Even while this saving process was going on, another condition no less imperative arose. These fields must be replanted for the coming year, or starvation had been simply delayed. Only the strength of their old time teams of oxen could break up the hard sod and prepare for the fall sowing. Not an animal--ox, cow, horse, goat or sheep--had been left. All had been driven to the Kourdish mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, some of which were very large, I thought of our not rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else, and replied accordingly. But when, in return, came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was imperative, that unless the ground could be ploughed before it dried and hardened, it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be lost, and that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," I loosened my grasp on the bank account and directed the financial secretary to send a draft for 5,000 liras ($22,000) to care of Rev. Dr. Gates, Harpoot, to be divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the progress of the harvest of 1897. This draft left something less than $3,000 with us to finish up the field in all other directions. As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance to report in person at Constantinople. Unheard of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life, were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen and driven off must be picked up, purchased and brought back to the waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the difference. At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun and coming out by the Black Sea. By that time it is probable that no one questioned the propriety of their route or longer wondered or cared why they went to Smyrna or Alexandretta, Sivas or Samsoun. The perplexed frowns of our anxious committees and sympathetic people had long given way to smiles of confidence and approval, and glad hands would have reached far over the waters to meet ours as warmly extended to them.