had been the scene of so many
pleasant gatherings--was being put to, and as I leaned against the
wall and looked out of the window, I seemed to see the gay and
light-hearted Belgian people who so recently had gathered there.
Right here, I thought, the bashful boys had stood, waiting to walk
home with the girls... just the way we did in British Columbia, where
one church I know well stands almost covered with the fragrant
pines...

I fell into a pleasant reverie then of sunny afternoons and dewy
moonlit nights, when the sun had gone over the mountains, and the
stars came out in hundreds. My dream then began to have in it the
brightest-eyed girl in the world, who gave me such a smile one Sunday
when she came out of church... that I just naturally found myself
walking beside her.... She had on a pink suit and white shoes, and
wore a long string of black beads...

Then somebody spoke to me, and a sudden chill seized me and sent me
into a spasm of coughing, and the pain of my shoulder shot up into my
head like a knife... and I was back--all right--to the ruined church
in Belgium, a prisoner of war in the hands of the Germans!

The person who spoke to me was a German cavalry officer, who quite
politely bade me good-morning and asked me how I felt. I told him I
felt rotten. I was both hungry and thirsty--and dirty and homesick.
He laughed at that, as if it were funny, and asked me where I came
from. When I told him, he said, "You Canadians are terrible fools to
fight with us when you don't have to. You'll be sick of it before you
are through. Canada is a nice country, though," he went on; "I've
been in British Columbia, too, in the Government employ there--they
treated me fine--and my brother is there now, engineer in the
Dunsmuir Collieries at Ladysmith. Great people--the Canadians!"

And he laughed again and said something in German to the officer who
was with him.

When the sun came up and poured into the church, warming up its cold
dreariness, I lay down and slept, for I had not nearly finished the
sleep so comfortably begun in the basement the night before.

But in what seemed like three minutes, some one kicked my feet and
called to me to get up. I got to my feet, still spurred by the hope
of getting something to eat. Outside, all those who could walk were
falling in, and I hastened to do the same. Our guards were mounted
this time, and I noticed that their horses were small and in poor
condition. We were soon ou