Three Times and Out | Page 7

the support of my good shoulder!
Some time through the night--my watch was broken and I couldn't tell
the time exactly--we came to another village and got off the car. A
guard came and carried off my companion, but as I could walk, I was
left to unload myself. The step was high, and as my shoulder was very
stiff and sore, I hesitated about jumping down. A big German soldier
saw me, understood what was wrong, and lifted me gently down.
It was then nearly morning, for the dawn was beginning to show in the
sky, and we were taken to an old church, where we were told to lie
down and go to sleep. It was miserably cold in the church, and my
shoulder ached fearfully. I tried hard to sleep, but couldn't manage it,
and walked up and down to keep warm. I couldn't help but think of the
strange use the church--which had been the scene of so many pleasant
gatherings--was being put to, and as I leaned against the wall and
looked out of the window, I seemed to see the gay and light-hearted
Belgian people who so recently had gathered there. Right here, I
thought, the bashful boys had stood, waiting to walk home with the
girls... just the way we did in British Columbia, where one church I
know well stands almost covered with the fragrant pines...
I fell into a pleasant reverie then of sunny afternoons and dewy moonlit
nights, when the sun had gone over the mountains, and the stars came
out in hundreds. My dream then began to have in it the brightest-eyed
girl in the world, who gave me such a smile one Sunday when she
came out of church... that I just naturally found myself walking beside
her.... She had on a pink suit and white shoes, and wore a long string of
black beads...
Then somebody spoke to me, and a sudden chill seized me and sent me
into a spasm of coughing, and the pain of my shoulder shot up into my
head like a knife... and I was back--all right--to the ruined church in

Belgium, a prisoner of war in the hands of the Germans!
The person who spoke to me was a German cavalry officer, who quite
politely bade me good-morning and asked me how I felt. I told him I
felt rotten. I was both hungry and thirsty--and dirty and homesick. He
laughed at that, as if it were funny, and asked me where I came from.
When I told him, he said, "You Canadians are terrible fools to fight
with us when you don't have to. You'll be sick of it before you are
through. Canada is a nice country, though," he went on; "I've been in
British Columbia, too, in the Government employ there--they treated
me fine--and my brother is there now, engineer in the Dunsmuir
Collieries at Ladysmith. Great people--the Canadians!"
And he laughed again and said something in German to the officer who
was with him.
When the sun came up and poured into the church, warming up its cold
dreariness, I lay down and slept, for I had not nearly finished the sleep
so comfortably begun in the basement the night before.
But in what seemed like three minutes, some one kicked my feet and
called to me to get up. I got to my feet, still spurred by the hope of
getting something to eat. Outside, all those who could walk were
falling in, and I hastened to do the same. Our guards were mounted this
time, and I noticed that their horses were small and in poor condition.
We were soon out of the village and marching along a splendid road.
The day was bright and sunny, but a searching wind blew straight in
our faces and made travelling difficult. It seemed to beat unmercifully
on my sore shoulder, and I held my right wrist with my left hand, to
keep the weight off my shoulder all I could.
I had not gone far when I began to grow weak and dizzy. The thirst was
the worst; my tongue was dry and swollen, and it felt like a cocoa
doormat. I could see rings of light wherever I looked, and the ground
seemed to come up in waves. A guard who rode near me had a
water-bottle beside him which dripped water. The cork was not in tight
as it should have been, and the sight of these drops of water seemed to

madden me. I begged him for a drink, and pointed to my parched
tongue; but he refused, and rode ahead as if the sight of me annoyed
him!
Ahead of us I could see the smoke of a large town, and I told myself
over