The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-07-12

Continued from last week.

spent under way with the "etape,"
Marie did not drop a single word
concerning herself We only learned
that she came from peasant family,
had been a teacher in petty govern
ment school in the province of Pol
tava and was Social Revolutionist.
The emaciated, little peasant horses
carried us briskly forward thru de-
serts Of snow. In spite of all wrap
pings and precautions the smothering
northern frosts played havoc with us,
penetrating every limb and pore of
our bodies. Some of our comrades
suffered from frostbitten ears, hands
and toes, and we frequently heard
agonized meanings from the narrow
sleighs Of our little caravan. Marie
never complained; wrapped up in a
heavy PEASANTS fur-skin with a crude
shawl over her head and in heavy
wooden boots, she only showed to the
world a pair of big, black eyes which
shed warmth and light on all of us.
Occasionally, when the sufferings from
the cold would get the best of anv
of us, Marie would come to his as
sistance~ with words of courage and
consolation.
The soldiers that guarded us, them
selves peasants from the Volhynia.
had a particular regard for our Marie.
and hailed her as "barishnia." A
word from her was at times sufficient
to make them treat all the other DO
liticals with more Difference. We had
among us a Grousinian, a child of
balmy Caucasia, who suffered from
the frosts more than the rest of us.
One night, after we found lodgings in
a tiny village, our poor Caucasian
fell, benumbed in every limb, upon
the dirty flooring of our "hoteI."
Marie spent whole sleepless night
near him, and upon her order the sol
diers brought in some clean straw to
place our ailing comrade and a samo-
var with boiling water. Some of
them even walked two versts to a
nearby village that had drug store
for some frost-cures at her request,
and did this errand without grumbling
and with complete deTotion.
AS she sat at the Caucasian's sick
bed" Marie did not miss the oppor-
tunity of a heart-to-heart talk with
the soldiers of our convoy. The talk
was an eye-opener to all of them;
and all of us attracted, left our cots
and sat by listening to her. 1t seemed
as if we were again back home, at a
propaganda meeting, somewhere on
the outskirts Of the town, hidden be-
soldiers kept on throwing logs into
the big, old oven that occupied nearly
half of the house. The heat was
pleasant and soothing, and soon there
appeared, from God knows where,
bottles of beer. The evening wound
up with the soldiers embracing every
one of us and calling us Comrades"
Marie's face shone with happiness,
and she appeared so wonderfully
beautiful in the strange, wierd back
ground of the spacious hut that we
could not take our eyes away from
her. There sat before us true Ma
donna, sanity creature. The sick
Grousinian grasped her hand worship
fully several times, while she patted
his curly hair inquiring: How do you
feel now, brother?"
From that evening and until we
reached our destination Marie and the
Caucasian were seldom apart. The
soldiers arranged a separate sleigh
for them and kept the sick traveller
as comfortable as was possible under
the circumstances. And all during
our long ride through the snowy
"taiga" Marie's voice rang cheerfully,
waking life in us and adding cheer to
our sad party.
4.
In our final place Of exile. Marie
occupied little hut on the outskirts
OF the town. She used to spend most