gs of this to the
French cook for a bread ration. Again, in going down the hut one day,
I espied a flat French loaf cut into four pieces, drying on the window
sill. Seizing one piece, I tucked it under my tunic and passed on
before the loss was discovered. Some of the British could be seen at
times picking over the sour refuse in the barrels. This amused the
Germans very much. We endeavoured to get cookhouse jobs for the
pickings to be had, but could not do so. At a later date, when the
Canadian Red Cross, Lady Farquhar, Mrs. Hamilton Gault and our
families were sending us packages regularly, we made out all right.

Some English societies were in the habit of sending books, music and
games to the prisoners but none of these ever reached the group with
whom I associated, even before our later actions put us quite beyond
the German pale.

The appeal for Casement and the Irish Brigade was made to us. A
number of prisoners were taken apart and the matter broached privately
to them. Pamphlets on the freeing of Ireland were also distributed. I
did not see any one go over, and an Irishman who was detailed with
another Canadian and myself on a brickyard fatigue said that they had
recruited only forty in the camp. The whole thing turned out to be a
failure.

There were twelve of us all told on that brickyard job. Three or four
shoveled clay into the mixing machine, two more filled the little car
which two others pushed along the track of the narrow-gauge railroad.
We were guarded by four civilian Germans of some home defense corps,
all of whom labored with us. The two trammers used to start the car,
hop on the brake behind and let it run of its own momentum down the
incline to the edge of the bank where it would be checked for dumping.
Sometimes we forgot to brake the car so that it would ricochet on in a
flying leap off the end of the track, and so on over the dump. The
guards would rage and swear but could prove nothing so long as our
fellows did not get too raw and do this too frequently.

One day we shovelers decided to add to the gaiety of nations. While
one attracted the guards' attention elsewhere we slipped a chunk of
steel into the mess. There was a grinding crash, and a large cogwheel
tore its way through the roof. In a moment, the air was full of
machinery and German words. It was a proper wreck. The guards ran
around gesticulating angrily, tearing their hair and threatening us,
while we endeavoured to look surpr