Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/207

 we had earned some money by selling what we had knit (for sometimes they sent us for it meal, oil, bread, vinegar, and even some aspers), we all clubbed together and bought as many mugs as there were persons, and also a large wooden tub, in which we set our mugs, and when the water was brought we filled them one after the other, till we had all had our turn; but when there was any water remaining in the tub each took it for a day in turn, and kept it for himself in a large pitcher.

We bought ourselves, moreover, a large pot, and plastered it with clay, which our guards brought us, and made a kind of oven of it. We also bought coals and a bag with the proceeds of our knitting, and being already in partnership by fives and sixes, and having saved several pitchers of water, each had to boil and act in turn as cook for a week; that is to say, taking a small loaf and two or three pieces of bread, he crumbled them into the water, got up the fire, boiled the porridge, and gave it to his fellow-craftsmen to eat. The stockings and gloves which his partners knitted he had to wash out in warm water, when there happened to be a sufficiency of water, and to wring out the shirts, their owners, meanwhile, sitting naked, and also to wash their heads, and thus was manager for a whole week, and then gave up his office to another. The porridge was extremely nice, especially when at times we procured some olive oil, made it rich for ourselves, and licked our fingers afterwards. Sometimes we had bread in sufficiency, and sometimes we had to wait all day till the very evening; sometimes, when they saw that we had water by us, they brought us no fresh water for a day or two: and thus we lived at their mercy. We had