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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12143 ***
+
+THE THREE COMRADES
+
+_by Kristina Roy_
+
+of Stara Tura, Slovakia.
+
+Translated by Charles Lukesh
+
+First Edition, 3,000--November, 1941
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE COMRADES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+In the whole wide world there were no comrades who loved each other
+better than Petrik,[1] Ondrejko,[2] and Fido. All three were orphans
+and had had a hard time in the world thus far. Both parents of Petrik
+had died of a malignant fever. He became a public charge and was
+sent from place to place, till finally he was placed in charge of
+"Bacha"[3] Filina, who was his father's uncle, and had charge of the
+sheep pasturing on the mountain clearings of the estate of Lord Gemer.
+There was but a poor hut, but to mistreated Petrik it was like a
+paradise. Ondrejko, whom they called at home Andreas de Gemer, came
+to the old "Bacha" at the order of the doctor, that he might grow
+stronger in the mountain air, drinking whey and eating black bread. As
+it was, Ondrejko did, and did not, have a father--at least he could
+not remember him. He was but two years old when his parents separated
+for ever. His mother took him with her when she left, but even then he
+did not live with her. She left him with strange people whom she paid
+to keep him, and went alone into the world. The people talked about
+her; said that she was a famous singer, and that many went from
+distant places to hear her.
+
+[Footnote 1: Diminutive for Peter.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Diminutive for Andreas.]
+
+[Footnote 3: "_Bacha_"--shepherd overseer.]
+
+Ondrejko remembered only one of her visits, and that she was very
+beautiful, and brought him a box full of chocolates, a rocking-horse,
+a trumpet--and who knows what more? After that he never saw her again,
+and probably would never see her any more. The lady with whom he
+stayed talked about a law-suit, at the conclusion of which it came
+about that he belonged neither to the mother nor the father. Finally,
+he came to the castle of Lord Gemer, and from there the doctor sent
+him to the mountains because he was like a candle that was ready to go
+out. About his father he knew only that he was somewhere far away, and
+had already a second wife and two boys. It seemed to him he was as
+much of an orphan as Petrik. The dog Fido didn't remember his mother
+either, because he had hardly begun to run about the kennel when a
+wild boar killed her. Thus it is not surprising that all three loved
+each other.
+
+For Ondrejko they built a special room beside the shepherd's hut.
+There were three large sheepfolds, and "Bacha" Filina had charge
+of them all. Ondrejko had in his room a real bed, and a spare one
+prepared for the doctor when he came to see him; but, because he was
+rather lonesome, he preferred to sleep with Petrik on the hay, and
+because Fido couldn't follow them to the loft up the ladder, he at
+least guarded the ladder so nothing would happen to the boys. Bacha
+Filina was a large man like a giant. His face was aged and stern; all
+his teeth were still perfectly white and he had not a single gray
+hair; but, strangely, his eyebrows began to get gray. But, when he
+creased his forehead above his eagle-like black eyes which could see
+everything far and wide, it seemed as if storm-clouds were gathering.
+Not only both the boys, but everybody else was afraid of these
+storm-clouds, even the herdsmen and the sheep, as well as the
+longhaired, fourfooted guards of the sheepfold. Bacha Filina did not
+get mad easily, but when he did, it was worthwhile. Though Ondrejko
+was the son of his lord, Bacha Filina didn't let him get by with
+anything. The boy had not been taught to obey; however, Filina taught
+him this hard lesson without scolding him or touching him with even
+one finger. When the doctor brought him to the mountains he said to
+Bacha, "What this boy needs is to eat black bread and drink whey. He
+has been raised on fancy foods and they do not agree with him. It
+would be good for him to wash in cold water, but he is afraid to get
+wet. You must not worry about him being a Lord Gemer because it is a
+question of his health."
+
+"Oh, that!" said the Bacha, wrinkling his forehead, "I am able to
+handle such a little brat"--and he was. The first few days Ondrejko
+did not dare resist this big man in anything, and now he would not
+even dream of it. The boys did not know a more noble man in the whole
+world than Bacha Filina. He didn't bother much the whole day what they
+did, but in the evening before the sheep were gathered, he sat with
+them in God's beautiful nature before the cabin, and there they could,
+even had, to tell him everything. They sat near him, one on the one
+side, the other on the other, and Fido laid his great hairy head on
+the knees of his master and looked on so wisely, that it seemed he,
+too, would want to tell all that happened during the day. He was still
+a young, lively fellow. You could see by his nose and ears he was not
+trained very much; his fur was often quite tangled because he started
+quarrels with the older dogs, Whitie and Playwell.
+
+The first time Bacha found the two boys sleeping together on the hay
+he frowned and they were afraid of what was going to happen--but
+nothing at all happened; he only ordered Ondrejko to spread his sheet
+on the hay and cover himself with a blanket; so they both covered
+themselves and slept very well in the fragrant hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+It was on a Sunday afternoon. The quiet of the holiday was noticeable
+even on the mountains where, hand in hand, the little comrades walked.
