Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

ed; in the New Samara vil- lages, in another volost further eastward a hundred miles or so, were very many in critical circumstances; in the Orenburg groups, still further East, the conditions were considerably worse. UNSEALING THE CLOSED DOOR 189 Klassen had traveled from settlement to settlement in low sleds, drawn by horses weak from hunger, himself inadequately clothed for the extreme cold, across miles of bleak country in blinding snow storms, a limitless sea of moving whiteness, with few landmarks to guide the way. The swirling snow obliterated all traces of the track that had been made by the few other sleds. It is only a single track. If two horses are attached to the sled, they are not hitched side by side but one in front of the other so that only one path needs to be made. If the horse lost the trail, stepped off the narrow path, he was at once floundering in snow up to his belly. One evening when the storm was blowing fiercely, the trail was lost entirely. Klassen and the driver had often gotten out of the sled, tramiped about in the snow until the track was found again. But this time the horse had floundered too far away from the road and it was too indistinct. It was dark and the only way to search was to struggle through the snow hap- hazard until the beaten track could be located. They searched long until exhausted, then began preparations to spend the night out in the blizzard. But they were hun- gry and fatigued; the bitter cold might numb them to drowsiness from which there would be no waking; the horse, weak and overworked, might perish; wolves might attack them. They gathered up their strength for an- other desperate effort, left the sled, struggled on till they saw a light towards which they made their way and found it the home of a Mennonite, where they were given shel- ter for the night. On his return to Moscow, the allocations for the other Volga valley settlements and eastward were promptly made: December 19, $1000.00 for the New Samara colo- nies, and $300.00 for the Dawlekanovo group near Ufa; December 27, $1000.00 for the Orenburg settlement, and $500.00 for Old Samara. By the end of December, 1921 190 FEEDING THE HUNGRY delivery orders had been made for Koeppenthal $1500.00, New Samara $3000.00, Old Samara $1000.00, Orenburg $3000.00 and Ufa $500.00. But only the Koeppenthal (Trakt) and New Samara groups were able to get their supplies in time for distribution before Christmas. It was a stupendous task with which they were con- fronted. The food was at the warehouses twenty to fifty miles away, the snow was deep, the horses and men were weak. It would be unsafe for one sled to travel alone with food, so they formed a caravan, made their way to the warehouses, received the supplies carefully weighed out and started homeward. They knew they were taking desperate chances with the winter weather, the drifting snow, the exhausted horses, and the bandits.