“You wouldn’t need to,” I said.  “There would not have been any fighting.”

And then we strained our ears to listen to the song, not a word of which we understood, though to us the music was full of good-will and joy.

“We’ve got to keep farther out,” I said at last.  “We are sure to run into some one and then it will be all up with us!”

We found, at last, after much stumbling over rough ground, a road quite grass-grown and apparently abandoned.  We followed it for about a mile, making good progress, until we came to a stream over which there was a bridge.  We hesitated a minute before going over, but the place was as silent as a cemetery, and seemed perfectly safe.  So we cautiously went over, keeping a sharp outlook all the time.  When we were over the bridge, we found ourselves in the one street of another village.

We stopped for a minute and listened.  There was not a sound.  We then went forward.  Most of the streets of the villages are paved with cobblestones, but these were not, and our boots made no sound on the dirt road.  Not even a dog barked, and just as we were at the farther end of it, the village clock rang the hour of three!

“That’s all right for once,” I said, “but it’s risky; I don’t think we’d better try it again.  Some barking dog is sure to awake.”

Soon after that the east grew red with morning, and we struck straight into the woods to find shelter.  We soon found ourselves in high rushes growing out of swampy ground, and as we plunged along, we came to a high woven-wire fence, which we supposed marked the bounds of a game preserve.

We quickened our pace, although the going was bad, for the light was growing and we knew these German peasants are uncomfortably early in their habits.  We came on a garden, carefully fenced with rails, and helped ourselves to a few carrots and turnips to save our supply of food, and, finding near there a fairly thick wood, decided to camp for the day.

That was Monday, October 4th, and was a miserable day with sudden bursts of sunshine that made our hearts light with the hope of getting both warm and dry; but the sunshine no sooner came than it was gone, and then a shower of rain would beat down on us.

However, we managed to make our feet comfortable with the extra pair of socks, and we ate some carrots, bread, and cheese.  But it was so cold, we could not sleep.

We were glad when it grew dark enough for us to start out again.  We found we were in a well-cultivated district; almost every acre was in garden, potatoes and sugar beets, whose stalks rustled and crackled as we went through them, and this made our going slower than it otherwise would have been.  There were a few late apples on the trees, but they were poor, woody ones.  I do not know whether they were a sample of the crop or just the culls that were not considered worth picking.  But we were glad of them, and filled our pockets.