OCR Text |
Show BELBIUM SKETCHES ! ! Reminiscences of fat a Belgian Baby I Dy Katharine EggUiton Robert. HI - L HI (Coioilttil. IS:. Tit,r Ntiiu,if Unlta) ! Whceeere! Zlnjl Khngl Thfre I ( K was rl'tlit In die middle of It. I llioiiKl.it L the wliota world was like Ht nml I'm . 'JMLti-.c to confes Hie first Impression as Cfljauwililng Inn favorable. Those Zcp- . fIJflkllns oikI their bombs wer awfully "wftmroylnr : they made m nervous. Fur-I Fur-I thcrlnore, cellar Is no placn la wlilch to be born, It tlves on such wront Men of home. Of cowrie, I know now lit wns the best "place- fr safety, lint then I didn't lwv my present flew point. That was about five years ag. Byes, my entrance wns quite dramatic. Yon sc. I came Just nt Hie wron time. They iwre cxpectlux llie roof to full In Int nny minute ntid tlic aliuosphcra whs ta rather strained. It wnsn't at nil tlia Inort of welcome n new member of a I family expects. I lint, after all, I hadn't much rensun to complain. As soon as the Ormsns "I took our torn" they stopped destroying , houses, because they waiilnd te kte Utlio city In food condition to lira In jfnftcr they hail won the war. (I sup-I sup-I pose they are eorry now.) Kren at that 1 they- weren't pleasant people to Uuyb I around. I was nsleep when they first lenini te our house. I'd heard n bniig-ling bniig-ling outside, but didn't think anylhlu: 'Jot It and went on sleeping. All of a sud den some one picked tue up and he was SnnytliliiK but gentle. 1 didn't Ilka It nniilrilldn't like him, and 1 said so In VwBjCmhiln and forceful language. My VdffErntiVMuul vocnl' cords were simply faBT'Orn out afterward. I surely was re- urflllevctl when my sister tool; me nwny n from him and I guess he was, too. BAll , Hut tiint was Just the beginning, Bf hv Wheii I saw another man In one of K'l those- rut-cotoied costumes pull the' Bjfi mnttress. off my crib and take out Its BJJf wool glutting 1 wns mad clear through. fl f Ami llr I looked around and saw ( . they vo " ' Ing Hie same thing to my W moiher's tied. They took most of the 13 blankets, too. Hut whut could wo do? illy father wasn't there, bccmte he had gone somewhere else to light nnd 1 I ( was the only man in the house. I had If tried kicking that German when he Vi ilrst picked mo up and I realized he Y wns too big for .me io handle. .,. We hoped thnt one raid would he 'V the end of It, but It wnyn't. Well, to I won't bother you with all the ds-tails ds-tails of thoie four years. They wero mostly a monotony of nothing to eat and nothing to wear, Everybody felt sorry for mo lmcnuc I wns o young. When tli armistice was signed, we Just went crazy here. The. first Ilelglan soldier who rode Into town was carried car-ried about on pcoptn's shoulders till the poor follow was worn nut. VYe were terribly anxious Io get rid of the Germans and, becausn they didn't lea to fait enough to suit us, cveryunu wora Hills plus like brooms to show them we were going to sweep them ' out, If they didn't hurry. Suddenly my father came horns. I board my mother call his name anil all the family ran Into the hall wbern ha waa nnd atenrone bexin to cry and . taflHLiP ""flHHaW flBSflflflfllVflHHHn VxM-HmrnVk BBS WPJQflWflMHHfllflHrflBBPHB?nr'P When Father Came Home. laugh nnd cry, again. Of course, I liml never seen him and, nt first, I couldn't believe that the tall, thin man with hollow cheeks wns my father. To tell the truth, I felt rather out of place nnd embarrassed. Sa 1 hung around the edge of the crowd till someone remembered me nnd I was presented to father, frankly, I didn't Just know the proper way to greet him. Of course ho wns my t'nther hut. nfler nil, The Way the Germans Destroyed Homes, I i lake n long story short, they came I ffnotticr time nnd took nil thu pretty shiny copper and our doorknobs. They 1 removed our big bronze chandeliers f and even the little hinges from the . JUnno. We tried to hide somo things, VJfcut they found nil except a few door- jJLiolis nnd .u couple of cnndlestlcks. MRw they came ugnln and took the p "' 1'huilly they nmdo n search for Irolntocs. After that, they visited us Vli lonco n week ami seized whatever they Ri- Jliud missed before. Honestly, I con-S con-S t eluded, they wero going to take the Yi J holo house mid wero moving It on the I jfjlnsfnllment pfiin. Hut they left the Blouse Itself nnd whatever they didn't nvnnt In It. 