A PRISONER 181 



difference, for one had begun to crave for fat, 

 sugar, and anything in the way of vegetables. 



As to vegetables, there had been a bitter dis- 

 appointment some time previously, after Zimmer- 

 mann, the Konigsberg baker, and now our 

 quartermaster, kindled vast hopes with the news, 

 " To-day you will get cabbages from the cabbage 

 palm ; yes, and it is much better than common 

 cabbage, and very hard even to tell the difference." 

 He also said that in peace times this alleged succu- 

 lent luxury was protected by a heavy fine, since 

 to get the cabbage the tree must be killed. We 

 had that vegetable for lunch ; but Papke must 

 have eaten the cabbage part, and all that we 

 seemed to have got was some of the trunk ten feet 

 lower. Alas ! the hungriest could not eat it. For 

 my own part, I prefer bottle tree, and I consider 

 that heavy fine unnecessary. 



In January our hunger was still keener, and it 

 seemed a painfully long time between meals. 

 Game was decidedly scarce anywhere near the 

 camp, and meat was not so frequently obtained. 

 The officers who were on parole were trying to 

 increase their supplies by snaring partridges, but 

 I, being in the ranks, was always guarded day and 

 night. In those hungry days philosophy taught 

 one that, after all, the nicest things are really the 

 commonest and simplest. When " hungry " talk 

 started in the banda, as it did each evening, it 

 was noticeable, when anybody was choosing the 

 food he would have if he were free, how he in- 



