Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-08-02

took on a good supply Of celery and
for days I went along chewing celery
like a COW would a cud.
Along towards morning, when I sup
posed I had gotten in a fairly good lap
of my journey-perhaps seven or eight
miles-I began to recognize certain OBJ
jects as familiar landmarks. At least,
1 thought l had seer them before and
as 1 travelled along 1 knew positively I
had seen certain objects very recently.
Off at my right-not yer a quarter of
a mile-I noticed some fairly good
sized woods and thought / would go
over there to hide that day, because 1t
looked as though the u was going to
shine and 1 hoped to get my clothes
dry, and perhaps get a decent sleep.
I had this celery and a large beet, so
1 knew 1 would be able to live the day
through.
Finally I made my way over to the
woods. It was still too dark in among
the trees to do much In the way of
selecting my quarters for the day and
I could not go a step farther. So I
waited on the edge of the forest until
dawn and then set out to explore the
place, with a view to finding some nook
where 1 might sleep. Imagine my dis
gust, and Encouragement, too, when an
hour or so later / came upon the exact
place where 1 had spent the day before,
and I realized that all night long 1 had
been circling the very woods 1 was try
ing to get away from. / think perhaps
1 mad gone all of a quarter of a mile in
the right direction, but then had lost
my bearings entirely, and daylight
found me with nothing accomplished.
The sum-, however, did come out that
day, and l welcomed it's warm rays,
as they, perhaps, have never been well
coined before. 1 was very tired-just
about all in-but I spent a 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 n is making only seven or eight
miles a day, or rather a night, one
night lost means a whole lot, especi-
any lit GULL udJ htCDS Hill 1IOIu
freedom. Such i'll fortune and dis
couragements as this were harder to
endure, l believe, than the actual
hunger, and the accompanying worry
naturally reduced my weight. At times
1 was f%uriously angry with myself for
the mistakes 1 made and the foolish
things 1 did, but 1 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. l think if a man is
Overburdened with a sense of humOr
and wants to get rid of it, this trip l
took would be an excellent remedy
for it. Right at this time 1 would
have welcomed anything for a compan-
ion. 1 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 hat 1 might
be able to milk them. There are very
few cows in this country, and the OPP
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 wners. 1 did hope
some place in the fields, but in all my
travels l never saw a goat or a pig,
and only a few cows. Several times I
searched nests for eggs, but somebody
always had beaten me to it, as l never
even found so much as a 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.
It was not like taking things away
from old men and women or robbing
people that could not stop me if they
chose to do so. I thought at this time
that I was suffering about the worst
hardships any human being could ever
be called upon to endure, but l wa
later to find hat the best of my jour.
uey WAS uldue dlOuS uUOuI lAIS IALue.
There were plenty of vegetables, even
though they were raw, and these were
much better than the things 1 wa
afterwards compelled to eat or &C
without.
We frequently hear of men who have
lived for a certain number of days on
their own in the woods just
a 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
and Belgium with a slice
Germany thrown in.
1 suppose that during this expert
ence of mine l made many mistakes
and Travelled many unnecessary miles
which one with a knowledge of wood
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