'Bi My mother was awfully snd hecnuRo Bl wo '"''n't hear from fnther. Of courso ;H W'c didn't liavo much to live on cither. jH. Tho Ocrmnns wouldn't let nnyone 1 '"V0 llu)rc "m" " "tl,Q ''" of 'n'1"1 .'Bf! n weql; and everything else was Just Hllns scarce. I was nlwnys hungry and pnlil so till I noticed mother wns iglvlng me part of her shnrc. I didn't hmnko so much fuss after thnt. As to JlJ lot lies well, ns I grew, I bud to have fP ynv ones and we couldn't buy them (IK I 'cniiHo we didn't have, money nnd W jb.itcrlnls were terribly hlgh-prtced. Wp Tiiio rest of tho family had worn out ffll the things they hnil In tho begin- lu'K' My K,;((-r ilyed some blankets jjnjflfcjinil hidden whenever the Gerinnns jHflBkd nnd wo mndo coats nnd other ?RS0.h8 n.( them. Then nt night we aJHW-'1 tlu-'"1 ovor us to keep warm, llo- ' HtQvi-' xno thci-o were hoiuo queer cos- iBTiMinos liiro during Hie wnr. Bfp Anxoiiii us I learned to tnlk, 1 began J tttlng Into trouble. One day 1 saw J hat German olllcor who hnd yanked , B no out of bed when I was Just now. ' thought mnybe ho hadn't under.stinjil ,HJ iiiy Toruier teiuarks mid so I nmdo u J few more, lie reached fur me nnd I HJ "an. At Ilrst he stnrtcd tn clinso me. J jut It Jostled his dignity ton much, nnd fit win safe. I got Into one scrnpo after Vni''er nnd, sometimes vyhpu 1 wbn Hvhuugry, I couldn't run fnst eurrugh. iHf Tliow ilien't'ertulnly knew huw to uu Hj Ibelr swngger-Htlckx. I guess they must JBhnY0 practiced nt hdne. wo wero practically strangers. The sensation won very queer. 1 think he felt It too, for ho looked at me curiously. curi-ously. Wo got through the meeting r.omehow, Slnco then wo'vo become hotter nquqlnted. Von know, Ik don't see how we got along without him How nro things now? Well, we have more to eat and we haven't the Germans nround all tho time. 1 surely wns glad when they stopped their weekly visits. Hut, of course, you've noticed wa haven't nny doorknobs, t'jyi-y thing that was tnken has to be replenished. I heard the family talking when I wns supposed to he nsleep. They said something about bills that had been run during tho wnr. Futher said ho was glad his credit hud been good, hut he didn't know whether It vould bo flvo years from now. I don't know exnetly whnt ho meant. Mother told him that the clothes we'd niado from the blankets were so wnm that they wouldn't do for either clothes or blankets blank-ets this winter. Hut my sister had been downtown pricing things and It seems you ain't buy wool clothes now for less than a fortune. Futher said he didn't sco how they were going to get enough new machinery In place of that the Germans took from his fuc-tory fuc-tory to make the necessary fortune. Mother nnd my sister can't go out nt tho sumo time nny more, because of thu cout question, Father's things nre none too good. And Just look nt these trousers I'm wenrlngl Aren't (hey a sight? They're too tight, too. If I don't get ii new pair pretty soiyi, I'll Jusi he depperate, Tnko It from me, I'm never going to he born again during n wnr; I'll wait till It's nil over nnd settled. All 1 could do was tnko up room and food nnd clothing. And, nnyhow, It's' no (It Introduction to life, Why. nt first, when wo begun to get moro to cat, 1 wils actually fooil-.sliy. I'm not fat enough yet, but, If I hnvo to wear theso clothes much longer, I guess It's n cood tiling. Then, us I said before, be-fore, It has knocked my disposition all to smnsh nnd now I'll have to take a running Jump to make good. |