versts or thereabouts. The officer that turned them over to me told
me they were an awful nuisance. A third of them remained on the road
(at this the officer pointed with his finger to the ground). Half of
them will not get to their destination," he added.

"Epidemics, I suppose?", I inquired, stirred to the very core.

"No, not exactly epidemics; but they just fall like flies. Well, you
know, these Jewish boys are so puny and delicate. They can't stand
mixing dirt for ten hours, with dry biscuits to live on. Again
everywhere strange folks, no father, no mother, no caresses. Well
then, you just hear a cough and the youngster is dead. Hello,
corporal, get out the small fry!"

The little ones were assembled and arrayed in a military line. It
was one of the most terrible spectacles I have ever witnessed. Poor,
poor children! The boys of twelve or thirteen managed somehow to
stand up, but the little ones of eight and ten.... No brush, however
black, could convey the terror of this scene on the canvas.

Pale, worn out, with scared looks, this is the way they stood in
their uncomfortable, rough soldier uniforms, with their starched,
turned-up collars, fixing an inexpressibly helpless and pitiful gaze
upon the garrisoned soldiers, who were handling them rudely. White
lips, blue lines under the eyes betokened either fever or cold. And
these poor children, without care, without a caress, exposed to the
wind which blows unhindered from the Arctic Ocean, were marching to
their death. I seized the officer's hand, and, with the words: "Take
good care of them! ", threw myself into my carriage. I felt like
sobbing, and I knew I could not master myself....