+They were nicely washed and arrayed in Sunday clothing, because Bacha
+Filina would not suffer anybody to desecrate Sunday. Everyone who
+could, had to go to the next town to church, though it was almost two
+hours' walk. He himself seldom went; he was not able to take long
+walks. Once a timber fell on his foot in the woods and from that time
+on he had pains in it, but since he did not go down to church, he read
+in his large old Bible. Today he had gone to church and the boys went
+to meet him. They missed him very much. He ordered them to memorize
+the reading of the Gospel for the day and each had to recite
+separately.
+
+Suddenly Petrik became silent; he drew his comrade aside and pointed
+with a silent nod of the head toward a cut-down tree lying in the
+woods. There sat Bacha Filina with his head resting in the palms of
+his hands as if something were pressing him down to the black ground.
+
+"Let us go up to the Bacha," advised Petrik; "he seems to be sad."
+
+"Truly very sad," worried Ondrejko. "Perhaps the sadness will pass
+from him when we come to him."
+
+The crackling of dry branches under the bare feet of the boys roused
+Bacha. He looked around. The children stood a short distance off.
+Should they go to him--or not?
+
+"Where are you going?" he called to them. They came running. "Only to
+meet you, Bacha."
+
+"Well, why did you come to meet me?" His usually rough voice seemed to
+sound different. "We were lonesome without you," haltingly admitted
+Ondrejko, and presently they sat on the moss carpet at the feet of
+Bacha.
+
+"And why, Bacha, were you sitting here so sadly?" Petrik looked
+surprisedly at Ondrejko, that he dared to ask. Would not Bacha be
+angry?
+
+"Did you think that I was sad?" Bacha stroked the golden hair
+surrounding the pale face of the child, which in the sunshine looked
+like a halo on a saint.
+
+"And were you not?" The blue eyes of the boy, like two lovely blue
+flowers, gazed into the black eagle-like eyes of the man.
+
+"Well, child, I was sad, and you have done well that you came to
+meet me. While I rest a while, recite to me the Gospel that you have
+learned."
+
+Both boys, one after the other, recited the parable of the rich man
+and Lazarus.
+
+"May I ask you, Bacha, to tell me why the rich man did not help
+Lazarus?" Petrik dared to ask.
+
+"Why? Because his heart was like a stone. The dogs were better than
+he. Remember that, children, and never do any harm to birds or
+animals; they are better than we. Now let us go."
+
+Bacha took Ondrejko by the hand and giving his book to Petrik they
+walked through the woods toward home. High above them in the clearing
+sounded the bells of the flock, and off and on the impatient barking
+of Whitie and Playwell, and in between sounded the trumpet of the
+youngest herdsman, Stephen. He played with such an ardor that it
+seemed the notes were running over;
+
+  "Come, come, ye gentle sheep,
+  Keep out of waters deep;
+  Pasture on meadows green
+  Where grass grows sweet and clean."
+
+How the trumpet resounded as if some one were weeping in the woods!
+Even the echo seemed to answer in the same way.
+
+The boys liked the beautiful tune. They knew the words of this song,
+but Bacha bowed down his proud head as though some great burden were
+pressing him down.
+
+After they had finished their simple supper, they sat again as usual
+in front of the hut, Bacha on a stump and the boys at his feet. They
+were looking one at the other, wondering if they dare ask for some
+story. He knew so many of them, and when he was in good humor he knew
+very well how to tell good stories.
+
+"I beg, Bacha, will you not tell us something?" Ondrejko finally
+asked, and looked at the same time in such a way at Bacha that he
+would have to be a very hard man to refuse.
+
+Disturbed from his meditation, Bacha looked for a while into the
+beautiful inquiring eyes, then with a deep breath he began:
+
+"Many years ago I was a boy like you two. I'm telling you this that
+you may know what you should never become, if the Lord God is not to
+be very angry at you. I will tell you today something about myself
+which I have not yet told anybody on earth," began Filina. He stopped
+a moment and the boys waited eagerly for him to go on.
+
+"When I was five years old my mother died. My father brought another
+mother in the house. She was a young, beautiful woman, a widow. With
+her came a son from her first marriage. We called him Stephen, and
+when I look at you, Ondrejko, I always have him before me as he
+entered our hut for the first time. On his head he had a hat with a
+long band, a cloak thrown over his shoulder, an embroidered shirt, and
+narrow trousers. He was like a picture of a saint--so beautiful and so
+lovely.
+
+"I was my father's youngest child. The older ones died, so I never had
+a brother, and suddenly he came--and was to be my brother. You love
+each other--I know. That also reminds me of my childhood. I began to
+love him more than I could my own brother. We were of equal age, but
+I was strong and he weak; I was wild and he tame; I was ugly and he
+beautiful. In spite of this we loved each other, and our parents were
+well satisfied. They could leave him under my care--because they knew
+I was able to defend him--and could leave me under his care, because
+when he was with me I was much more tame.
