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22 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
streets are paved with cobbles, and our speed slackens con-
siderably. In other places rattling carts drawn by powerful
dogs in complete harness come jogging along at a brisk pace.
It is a pleasure to look at them. Truly they are examples of
faithfulness and conscientiousness. With panting mouths and
dripping tongues, and with all muscles and sinews of their
bodies strained to the utmost, they tug so fiercely that their
paws and chests might be expected to be a mass of sores.
The man at the cart does not urge them and has no whip in
his hand. He seems, on the contrary, to wish to hold them
back when they struggle along too fast. If anyone seems to
approach too close to their master’s barrow, they set up a
ferocious bark. They long to be in harness as soon as the sun
gets up, just like Jack London’s pals in Alaska. It is touching
to see their sense of duty and honour. And yet they are but
dogs. I felt I would like to follow them on the road and study
them. But the car goes on inexorably, and in a twinkling
they are far, far behind.
Gräfenhainischen—what a delightful little monosyllable !
One must never be in a hurry when one lives at Gräfenhaini-
schen. As long, nay, longer than the name is the narrow street
that leads through the village and finally loses itself in the fiat
country beyond.
Mulde with its bridge and Bitterfeld, where the market is
in full swing, are the next landmarks in our journey. The
stalls with the busy market life around them look very
picturesque. Full of colour, but at the same time so old-
fashioned and tranquil—nobody could imagine here that
Germany is at war. On the road outside the town we see
plenty of women driving or walking back to their rustic farm-
steads after their marketing.
At the lignite mines outside Bitterfeld the little baskets on
the cable-ways are busy carrying the coal to the factories,
where it is made into briquettes.
Next we roll into Halle and are now on the most classic
ground of our national history, for it was at Halle that Gustavus
Adolphus rested from the loth to the 17th September, 1631,
with the army which had conquered at Breitenfeld on the
7th of the same month. In passing over the bridges we cross
a seemingly inextricable maze of railway lines. The bridge-
heads here, as everywhere in the German Empire, are guarded
by Landsturm sentries with loaded rifles. All railways and
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