O. Schlunke: THE ENTHUSIASTIC PRISONER E. O. Schlunke THE ENTHUSIASTIC PRISONER HENRY HOLDEN decided to get an Italian prisoner-of-war after he had seen several at work on Esmond’s farm. Esmond was building a shed, and it was beautiful to see how they rushed to carry any-thing he picked up, and how they seemed to take it for granted that they were there to do all the heavy work while the boss gave the orders. When the captain in charge of the P.O.W.C.C. had a preliminary look over Henry’s place he tactlessly asked him if he were an invalid; he saw so few signs of work being done and so many of neglect. He wasn’t at all keen on letting Henry have a P.O.W.; he didn’t think he was the type to handle them successfully, but on the other hand, he was eager to get his “hundred”. When the P.O.W. arrived Henry was decidedly disappointed with him at first sight. He did not look obliging and polite; he didn’t even look like an Italian. He had a tremendous amount of fuzzy brown hair, his eyebrows were so large and dense they nearly surrounded his eyes and thick hair grew all round his neck and jutted out of his ears.
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