+
+"Would that it had remained so always. But a proverb says, not in
+vain, that 'Where the Devil cannot go himself he will send an old
+woman.' And he sent her to us. It was your father's Aunt, your
+great-aunt, Petrik. She came once to us and asked me aside if the new
+mother liked me, and was sorry for me that I was a poor orphan. Said
+she, 'Who has a step-mother has also a stepfather. Your father doesn't
+love you as much as he does Stephen.' She didn't stay long with us.
+Just as she came, so she went, but she took with her my love for
+Stephen. Because I was so wild and always did something wrong, my wise
+father had to punish me often; but Stephen was never punished because
+he always did what was pleasing in the sight of father and mother.
+From that time on I always remembered the words of the great-aunt
+that I was punished and he not because they loved him, and his mother
+interceded for him, and there was no one to stand by me. But my
+step-mother quite often interceded for me. She was a kind woman and
+never did me any harm, but I wanted her to show more love to me than
+to her own boy. But that could not be. This wrong thought grew in my
+heart, and my envy increased from year to year till we were about as
+old as you two boys; and now comes the sad part which I never shall
+forget, and that is what is pressing me to the earth unto today."
+
+Bacha pointed over to the mountain opposite them.
+
+"Do you see yonder mountain?" The boys nodded.
+
+"There we used to live at the foot of the mountain. Look toward the
+West, where the sun is lying down to sleep; there in the valley lived
+the weavers, to whom from all our homes, the wool was carried to be
+woven. Two paths led to those huts; the one up and down over the
+rocks--the other through the valley, easier but more dangerous,
+because there was a stretch of swamp into which, if somebody fell, he
+could never get out by himself. One who knew how, could get over by
+jumping from rock to rock and to clumps of grass, but it seemed as if
+some black power wanted to pull one down.
+
+"Once our parents had us carry our wool. Going, we went the upper
+way, as we were told, but after we delivered the wool to the weavers,
+Stephen handed me an apple, which the weaver's wife had given him,
+saying he had another in his bag from his mother. Mother gave me
+nothing for the journey because I didn't take leave of her, and she
+didn't even see me when I grabbed my bag. And now, even the weaver's
+wife had not given me anything. It made me sad. I got angry, threw the
+apple away, and would rather have cried. Here was evidence, I thought,
+that what the great-aunt said was true. Nobody cared for me, at home,
+nor anywhere else. Everybody liked Stephen, and it always would be so.
+
+"I used to hear some people say that the Devil is walking on the
+earth, though we do not see him, and whispers to us what we should
+think and do. If it is true, I don't know, but that he was with me
+that time and gave me bad, gruesome advice, is sure. Only he could
+have told me that. When we left the weavers, I said to Stephen,
+'Going over the mountain is too far. Let us go by the lower and more
+convenient path; it is nearer.'
+
+"'But mother said we must go only over the hill,' objected Stephen,
+'and father called also from the yard, 'Do not go by the lower way.'"
+
+"Well, however it was, when we came where the paths divided we went on
+the lower path anyway. I claimed that my feet hurt, I had stubbed my
+big toe, and had a thorn in my heel. Stephen was sorry for me, and
+thought that when we explained it to mother she would see the reason,
+and father also, why we took the lower path after all.
+
+"Truly it was fine to run there, like on carpets, till we came to the
+swamp. 'You must now jump from rock to rock,' said I, and I ran ahead.
+We came near the opposite side. There was only one more jump. Because
+I was larger, and my feet longer I managed to jump over, but I knew
+that Stephen could not jump over. There were bunches of grass and I
+advised him to run over them. He listened to me, came over two or
+three, but the third one began to move under him and he jumped back on
+the rock.
+
+"'Stay there,' I called to him. 'Not far from here lives the forester;
+I will run for him and he will help you.' I ran as fast as I could but
+not to the forester's house.
+
+"'Petrik, do not leave me. I am afraid,' called Stephen after me, and
+right after that followed a cry:
+
+"'Mother mine!'
+
+"Thus I have heard him day and night, as in the past years, so even
+till today, and I shall perhaps in the hour of death and in the whole
+of eternity. I was still a small boy, but a bad one, and at that
+moment hard as a rock. 'Surely he will fall in and will drown,' I
+consoled myself. 'Nobody will give him any more apples, and people
+will love me and me only.' No old criminal could have felt worse than
+I felt then. I began to run still faster till my legs broke down under
+me and my breath failed. Yes; I ran through the woods alone, forsaken,
+as once Cain did when he killed his brother and ran away from the face
+of God. Suddenly a great pain gripped me that could not be expressed,
+because the voice that whispered to me before, 'Drown him in that
+swamp,' now whispered to me, 'You dare not go home. What will you say
+when they ask you about Stephen?' Tired and hungry as I was I threw
+myself on the ground and started to cry bitterly till I fell asleep.
+
+"At day-break the drivers passed by with their wagons for lumber. They
+found me and, recognizing me, laid me sleeping on a wagon and took
+me as far as our hut. There they awakened me, laid me down, and
+half-sleeping I didn't realize at once what had happened the day
+before. I ran to the hall and opened the door.
