Feeding the Hungry, P. C. Hiebert, 1929

r ten o’clock when we arrived at a Russian village beside a small river. We were now only about ten miles from our destina- tion, and our guide thought that he knew the way to a bridge which we would cross and then pass on. But to our disappointment we learned that the recent rains had washed away the bridge, and that another dam over which they sometimes crossed was washed out so as to be impassable. Some one suggested the milldam as a possible crossing. Our guide led the way to the dam on foot in the mud, and when he got near he called, which we and the chaffeur mistook for a signal for us to proceed. We did so before he could give any further signal and passed at the end of the mill, where in the dark we noticed just sufficient space for the car to pass between the mill and the waters’ edge. We made it, but 250 FEEDING THE HUNGRY shuddered when the guide hailed us with the excited charge, ‘“Why didn’t you stop? You were within a few inches of a twenty foot embankment.’ And this on a muddy slippery road! There was now no other way but to go ahead over the mill dam, which had not been built for trafic. Large boulders covered the surface with intermittent mud-holes whose depth we had no way of discerning. It was very dark, and the Ford furnished but meager light, so all of us but the chaffeur walked before the car, rolling away the moveable rocks and trying to pick out the best path across. Upon reaching the opposite side after extreme exertion, our difficulties were by no means ended; for there we stood facing a steep bank, slippery from the continuous rains, so that one could hardly climb it on foot. After repeated efforts to climb and push the car up the embank- ment, we finally succeeded, to our surprise, in reaching the top of the hill. We were now across the river and on the highway again. Here we met a native, who told us that if we had seen the way we had traveled, in the daytime, we would never have attempted it. So again, we realized that a higher hand had directed us to safety, even when we were in far graver dangers than we had at the time realized. Tue RECEPTION AT SAGRADOWKA Even though it was between ten and eleven o’clock on a dark rainy night, we again felt new cheer and hope for we were once more on the highway, together with the added information that following a line of telephone poles would take us to the Sagradowka Mennonite colony. At about midnight we entered the first village. Moving along a street in water almost knee-deep, we looked anxiously for some house that still had light. There was one. Our interpreter inquired for quarters, but he was informed VIZUALIZING FAMINE CONDITIONS 251 that the house was crowded with refugees and that they could not keep us. At another house where we asked for admission the people were very hesitant, since they. feared a robber band, such as were still occasionally visiting these villages. Of these there were several