The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1918-08-16

waited on the edge Of the forest until
dawn and then set out to explore the
place, with view to finding some nook
where might sleep. Imagine my dis
gust, and discoura cement, too, when an
hour or so later I came upon the exact
place where I had spent the day before,
and 1 realized that all night long had
been circling the very woods was try
ing to get away from. I think perhaps
had gone all of a quarter of mile in
the right direction, but then had lost
my bearings entirely, and daylight
found me with nothing accomplished.
The sun, however, did come out that
day, and 1 welcomed its warm rays,
as they, perhaps, have never been well
coined before. l was very tired-just
about all in-but spent better day
in the woods than the previous one,
That night the stars came out;
located my friend, the North Star, and
tried to make up for lost time. But
when one is making only seven or eight
miles a day, or rather night, one
night lost means q whole lot, eSpeci-
ally when each day keeps him from
freedom. Such ill fortune and dis
couragements as this were harder to
endure, 1 believe, than the actual
hunger and the accompanying worry
naturally reduced my weight. At times
1 was furiously angry with myself for
the mistakes 1 made and the foolish
things 1 did, but I always tried to see
something funny about the situation.
whatever it might be, that relieved
the strain of habit and helped to pass
the time away. 1 think if man is
overburdened with a sense of humor
and wants to get rid of it, this trip I
took would be an excellent remedy
for it. Right at this time I would
have welcomed anything for compan-
ion. I believe even a snake would
have been a Godsend to me.
With a name as Irish as mine, it is
only natural that 1 looked for goats
along the way, thinking that l might
be able to milk them. There are very
few cows in this country, and the op-
portunities for milking them fewer
than the cows themselves because they
are housed in barns adjoining the
homes and always alertly watched by
their fortunate owners. l did hope
that I might find a goat staked out
some place in the fields, but in all my
travels l never saw q goat or pig,
and only a few cows. Several times l
searched nests for eggs, but somebody
oI1 ho1 fn I
even found so much as nest egg.
There was no chance of getting away
with any bullying" stuff in Luxem-
bourg. I knew, because the young men
have not been forced into the army
and are still at home, and as they are
decidedly pro-German, it would have
been pretty hard for me to demand
anything in that part of the country.
1t was not like taking things away
from old men and women or robbtng
people that could not stop me If they
chose to do so. l thought at this time
that I was suffering about the worst
hardships any human being could ever
be called upon to endure, but l was
later to find that the best Of my jour-
ney was made along about this time.
There were plenty of vegetables. even
though they were raw, and these were
much better than the things 1 was
afterwards compelled to eat or go
without.
We frequently hear of men who have
lived for a certain number of days on
their own resources in the woods just
on bet or to prove that the "back-
to-nature' theory still has the merits
and will still work. My advice to some
of those nature seekers is that If in
the future they wish to make a real
good record, try the little countries of
Luxembourg and Belgium with slice
of Germany thrown in.
l suppose that during this expert
ence of mine 1 made many mistakes
and travelled many unnecessary miles
which one with a knowledge of wood
manship might have avoided and
failed to take advantage of many
things which would have been quite