+
+"The rays of the rising sun struck our bedroom first--the same that
+day. It lit up the bed of my father, and ..." Bacha stopped and tears
+ran down his cheek.
+
+"And what, Bacha? Oh, what, Bacha?" with bitter cries both boys
+exclaimed. The tears were already running down Ondrejko's pale face.
+
+"There on the bed in the rays of the sun like a holy picture, rested
+our Stephen, sleeping. Mother sat beside the bed. There was a humming
+in my ears and blackness before my eyes, and if father had not jumped
+and caught me I would have fallen over. It was long before they
+brought me back to consciousness."
+
+"So he didn't drown?" both boys were astonished and rejoicing.
+
+"Didn't he fall into that swamp?"
+
+"He fell in it, children. Oh, he fell in, and there was no man who
+could have saved him. But we had a large dog called Whitie who went
+around always with us, as Fido with you. When we left home we left him
+behind, but he followed us, and the Lord God Himself sent him in that
+moment when the stone under Stephen gave way, and he lost his balance
+and fell. Whitie caught him by the hair and dragged him to the shore,
+and whined and barked till the forester came.
+
+"He carried Stephen to the brook, washed off the mud, and revived him,
+for he was almost dead, and then carried him home. I expected father
+would punish me but he did not. Mother kissed me crying, and gave me
+breakfast. They were afraid something had happened to me. They thought
+I had been drowned because I couldn't be found anywhere. I saw clearly
+that they both loved me very much, but it did not please me, I was
+afraid it would become known what I had intended to do. My parents
+are already in eternity, and I can not now ask them for forgiveness
+because after death there is no more forgiveness.
+
+"Stephen never let it be known that I made him go that way, and from
+that time on we loved each other as from the beginning. I was no
+longer jealous of the love of father and mother to him. I knew and
+felt now that they loved me also, and that I didn't deserve this love.
+
+"From that time I couldn't look at the dog Whitie. It was always
+painful to me that he, a dog, saved Stephen, when I wanted to drown
+him. But though he didn't drown that time the Holy God took him to
+Himself. He must be angry at me, a sinner, to this day. Thus I say,
+'Never do any harm to animals; they are much better than people; they
+are God's creatures; they never do wrong things before God but obey
+always.' And now, boys, run and go to sleep."
+
+Though the boys had many questions on their hearts they obediently
+bade him "good night" and went. For a long time, lying on the hay,
+they spoke together about Stephen, how he jumped over the bunches of
+grass, how the rock turned under him, how he fell, and how Whitie
+saved him.
+
+"I am very sorry for Bacha Filina," said Ondrejko. "I can never forget
+it. It must pain him--could it be that God is still angry with him?"
+
+"But where is this Stephen?" worried Petrik. "They were the same age,
+so he must be just as old now. Perhaps he will tell us some other time
+about him." They were stopped from further talking by Fido. Somehow he
+had managed to get to them and they were rejoiced. They told him once
+more about the hero Whitie and enjoined upon him to follow him. He
+wagged his tail, licked their hands and faces, whining for joy as if
+he were promising it all, and when the boys slept, he slept with one
+eye open because he had to stand guard over his comrades.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+The following week Bacha Filina had much work to do, so he could not
+look much after the boys, though they did all they could; they obeyed
+him and tried to please him in every way. On Tuesday the doctor came
+to look at Ondrejko. He was told where Ondrejko slept, but he only
+laughed: "Good for you, boy, that will help you; though your father is
+a great lord and a proud Magyar, everything serves in its time. Thus I
+trust we shall live to see that the Tatra Mountains will belong to the
+Slovaks and also these woods. Because your grandfather lived there as
+a great Slovak, you also as a good Slovak will be living. Just learn
+the language of your father and draw near to that soil which they once
+cultivated." The boys didn't grasp what he meant. They only felt that
+he was their friend.
+
+The evening came. They had to make a bed for the doctor beside
+themselves on the hay. In the morning he drank the good milk and ate
+the black bread with cheese. Then the boys took him as far as the "Old
+Hag's Rock." On the way Ondrejko asked about his father. He learned
+that he now lived in Paris and did not purpose to come that year for
+the summer. The boy breathed more freely because he felt that if his
+father came he would have to go to him, away from Bacha Filina and
+away from Petrik. That would not please him; he did not want to go at
+all. When the doctor took leave of the boys they followed him with
+their eyes as long as they could see his straw hat, then they climbed
+the rock to see him better, but in the meantime he had disappeared
+altogether. Instead of that they saw on the other side of the "Old
+Hag's Rock" a beautiful little valley, and in it a solitary house
+with small windows which was made of wood and covered with shingles,
+standing there by the brook. It looked like a fairy-story house set
+among the springs coming out from the rocks. The herder Steve had told
+the boys several times about witches who lived in solitary huts, and
+it seemed to them that one of them might be living there. A large
+white dog sunned himself in front of the hut. If Fido had been with
+them, he surely would have started a fight with him. As the boys were
+looking at the cottage the door opened, but no old woman came out,
+only a boy who was a little larger than themselves, in a cape and
+belt, sandals, and with a hat on his head. The dog jumped up, wagged
+his broad tail, and stretched himself, yawned and barked happily. The
+boy stroked him on the head and smiled at him, then both began to walk
+up toward the great rock.
