Iron County register., 1919-01-23
IIIIIIIIIllIIIIll

fore had been there long.
There was great big cupboard
that looked more like small house,
built against the wall of the hospital
barracks in one corner of the room,
and not far from the stove. Kate was
the only patient able to be on his feet,
so I thought he would have to be my
chief cook and bottle washer for
while; and, besides, there was some
thing about him that made him look
pretty valuable. / had not recognized
his whistling yet, so Slim looked to be
the right name for him.
"Slim, what's that big cupboard
for?"
"How'd know? Nuthin' in it."
"Slim, that would make a fine box
for coal or wood, wouldn't itG"
"Um. Whar de coal an wood?
'Pm going out and take observa-
tions, Slim. Take the wheel while I'm
gone, and keep your eye peeled for
U-boats." So 1 sneaked out the door
and began looking around.
If you look at the sketch / have
made, it will not take you long to see
that next to us was vacated Russian
barracks. And it did not take me
much longer to see it, too. Back to
the hospital and Slim.
"Slim, what barracks are next to
us?"
Russian burrucks. only dey amt
dere now. Been SICK"
"And you mean to tell me you don't
know where to get wood?"
"Sick men been in dem burrucks."
"Sick men here, aren't there? Let's
CO."
That did the trick. The black boy
would watch from the hospital win
: dows until he saw the coast was clear,
; then we would slip into the barracks
next door, and he would watch again.
When there was no sentry near
enough to hear us, crash! and out
would come a dividing board from the
) hunks. When we had an armful
| apiece, and had broken them up to the
! right lengths, all we needed was a lit
} tie more, watching, and then back to
: the hospital and the big cupboard
Later on, our men told me they used
to watch the smoke that poured from
e the hospital chimney all the time and
:, wonder where on earth we got the
] wood.
S We got the same kind of food in the
E hospital that was served in the Other
! barracks, and I would not have had
e any more than I used to, except that
r sometimes some Of the twenty-six pa
t tients could not eat their share, anc
4 then, of course, it was mine. One day
t though, we all had extra rations.
t Two Russian doctors came to visi
E us each day, and once they were fool
ish enough, or kind enough, to ask Il
q we had received our rations-we hat
r received them earlier than usual ant
r they were finished at the time. o.
t course, l said no, so they ordered thu
v Russian in the kitchen to delive
:. twenty-eight rations to US, which wal
L not quite three loaves of bread. W.
| were ludL duCuu LudL udJS DuL !
S would not work when tried the tricl
e again.
One day a German doctor came t
q the hospital barracks. He would no
!; touch anything while he was there
It not even open the door. All of tn
patients had little cards attached t
d their beds-charts Of their condition
l When the German wanted to see thes
II charts the Russian doctors had to hol
"a them for him.
III / was having a great time at th
H. hospital, wrecking the barracks ne1
- door each day for wood, along wit
a' Kate, and getting little more foe
sometimes, and was always nice an
warm. l thought myself quite pc
p Compared to what / had been U
le against, it seemed like real comfor
Ut But the more food got, the more
a wanted. And 1t was food that brougl
~ me down, after all.
% Across from us was barracks.
which there were English officers, al
~ somehow it seemed to me that tn
80 must have had drag. Every once
~ while 1 saw what looked like veg
- tables and bags of something that W
10 q dead ringer for brown flour. So
-. told Slim, or Kate. as I was calling hi
- by then, and with him on guard,
~ sneaked out.
After two or three false starts, I 6
or. over our barbed wire and their barb
a. wire, and In through window.
mn There saw carrots And grahs
no fourl
est / took all could carry, to divide
II. with Kate, and then started eatil
the so as not to waste anything. 1t "
len certainly some feast--the only thi
ro. besides mud bread and barley cof
md and shadow" soup that l had to
md in Germany. Then started back
q the hospital. got over their bari
hat wire all right, and Kate gave me
i'm go-ahead for our entanglements,
vas just as / was going over them sen
lte, nabbed me. At first thought X
rds had turned traitor, because we
my had little argument short time
ust fore.
mad But later on l figured that he wo
cen not have done a trick like that, {
besides, he knew was bringing