war, when, as a matter of fact, the mark was much
below the value of a franc, and rapidly descending farther. However,
some of the inhabitants, who had lived in the United States, or had
relatives living there, were cordial indeed, among them the chief
magistrate of the "dorf," who had laid the foundations of his fortune as
a barkeeper in some Chicago Loop saloons of fame.

Turkey was not served Thanksgiving day. The army issue for the day was
corned beef hash. But Battery E ate a Thanksgiving meal, nevertheless. A
foraging detail went out several days before and was able to buy
vegetables, apples and pork, going clear back to Arlon for the meat. So
the menu comprised roast pork, rich gravy, apple sauce, mashed potatoes,
salad, cake, bread and coffee, and the quantity precluded requests for
"seconds."

Sunday morning, December 1, the battery took the road again, up and down
hills, whose gloom of dark pines and gray tree trunks was lightened by
the carpet of brilliant red leaves beneath them--a landscape peculiarly
and always recognizably that of Luxembourg--arriving in Bourglinster
late in the afternoon. Next day we made another march of more than
twenty kilometres, reaching Osweiler.

There was a competition for speed at "harness and hitch" on the morning
of November 3, and the winner, the Third Section, led the battery when
it entered Germany that day, crossing the Sarre river at Echternach.
When the battery arrived at Alsdorf to spend the night, orders were
given that, now that we were on enemy soil, there should be no
fraternizing with the nat