+
+The dog spied our comrades first and stopped. They could see he was
+not as young as Fido, but that he was wise and did not bark uselessly
+at anybody, so they knew that he must be friendly to people. Soon the
+boys stood face to face, and the strange boy, whose dress indicated
+that he was not from that section, greeted them in a friendly manner.
+He asked them what they were doing and where they were from. They told
+him that they had accompanied the doctor that far. Ondrejko dared to
+ask him if he lived in that little house.
+
+"The hut belongs to us, but I am from Trenchin. I came only a week ago
+with my father. A distant uncle of my mother died, and because there
+is no nearer relative my mother inherited this hut. Father wants to
+sell it, but a nice bit of woods with fine timber belongs to the hut,
+which we could use very well in our business. Therefore we shall stay
+here for some time, cut the wood and take it along."
+
+"And the dog is yours?"
+
+"Yes, it is our Dunaj. He did not want to stay at home; we had to take
+him along, though we had to pay for him on the railroad."
+
+"Surely you didn't have him along in the carriage?" ventured Ondrejko.
+
+"Oh, no; and he did not like where they locked him up, at all. He
+almost knocked me down when he regained his freedom. Isn't that so,
+Dunaj?" The dog whined and cuddled down at his master's feet.
+
+"We too have a dog which is still young, but he also will be big when
+he grows up," Ondrejko said, appraisingly.
+
+"And where are you going?"
+
+"Only up here on the rock to see what is behind it. In our country we
+also have a large rock, but much higher and broader, and when you look
+down from it it seems as if you look down into Sunshine Valley, as the
+story goes. And after the storm a rainbow appears, like Heaven's gate
+which appeared once to Jacob in a dream. Once upon a time I believed
+that Heaven's gate was only there, but today I know that Heaven is
+everywhere open that the Lord Jesus might come to us where and when He
+wants to. Do you know Him too?"
+
+"Who?" wondered the boys.
+
+"The Son of God, the Lord Jesus. But I see already that you do not
+know Him, and He surely sent me to you, so that I could tell you all
+that I know. Do you have time?"
+
+"We can spend about an hour," said Petrik, who felt the new stranger
+was very friendly and he would like to have him for a comrade.
+
+"Let us then sit down here on the rock, and I will tell you how it was
+that I came to the Sunshine Valley the first time, and what kind of
+book I found there. I have it even here with me because I could not
+be without it. But tell me first your name. I am called Palko, though
+they once baptized me in the name of Nicholas. But this is a long
+story."
+
+"My name is Petrik, and he is called Ondrejko. At home they call him
+Andreas de Gemer in the Magyar tongue, but Bacha Filina says, 'Why
+should we break our tongues with foreign names?' Anyhow, Ondrejko is
+much nicer," zealously spoke Petrik.
+
+"That is a nice name. It was the name of one of the disciples of the
+Lord Jesus who brought to Him the boy with the loaves and fishes. I
+have it beautifully written in this book."
+
+In the meantime the boys climbed the rock, sat down, and the new
+comrade drew out a book carefully wrapped up in paper and began to
+tell them the beautiful things about it. If one would want to repeat
+them it would take a whole book.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See first part of "Sunshine Country."]
+
+Among other things, he told them that whosoever takes this book into
+his hands dare not read it otherwise than word for word, from the
+beginning to the end, because only in this way will he get to know
+the Way which leads to the true Sunshine Country, where, through the
+Heaven's gates, the Lord Jesus went to prepare a place for all those
+who obediently went that way.
+
+The boys would not have tired listening till the evening, but suddenly
+Fido came, and as if he knew that with such a dog as Dunaj he mustn't
+start a fight, just licked his comrades and was friendly to the
+stranger. His arrival reminded the boys of Bacha, and what he would
+say if they stayed too long. They rose, and Palko promised to
+accompany them that they might show him where their hut was standing,
+and when he had time he would come to visit them.
+
+He ran down to close his house and they had to wait a while. When he
+returned he carried a large piece of bread which he divided equally
+into five parts, and then they followed the narrow path over the
+meadows to the sheepcotes.
+
+The newcomer told them many things on the way. They could hardly part
+from him.
+
+When Bacha came to supper they endeavored to out-do one another in
+telling him about it. He listened intently, and said he would be glad
+when the strange boy, who it seemed was very decent, would visit them.
