The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-07-03
weakened condition. doubted very
much whether l would be able to con-
tinue, but l plugged along.
CHAPTER VIII.
Nine DAYS in Luxembourg.

tn0ught tnat by Keeping that course
| would get out of Luxembourg and
into Belgium, where | expected to be
a little better off, because the people
of Luxembourg We're practically the
same as Germans.
One of the experiences l had in Lux.
embourg which 1 shall never forget
occurred the first day that l spent
there. had travelled all night and !
small wood with plenty of low under
brush, and picked out thick clump
of brushes which was not in line with
any paths, crawled in and lay down
to spend the day.
The sun could just reach me through
an opening in the trees above and /
took off all my clothes except my shirt
and hung them on the bushes to dry
in the sun. AS the sun moved moved
the clothes around CORRESPONDENCE, be-
cause tired as was I could take only
catnaps.
That afternoon I awoke from one
of these maps with start. There were
voices not a dozen feet from met My
and sell my life as dearly as I could,
but on second thought l decided to
look before l leapt. Peeping through
the underbrush l could just discern two
men calmly chopping down tree, and
conversing as they worked. l thanked
my lucky stars that l had not jumped
up on my first impulse, for 1 was ap-
parently quite safe as long as l lay
where / was.
1t then occurred to me that If the
tree upon which they were working
should happen to fall in my direction
it would crush me to death! 1t was
tall enough to reach me and big enough
to kill me if it landed in my direction
and as could only see the heads of
the men who were chopping it down, !
was unable to tell which way they
planned to have it fall.
There was this much in my favor;
the chances of the tree falling In just
my direction were not very great and
there was more than an even chance
that the men would be wise enough to
fell it so that it would not, because II
it landed in the brushes the task of
trimming the branches from the trunk
would be SO much harder.
But even without this feeling Of Sc
curity, there was really nothing else I
could do but wait and see what fate
had in store for me. I lay there watch
ing the top Of the tree for more than
an hour. Time and time again saw it
sway and fancied 1t was coming my
direction, and 1t was all I could do to
keep my place, but moment later l
would hear the crash Of the mems
axes, and I knew that my imagination
had played me q trick.
/ was musing ON the sorry plight I
was in-weak, nearly starving to death,
q refugee in a hostile country. and
waiting patiently to see which way a
tree was going to fall, when there
came q loud crack, and saw the top
of the tree sway and fall almost OPP
posite to the place where I lay! I had
guessed right.
Later I heard some children's voices
and again peering through the under
brush l saw that they had brought the
men their lunch. You can't realize how
l felt to see them eating their lunch
so near at hand, and to know that,
hungry as I was, I could have none of
it. l was getting tempted to go boldly
up to them and take chance of get
ting share, but ! did not know
they were Germans or not, and
/ had gone through too much to risk
my liberty even for food. swallowed
my hunger instead.
Shortly afterwards it began to rain
and about 4 o'clock the men left, I
crawled out as fast as / could and
around looking for crumbs,
but found none, and when darkness
came l went on my way once more.
That night I came to river and as
Il was the first time my clothes had
been dry In q long time, I thought I
would try to keep them that way az
long as possible I accordingly took
OF all my things and made them into
two bundles, planning to carry one
load across and then swim back for
the other.
The river was qnite vide, but am .
fairly good swimmer and figured I
could rest awhile after the first trip
before going back for the second
bundle.
The first swim was uneventful. When
landed on the other side I drank till
my thirst was Quenched and then
swan back. After resting awhile I
started across q third time, with my
shoes and several other things firmly
tied to my head. Just about ten feet
from the opposite bank one Of the
shoes worked its way loose and sank
in about eight feet of water. There
was nothing to do but finish the trip
and then GO back and dive for the
shoe, as I could not 60 on
with a single shoe.
Diving in my weakened condition
was considerable strain, but had to
have that shoe andsI kept at it for
nearly an hour before T eventually