Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1919-02-04
SOUTH PARIS, MAINE, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1919.

my lucky stars that I had not jumped
mp on my first impulse, for I was ap-
parently quite safe as long as I lay
where ] was.
| It then occurred to me that II the
tree upon which they were working
should happen to fall in my direction
it would crush me to death! It was
tall enough to reach me and big enough
to kill me If 1t landed in my direction
and as I could only see the heads Of
the men who were chopping 1t 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 1t would not, because If
it landed In the brushes the task OF
trimming the branches from the trunk
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. lay there watch
ing the top Of the tree for more than
an hour. Time and time again saw 1t
sway and fancied it 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 knew that my Imagination
had played me trick.
was musing on the sorry plight
was in-weak, nearly starving to death,
refugee in a hostile country, and
waiting patiently to see which way q
tree was going to fall, when there
came O loud crack, and saw the top
of the tree sway and fall almost op-
posite to the place where layl had
guessed right.
Later heard some children's voices
and again peering through the under
brush I 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 was, I could have none Of
it. was getting tempted to 60 boldly
I'D to them and take chance Of get
ting q share, but I lid not know
whether they were Germans or not, and
I had gone through too much to risk
my liberty even for food. swallowed
my hunger instead.
Shortly afterwards 1t began to rain
and about 4 o'clock the men left,
crawled out as fast as / could and
scurricd around looking for crumbs,
but found none, and when darkness
came / went on my way once more.
That night I came to a river and as
it was the first time my clothes had
been dry in a long time, I thought l
would try to keep them that way as
long us possible. I accordingly took
off 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 quite wide, but am
fairly good swimmer and I figured 1
could rest awhile after the first trip
before going back for the second
bundle.
The first swim was uneventful. When
I landed on the other side I drank till
my thirst was quenched and then
swan back. After resting awhile I
started across a 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
missing shoe, as I could not go on
with a single shoe.
Diving in my weakened condition
was q considerable strain. but had to
have that shoe and / kept at it for
nearly an hour before I eventually
found It. and 1 was pretty nearly all
In by that time.
That was the last time I ever took
my shoes off, for my feet were becom-
ing so swollen that figured If took
nv shoes off might not be able to gel
them on again.
This stunt of crossing the river and
diving for the lost shoe had consumed
about three hours, and after resting
some fifteen minutes went on my way
again. I had gone nearly mile when
I came to another river, about the
same size as the one had just crossed.
walked along the bank awhile. think
ing l might he lucl.y enough to find q
boat or a bridge, but after walking
about half an hour received one of
those disappointments which "come
once in q lifetime" l found that this
river was the one had just swum! 1
had swum it on the bend and was still
on the wrong side. Had l made only a
short detour in the first place would
have avoided all the annoyance Of the
past three hours and saved my
strength and time. was never SO
mad in my life at myself as was to
think that had not paid more atten-
ton to the course Of the stream be-
fore I undertook to cross 1t, but as a
matter OF fact, there was really no
way Of telling. The river was not
shown on the map at all.
Now I had to cross 1t, whereas be-
fore could have turned 1t. walked
boldly into the water. not bothering to
take my clothes off this time, nor did
ever bother to take them off after
wards when swimming canals and
rivers. / found 1t was impossible to
keep them dry anyway, and so / might
Just as we'll swim In them and save
time.
All the next day I spent in forest,
to which my nights travel had brought
me about 5 o'clock in the morning. /
kept on my way through the woods
until daylight came, and then, thinking
the place would afford fairly good con-
cealment, I concluded to rest until
night.
The prospects Of even a good sleep
were dismal, however. for about the
time the suns face should have ap-
peared, a drizzling rain began and 1
pave nm nv search for q dry spot
which would serve me as bed. Some