+They all hoped that he would come the next Sunday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+It is a true saying that, "People keep with people, and mountains
+with mountains." How one person gets used to another you can scarcely
+believe until you have seen it yourself. What is it that draws one
+to another? Long lived our three comrades with Bacha Filina without
+Palko, and nothing was lacking, but now if a day passed without seeing
+him it seemed as if they could not stand it. Though it may seem
+strange, Bacha Filina would have missed him most. Wherever he went,
+whatever he did, he always had in mind the moment when the bushes
+parted on that beautiful Sunday afternoon, and, like a picture in a
+frame, stood the strange boy so clean and neat with his cape over his
+shoulder, small hat in his hand, resting his hand on a shaggy white
+dog. It would truly be a fine picture for a painter to paint in those
+wide mountains, if he could but make it so true to nature--you could
+not look at him enough. And he remembered again how Palko sat with
+them in front of the hut with the Holy Book in his hand, reading word
+for word, chapter for chapter. Such beautiful and good things. So must
+Jesus have looked when He sat amongst the Jewish teachers. Oh, how did
+he understand the Word of God! No sermon had moved old Bacha as did
+the talks of Palko the boy, though he had heard many in his life.
+Bacha had a whole Bible which he read sometimes on Sunday. He had also
+a big book with sermons, but since the time that Palko Lesina came
+every evening to them it was as if a veil had been removed from the
+man's eyes. The Bible became to him the living Word of God.
+
+"The Lord Jesus used to walk by the Sea of Gennesaret," said the boy
+seriously. "Now He walks through these mountains of yours. Sometimes
+He passed through our mountains to seek us, and now He seeks you."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again it was Sunday. Filina got the boys ready to go to church, but he
+himself remained in front of his hut. Fido who was not permitted to
+run with the comrades, lay at his feet. Suddenly he pricked up his
+ears, jumped up, and like an arrow flew into the nearby thicket. Bacha
+paid no attention. He sat with his head bowed down. He did not even
+hear someone speak to the dog, nor hear any greeting; he did not
+arouse himself till he heard close to him the pleasant young voice
+which he loved so much.
+
+"Good morning, Uncle Filina. Why are you so sad and so lonely? Where
+is everybody?"
+
+"Welcome, Palko," gladly replied the man. He held out his brown hand
+to the boy. "If I had known you would come, I would not have sent the
+boys to the church. Everywhere is the house of God. And I suppose you
+are bringing the Bible, about which you spoke yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, I do. My father went away for a few days. He asks you kindly if
+you will let me stay with your boys that I may not have to stay alone
+in the hut. Will you take me?"
+
+The beautiful eyes of the boy gazed longingly on the face of the man.
+
+"Why, surely. We will be only too glad if you stay with us," answered
+Bacha. "But why did your father go home?"
+
+"He went with some wood. He could not take it all at once. The balance
+we shall put on a float, and so carry it to our destination. Thus I
+could bring the Bible to show it to you."
+
+"Is that the one from Pastor Malina?"
+
+"Yes, Uncle, and I esteem it very much. There are many notes in Latin
+which I do not understand, and also some in Slovak. When I look at the
+writing I see the pastor in front of me. I would like to show you what
+he wrote the last Sunday when he became so seriously ill. Do you have
+time for it, Uncle?"
+
+"Oh, yes, my son; it is Sunday. Just read on."
+
+"You will understand it better than I because you are older. There
+is something very good: 'I have missed very much; my whole life is
+wasted,' began the boy, and his voice sounded so solemn, almost as
+if he were reading the Word of God. 'Even though I would, I cannot
+improve anything. It is too late; it is too late! Souls passed into
+eternity--it may be I did not bring salvation to them. They never come
+back that I may ask them forgiveness and love them. Oh, how glorious
+are the words, 'By grace ye are saved ... it is the gift of God.' In
+this holy gift I take my refuge, my holy God and Saviour. I know that
+You have pardoned me and have even taken the punishment that I merited
+on Yourself. I cling to Thy cross; I fall at Thy wounded feet, and
+thank Thee--Oh, so thank Thee; yes, I will praise eternally Thy holy
+name, O Jesus!'" read Palko.
+
+"Thus believed Pastor Malina ..." but the boy stopped because the
+Bacha sat with his head bowed down, and cried aloud.
+
+"'Even if I would, I couldn't make anything good. It is too late. The
+souls went on to accuse me,'" he repeated in his crying. "That is what
+is pressing _me_ down to the ground, and all my good life since that
+time doesn't help anything ..."
+
+The boy rested his curly head in the palms of his small hands.
+
+"Uncle, will you not tell me what is worrying you so much? It could
+not be the sin that you wanted to drown your Stephen, as Petrik told
+me?"
+
+"Stephen didn't drown. I, when something is pressing me, confess it
+and feel easier at once."
+
+"The Apostle James says, 'Confess your sins one to another.' It is
+true I am only a boy, but I know already how the soul and the heart
+ache--and there is no comforter. But the Lord Jesus will grant it to
+me that I may be able to understand and to help you."
+
+The man looked at the boy. He stroked his whiskers. "If I have to tell
+somebody about it as I have wished for years, it will suit me best to
+tell it to you. The Lord God gave you more wisdom than me, an old man,
+just as Samuel the boy had more than the old priest Eli."
+
+Bacha strode over to his stump where he usually sat. Palko lay beside
+him on the grass. He drew the Bible near him, and laid his hand on the
+head of Fido who cuddled close beside. Thus he waited patiently.
