Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1918-09-06


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 correspOndingly, be-
cause tired as ! was could take only
catnaps.
That afternoon / awOke from one
of these maps with a start. There were
voices not dozen feet from me! My
first impulse was to jump to my feet
and sell my life as dearly as I could,
but on second thought 1 decided to
look before 1 leapt. Peeping through
the underbrush could just discern two
men calmly chopping down a tree, and
cOnversing as they worked. 1 thanked
my lucky stars that l had not jumped
up on my first impulse, for l was ap-
parently quite safe as long as L lay
where l 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 L could only see the heads of
the men who were chopping it down,
was unable to tell which way they
planned to have it fail.
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 if
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
could do but wait and see what fate
| had in store for me. l lay there watch
! ing the top Of the tree for more than
an hour. Time and time again l saw ii
sway and fancied it was coming my
direction, and it was all l could do to
keep my place, but a moment later
would hear the crash. of the mems
axes, and 1 knew that my Imagination
had played me a trick.
| was musing on the sorry plight
was in-weak, nearly starving to death
refugee in a hostile country. anC
waiting patiently TO see which way 6
tree was going to fall. when there
came a loud crack, and 1 saw the toI
of the tree sway and fall almost op
posite to the place where l lay! haC
guessed right.
Later l heard some children's voice:
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 lunci
so near at hand, and to know that
hungry as l was, l could have none O.
it. 1 was getting tempted to go boldl!
up to them and take a chance of get
ting q share, but l did not know
whether they were Germans or not, ant
had gone through too much TO risl
my liberty even for food. swallowed
my hunger instead.
Shortly afterwards it began to rail
and about 4 o'clock the men left,
crawled out as fast as 1 could ant
scurried around looking for crumbs
but found none, and when darkness
came / went on my way once more.
That night l came to a river and a
1t was the first time my clothes ha,
been dry in long time, l thought
would try to keep them that way a
long as possible. l accordingly too
off all my things and made them int
Ill vNla fn
load across and then swim back 70
the other.
The river was quite wide. but / am
fairly good swimmer and l figured
could rest awhile after the first tri
before going back for the secon
bundle.
The first swim was uneventful. Whe
/ landed on the other side I drank ii
my thirst was quenched and the
swan back. After resting awhile
started across a third time, with m
shoes and several other things firml
tied to my head. Just about ten fee
from the opposite bank one of tn
shoes worked it's way loose and san
in about eight feet of water. Ther
was nothing to do but finish the tri
and then go back and dive for til
missing shoe, as I could not go G
with single shoe.
Diving in my weakened conditiO
was considerable strain, but l had |
have that shoe and I kept at it fl
nearly an hour before l eventual
found it, and l was pretty nearly a
, in by that time.
That was the last time I ever toe
Il my shoes off, for my feet were becon
u ing so swollen that l igured if l toe
4 my shoes off l might not be able to 2
them on again.
This stunt of crossing the river ar
b diving for the lost shoe had consume
about three hours, and after restir
some fifteen minutes went on my We
again. had gone nearly q mile wht
l came to another river, about Il
same size as the one l had Just crosse
1 walked along the bank awhile, thin
ing 1 might be lucky enough to find
boat or a bridge, but after waikiki
about half an hour 1 received one
: those disappOintments which icon
? once in a lifetime" l found that tn
river was the one I had just swum
had swum it on the bend and was st
on the wrong side. Had made only
short detour in the first place / won
have avoided all the annoyance of t
past three hours and saved II
strength and time. / was never
mad in my life at myself as l was
think that l had not paid more atte
ton to the course of the stream /
d fore undertook to cross it, but as
h matter of fact, there was really
" way of telling. The river was II
T. shown on the map at all.
Now l had to cross it, whereas |
fore l could have turned it. l walk
boldly into the water, not bOthering
take my clothes off this time, nor {
ever bother to take them off aft,
1 wards when swimming canals a
Sc rivers. l found it was impossible
I'd keep them dry anyway, and so l mig
De just as well swim in them and sa
lie time.