This quite put the cap on it. It put an end, anyway, to any serious discussion of the matter on my part. But talk I must, and not wishing to see the name of England writhing in the dust, I tried to adopt myself to the peasant style of argument. About a month thereafter you might have found me entertaining my German companions in the fields in this wise: “Ha, Ha! We laugh at the Germans in London! We spit on them--the monkeys! You’re fine _Kerls_--you black bread eaters, you cherry-leaf smokers, you wooden-shoed pigs! Wouldn’t you look fine on the Paris boulevard _in those_? _Was?_ _Ach_, we spit on the Germans! _Passe mal auf_, _die Engländer_ are coming, and they shoot--So--and the Germans will run--So--_Ja_, you’re _schön dumm_, you are!” FOOTNOTES: [6] Beaten. [7] Mecklenburgish, _Ne_; German, _Nein_; English, No. [8] Mother. CHAPTER IX _The Russian Peace_ “Oh, Ben, have you seen the papers?” asked Erna one day as I came in for _Kaffeetrinken_. “Peace has been declared!--Peace!” “_Was?_” I asked, dumbfounded. “Peace! Peace has been declared! The Russians have made peace!” “Oh!” I sighed, my hopes dashed to the ground. “I’ve heard that before.” “_Ja_, but it is true,” corroborated _Mutter_. “It’s real peace! It’s the beginning of the end. It’ll all be settled now in a few weeks! Hostilities on the Eastern Front have ceased. There it is in the paper.” She handed me the _Rostocker Anzeiger_ and they watched me while I read the story of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. They expected me to dance with glee at the joyous news and were keenly disappointed when I failed to share their elation. “Aren’t you glad?” asked _Mutter_, “It’s peace! Peace!” “No,” I said. “It’s war, worse war and more of it!” I read the paper with no little interest for the next few days, glowing and optimistic and especially conciliatory toward the vanquished Russians. The Russians were naturally clever and amiable people, who had simply been the unfortunate dupes of wicked England. The hand of friendship was again to be extended to the Slavonic brethren, and all animosities inspired by the war were to be forgotten. Indeed, it severely pained the tender heart of the Germans that they had been compelled to kill so many Russians, and they fervently prayed that no misunderstanding would ever again arise between the great German and Russian races. No reference was made to the treatment of the Russian prisoners, for--there it stood in the treaty--they were to be “repatriated with all possible speed!”