+
+"Since Petrik told you what kind of a boy I was, I do not have to
+retell it again," began the man presently. His whole appearance did
+not fit into that beautiful Sunday morning.
+
+"Thus we both grew up, and I can say with a good conscience that
+Stephen and I loved each other very much. I could never forget that he
+did not tell our parents how I forsook him in his plight. He convinced
+me that our parents loved us both. All was well now and might have
+remained so always, had not mother after her sister's death brought to
+us her niece, Eva. She was a small beautiful girl. From the beginning
+she seemed to be afraid of me, but with Stephen she was at once,
+friendly, until I once saved him from vicious dogs. From that time she
+clung always to me. Thus it was as we grew up together, and after we
+were grown up. You cannot understand more now, therefore I can only
+tell you this much. When we became young men, there was no more
+beautiful girl to us in the whole wide world. It seemed to me that her
+black eyes shone brighter than all the stars, and that such lilies
+and roses as were on her face did not bloom on any bush. At that time
+there was a large immigration to America. Many times I wondered how
+people, just for the sake of mammon, could go so far into the world
+when in spite of our poverty it was so beautiful and lovely here. To
+me, the woods and meadows were like a paradise and in my heart all was
+song--like the heavens; but there is no paradise upon this earth and
+the heavens are too high. Once when I returned from work--it was
+already evening--mother and father sat in front of the house in
+consultation about us children, as they often did. I did not want to
+disturb them, therefore I sat down not very far away and listened."
+
+"Do you think, then," said mother, "that one of the children will have
+to go to America?"
+
+"You see, my wife, there the people achieve something quicker than we
+do here. We suffer bravely and yet barely live," sighed father. He was
+a good man but already worn out by hard labor.
+
+"'And which one do you think should?' mother asked with a sigh.
+
+"'That we will leave for them to decide. I think thus: Let one stay at
+home and take Eva for his wife, so you have some help. Let the other
+one go to America for a few years, and after he has made some money
+and God granting that he will return safely, then they may live
+together. I would not like that after our death they should be
+separated. It is well for them to be together.'
+
+"I noticed how mother gave a sigh of relief, but to me it seemed as if
+someone stuck a dagger into me. They surely expected me to go. Stephen
+would remain at home and take Eva. That night I did not sleep at home.
+A similar trouble overtook me as in my childhood, only stronger and
+much more terrible. Where I gathered strength to return in the morning
+I do not know. Eva ran to meet me, and as soon as I saw her I told
+myself that verily, I would never go to America, and Eva must never
+belong to anyone else but to me. Since that hour I could hardly give a
+kind look to Stephen though he gave me no reason for anger.
+
+"We had a meadow beyond the swamp. There I went with Eva the next day
+to turn over the cut grass, and I asked her to be mine. I did not have
+much luck at first, but since I pleaded so much and promised so much,
+she finally promised that she would not take anyone else.
+
+"After the affair was settled, Eva bound up a bundle of grass, and
+looking around I noticed Stephen departing along the pathway. He had
+heard us without us noticing him.
+
+"The following week we had some work in the city and Stephen said that
+he would go. Mother tried to prevent him. She had rather I should go
+because Stephen did not look very well. Really he looked thin and
+pale, as if after a serious illness or before one. But I insisted that
+I would not go this time, and father agreed. He had some work for me.
+
+"'Come with me part of the way,' said Stephen the following day, after
+he had taken leave of our parents and Eva. So I went. We took the
+steep path to the cross above, on top of the hill. There he stopped.
+We looked at each other.
+
+"'Mother told me what plans father had for us. One of us must go to
+America,' he began. 'It cannot be you. I saw you and Eva not long ago
+on the meadow. Father wants one of us to take Eva. Now that she is
+yours what should I do here any longer? Once before in childhood I was
+in your way, so that you wanted to get rid of me in that black watery
+grave. The second time I shall not stand in your way. It would be
+difficult for mother to part with me. You must realize that, because
+she has only me. So I want to spare her the leave-taking, but I want
+to tell the truth to you that you may be satisfied and not begrudge me
+anything more. I am really leaving everything to you: parents, home,
+and Eva too. She cannot belong to both. Those were hard moments for
+me on yonder meadow. If you had to bear what I went through in those
+moments you could not stand it. Thus it is good that she chose you. To
+me it was as if I was drowning again, only the swamp into which you
+threw me this time was much deeper than the one before. Mother said I
+seem to be ill. Here I shall never get well--over there far away, I
+can recover sooner. I give you my hand in parting, and you give me
+yours without any bitterness. Let us part like brothers.'
+
+"I clasped his hand silently. He took his things, then ran down along
+the path into the thicket. Bending over beside the cross I tried to
+see him once more--and I did. He lifted his beautiful face marked with
+deep sorrow toward the valley where he could see our hut for the last
+time. Suddenly tears gushed from his eyes. I wanted to make a step
+forward, wanted to call him back, to leave everything to him, and I go
+to America. But there was no strength in me. So I let him go for ever.
