At the same time, you
can imagine how much the whole thing grieves me."
Well, after all, I was ready to forgive him his sins, provided he
overlooked mine. . . . .
Yes, that happened on a Saturday. We were all standing in line on
the drill grounds. I was in the first line, and Jacob was directly
behind me in the second line. We were going through the paces of
the so-called three-step exercise. It was this way: the soldier had
to stretch his left leg forward on a somewhat oblique line, so that
the sole of his foot touched the ground without resting on it. That
was the first pace, the hardest of all, as we had to stand on one
leg, with the other a dead weight. In this position we had to keep
standing till the command was given for the second pace. At that
moment we had to shift to our left leg, and quickly bend the right
leg at the knee-joint at a right angle. Thus we had to stand till
the command was given for the third pace, when we had to unbend the
right leg and bring it forward. On that day we were kept at the
first pace unusually long. My muscles began to twitch, and I felt
as if needles were pricking me from under the skin.
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