For Such a Time as This, by Elizabeth A. Mitchell (July 17, 2021)

During the brutal winter of 1880-1881, the pioneer town of De Smet, Dakota Territory, was facing starvation. The supply train had been blocked by snow and could not reach the town.  The settlers had eaten what grain stores they had saved, burnt all the coal and wood available, and were now twisting hay into sticks to burn and watching their children slowly thin with hunger.

And then, word was received that a homesteader twelve miles outside of town may have a store of grain. Two young men, Cap Garland and Almanzo Wilder, ages 16 and 23, make the trek across the white wilderness to retrieve the supply of wheat. Risking their lives, the young men reach the homestead, purchase the wheat, and make it back to De Smet with a blinding blizzard on the horizon. …

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