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Show I won't bother you with all the details de-tails of those four years. They were i mostly a monotony of nothing to eat and nothing to wear. Everybody felt j sorry for me because I was so young, When the armistice was signed, we Just went crazy here. The first Belgian soldier who rode Into town was carried car-ried about on people's shoulders till the poor fellow was worn out. We were terribly anxious to get rid of the Germans and. because they didn't leave fast enough to suit us. everyoni wore little pins like brooms to sho' them we were going to sweep then out. If they didn't hurry. Suddenly my father came home. I heard my mother call his name and all the family ran into the hall where he was and evervone began to cry and BELGIUM SKETCHES Reminiscences of a Belgian Baby By Katharine Eggleston Roberts. fOopyrlffht, 1920. Western Newspaper Union) Whee-ee-eel Zing! Bang! There I was right In the middle of It I thought the whole world was like that and I'm free to confess the Erst impression was anything but favorable. Those Zeppelins Zep-pelins and their bombs were awfully annoying; they made me nervous. Furthermore, Fur-thermore, a cellar is no place In which to be born. It gives one such a wrong Idea of home. Of course, I know now it was the best place for safety, but then I didn't have my present viewpoint. view-point. That was about five years ago. Yes, my entrance was quite dramatic. You see, I came Just at the wrong time. They were expecting the roof to fall In at any minute and the atmosphere was rather strained. It wasnt at all the sort of welcome a new member of a family expects. But, after all, I hadn't much reason to complain. As soon as the Germans took our town they stopped destroying houses, because they wanted to keep the city In good condition to live in after they had won the war. (I suppose sup-pose they are sorry now.) Even at that they weren't pleasant people to have around. I was asleep when they first came to our house. I'd heard a bomg-ing bomg-ing outside, but didn't think anything of It and went on sleeping. All of a sudden sud-den some one picked me up and he was anything but gentle. I didn't like it and I didn't like him, and I said so in very plain and forceful language. My lungs and vocal cords were simply worn out afterward. I surely was relieved re-lieved when my sister took me away from him and I guess he was, too. But that was just the beginning. When I saw another man in one of those rat-colored costumes pull the mattress off my crib and take out .its wool stuffing I was mad clear through. And then I looked around and saw they were doing the same thing to my 1 mother's bed. They took most of the blankets, too. But what Tould we do? My father wasn't there, because he had gone somewhere else to fight and I was the only man in the house. I had tried kicking that German when he first picked me up and I realized he was too big for me to handle. We hoped that one raid would be the end of it- but it wasn't. Well, to When Father Came Home. laugh and cry again. Of course. I had never seen him and, at first, I couldn't believe that the tall, thin man with hollow cheeks was my father. To tell the truth. I felt rather out of place and embarrassed. So I hung around the edge of the crowd till someone j remembered me and I was presented ! to father. Frankly, I didn't just know j the proper way to greet him. 01 j course he was mv father hut, after all ; f "v - iff if ,v j! The Way the Germans Destroyed Homes. make a long story short, they came another time and took all the pretty shiny copper and our doorknobs. They removed our big bronze chandeliers and even the little hinges from the piano. We tried to hide some things, but they found all except a few doorknobs door-knobs and a couple of candlesticks. Then they eame again and took the linen. Finally they made a search for potatoes. After that, they visited us once a week and seized whatever they had missed before. Honestly, I concluded, con-cluded, they were going to take the whole house and were moving it on the Installment plan. But they left the house itself and whatever they didn't want in it. My mother was awfully sad because we didn't hear from father. Of course we didn't have much to live on either. The Germans wouldn't let anyone have more than a little bit of bread a week and everything else was just as scarce. I was always hungry and said so till I noticed mother was giving me part of her share. I didn't make so much fuss after that. As to clothes well, as I grew, I had to have new opes and we couldn't buy them because we didn't have money and materials were terribly high-priced. The rest of the family had worn out all the things they had In the beginning. begin-ning. My sister dyed some blankets we had hidden whenever the Germans called and we made coats and other clothes of them. Then at night we put them over us to keep warm. Believe Be-lieve me there were some queer costumes cos-tumes here during the war. As soon as I learned to talk, I began getting into trouble. One day I saw that German officer who had yanked me out of bed when I was just new. I thought maybe he hadn't understood my former remarks and so I made li few more. Be reached for me and I ran. At first he started to chase me, but It jostled his dignity too much, and I was safe. I got into one scrape after another and, sometimes when I was hungry, I couldn't run fast enough, i " I,, menj-ertain'v knew how f use we were practically strangers. The sensation was very queer. I think he felt it too, for he looked at me curiously. curi-ously. We got through the meeting somehow. Since then we've become better aquainted. You know, I don't see how we got along without him How are things now? Well, we have more to eat and we haven't the Germans around all the time. I surely was glad when they stopped their weekly visits. But, of course, you've noticed we haven't any doorknobs. Everything that was taken has to be replenished. I heard the family talking when I was supposed to be asleep. They said something about bills that had been run during the war. Father said he was glad his credit had been good, but he didn't know whether it would be five years from now. I don't know exactly what he meant. Mother told him that the clothes we'd made from the blankets were so worn that they wouldn't do for either clothes or blankets blank-ets this winter. But my sister had been downtown pricing things and it seems you can't buy wool clothes now for less than a fortune. Father said he didn't see how they were going to get enough new machinery In place of that the Germans took from his factory fac-tory to make the necessary fortune. Mother and my sister can't go out at the same tlm any more, because of the coat question. Father's things are none too good. And just look at these trousers I'm wearing! Aren't they a sight? They're too tight, too. If I don't get a new pair pretty soon, I'll just be desperate. Take it from me, I'm never going to be born again during a war; I'll wait till it's all over and settled. All I could do was take up room and food and clothing. And. anyhow. It's no fit Introduction to life. Why, , at first, when we began to get more to eat, I was actually food-shy. I'm not fat enough yet, but. If I have to wear these clothes much longer. 1 guess It's a good thing. Then, as 1 said be-IiLTt be-IiLTt -"c long p' osition all |