The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-02-01

cry for help. | got wood though, be-
fore had been there long.
There was great big cupboard
that looked more like a 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 1 thought he would have to be my
chief cook and bottle washer for a
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 I know? Nuthin' in it,"
"Slim, that would make fine box
for coal or wood, wouldn't it?"
"Um. Whar de coal an wood?"
"I'm going out and, take observa-
tons, Slim. Take the wheel while I'm
gone, and keep your eye peeled for
U-boats." So l sneaked out the door
and began looking around.
If you look at the sketch I 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 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
the hospital chimney all the time and
wonder where on earth we got the
wood.
We got the same kind of food in the
hospital that was served in the other
barracks, and / would not have had
any more than used to, except that
sometimes some of the twenty-six pa
tients could not eat their share, and
then, of course, it was mine. One day,
though, we all had extra rations.
Two Russian doctors came to visit
us each day, and once they were fool
ish enough, or kind enough, to ask if
we had received our rations-we had
received them earlier than usual and
they were finished at the time. Of
course, l said no, so they ordered the
Russian in the kitchen to deliver
twenty-eight rations to us, which was
not quite three loaves of bread. We
were that much ahead that day, but it
would not work when l tried the trick
again.
One day a German doctor came to
the hospital barracks. He would not
touch anything while he was there
nnf thn lnny, Df
patients had little cards attached to
their bedS-chartS of their condition.
When the German wanted to see these
charts the Russian doctors had to hold
them for him.
l was having a great time at the
hospital, wrecking the barracks next
door each day for wood, along with
Kate, and getting little more food
sometimes, and was always nice and
warm. thought myself quite a pet.
Compared to what l had been up
against, it seemed like real comfort.
But the more food I got, the more /
wanted. And it was food that brought
me down, after all.
Across from US was a barracks in
which there were English officers, and
somehow it seemed to ME that they
must have had drag. Every once In
a while | saw what looked like vege-
tables and bags of something that was
dead ringer for brown flour. So I
told Slim, or Kate, as was calling him
by then, and with him on guard, I
sneaked out.
After two or three false starts, got
over our barbed wire and their barbed
wire, and in through a window.
There | saw carrotsI And graham
flouri
/ took all could carry, to divide up
with Kate, and then started eating,
so as not to waste anything. 1t was
certainly some feast-the only thing
besides mud bread and barley coffee
and shadow soup that / had to eat
In Germany. Then / started back to
the hospital. / got over their barbed
wire all right, and Kate gave me the
go-ahead for our entanglements, but
just as was going over them a sentry
nabbed me. At first 1 thought Kate
had turned traitor, because we had
had q little argument O short time be-