sh color, but good wholesome bread.
Altogether, the meal was not unsavory. Many a greedy eye watched me as I
sat on the end of the hard couch, eating my dinner. One wretched man
seeing that I did not eat all, whispered a proposal to barter his dirty
neckerchief--which he took off in my presence--for half of my loaf. I
satisfied his desires, but declined the recompense. My half-emptied pipkin
was thankfully taken by another man, under the pretense of "cleaning it!"

One of my fellow-prisoners approached me.

"It is getting late," said he; "do you know what you have got to do?"

"No."

"You are the 'Zuwachs' " (latest accession), "and it is your business to
empty and clean out the 'Kiefel!' " (the sink, &c.)

"The devil!"

"But I dare say," he added, carelessly, "if you pay the Vater a
'mass-bier,' " (something less than a quart of beer), "he will make some
of the boys do it for you."

"With all my heart."

"Have you a rug?"

"No."

"You must ask the corporal, at seven o'clock; but I dare say the Vater
will find you one--for a 'mass-bier'--if you ask him."

I saw that a mass-bier would do a great deal in an Austrian prison.

The Vater, who was a prisoner like the rest, was appealed to. He was a
tall, burly-looking young man, with a frank countenance. He had quitted
his honest calling of butcher, and had taken to smuggling tobacco into the
city. This was a heavy crime; for the growth, manufacture, and sale of
tobacco, is a strict Imperial monopoly. Accordingly, his punishment had
been proportionately severe--two years' imprisonment. The sentence was now
approaching completion; and, on account of good conduct, he had received
the appointment of Vater to Punishment Room, No. 1. The benefits were
enumerated to me with open eyes by one of the prisoners--"Double rations,
two rugs, and a mass-bier a day!"

The result of my application to the Vater was the instant calling out of
several young lads, who crouched all day in the darkest end of the room--a
condemned corner, abounding in vermin; and I heard no more of the sink,
and so forth. The next day a new-comer occupied my position.

At about seven o'clock the bolts were again withdrawn, the ponderous door
opened, and the corporal--who seemed to fill the office of
ward-inspector--marched into the chamber. He was provided with a small
note-book and a pencil, and made a general inquiry into the wants and
complaints of the prisoners. Several of them asked for little