Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/223

Rh some beds for gardening, in which I planted peas and tomatoes. Making use of my studies of commercial fertilizers, I secured through the warden and applied such materials which forced energetically our delinquent plantings and gave us very gratifying crops. In another bed we had flowers—asters, sweet peas and gillyflowers, which later provided me continuously with bouquets for my table.

Slowly, through careful dieting and living, I regained my appetite and the ability to sleep, and was soon able to begin some gymnastics, which gradually restored to my muscles their former elasticity and strength. This I often tested and proved in wrestling bouts with the strongest prisoners and even with some of the soldiers, while the Commandant of the Prison and the officer on duty had slipped off to the neighbouring restaurant for a glass of wine or a game of billiards. Finally this régime brought back to me my normal health.