+We never saw him again."
+
+Bacha cried aloud again, and Palko with him.
+
+"Uncle, tell me all, to the end," he begged after a while. "Then what
+about his poor mother? How did you tell her about it?"
+
+"I didn't have to tell her, my boy," said Filina as he calmed down.
+"He took care of all that. Mother had a distant relative who came
+to us the third day and brought everything that Stephen should have
+brought from the city; also a letter from him, wherein he begged our
+parents not to be angry with him because he was thus leaving for
+America. In that letter he again made no mention that it was I who
+drowned him in the depths of sorrow. It was a very beautiful letter.
+We treasured it as a keepsake, and when mother was dying the poor dear
+asked me to have it placed in her coffin. I endeavored to make good to
+her the son she lost. After father passed away, mother blessed me many
+times for the good care she enjoyed, but it did not bring peace to my
+heart.
+
+"The distant relative who brought to us Stephen's letter intended
+to go to America himself. He had already bought the ticket, when
+circumstances hindered him from going. He complained to Stephen that
+he could not go, and Stephen asked him to sell the ticket to him. He
+borrowed some money from him on his part of the inheritance. This we
+had to repay later, because that ship never reached its goal. It sank
+in a storm. Thus you see, Palko, that after all, I had drowned my
+brother. If he had not run away from my presence he might have found
+another girl and could have lived till today. Thus he died, and his
+death accuses me before God's face for my selfishness. Verily, God's
+punishment came upon me soon. I enjoyed my happiness but a short time.
+From the time that the message reached us about the sinking of the
+ship, Eva just pined away, and after the death of our son, she died.
+In her fever, not knowing what she said, she told how she loved
+Stephen, and I realized that her longing for him made her perish by my
+side. Well, now they are both gone and I only am here--all alone."
+
+"And your son, where is he?"
+
+"Him also the good Lord took. When his mother died there was no one
+who could give him the necessary care. He took cold, and in three days
+he was also with God. Now I have told you everything, my boy. I have
+confided all to you, but you do not understand."
+
+"Do not think that I do not understand, Uncle. I know that your heart
+is sad because of the injustice Stephen suffered because of your envy.
+I know that you have sinned grievously. Why could you not like
+the priest, Malina, grasp the cross and the feet of Christ? You
+understand, in the Spirit, by faith, and receive the gift of
+God--salvation. There further is this quotation: 'Christ Jesus came
+into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief,' and here again
+it is written, 'It seems to me I am the one, the most sinful of the
+sinners, but I believe, I believe, O Lamb of God, that Thou hast died
+for me also, and I am casting my heart at the foot of Thy cross, that
+Thy blood pouring over me may cleanse it also.'"
+
+"I see there are very good things written there, Palko. Leave this
+book with me for some time that I may be able to read it at leisure,
+and see if also on me the Son of God will have mercy and forgive my
+grievous sins. Now continue to read where we left off last time."
+
+"Now I will also bring the song-book and we shall have a song. This
+will be our Sunday worship." Bacha brought the book and they had a
+lovely time in worshiping God. Christ came to them through His Spirit
+and made the Word of God living, to the young soul who walked with Him
+continually like Enoch, and also to the one who could say, "I have
+gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant" (Ps. 119: 176).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+Verily, verily, this quotation is true, "Be not forgetful to entertain
+strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Hebrews
+13:2). Bacha Filina and those in his household proved it. It was just
+as if God's blessing had moved to them with Palko Lesina. They all
+had success in everything they undertook. The boy was ready to help
+everywhere, and set the house in such order as it never had been
+before.
+
+"You see, the Lord Jesus lives here," Palko explained sweetly. "He is
+here, and we don't know when He comes and where He would like to sit
+down. We would not have any place to receive Him."
+
+Stephen taught him how to play the shepherd's horn and he played on
+it beautiful Christian songs, so that the mountains fairly resounded.
+When he played tag or blind man's buff with the boys he was the
+most joyful of them. But as soon as he was invited to read from his
+precious Book, he obeyed at once and sat among them, as once his Lord
+did among learned old men in Jerusalem. On Petrik especially he had a
+good influence. Petrik was often self-willed and disobedient, so that
+Bacha had to punish him.
+
+"Why should you make Uncle Filina cross? Just tell it to the Lord
+Jesus when the Devil is tempting you, and He will deliver you, He will
+help you," advised Palko.
+
+Ondrejko became more quiet and thoughtful. He liked the talks with
+Palko very much. He believed everything, even that the Lord Jesus is
+constantly present. Therefore it is necessary to be always washed and
+clean and dressed decently, and also that it is necessary to give
+one's heart to the Lord Jesus when He wants it, and that He takes the
+heart and cleanses it. Before Palko realized it, the Lord Jesus had
+one servant more. And thus His Holy Word was fulfilled; "I thank Thee,
+O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things
+from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes"
+(Matt. 11:25). No one can find out how it happens; it passes human
+understanding, how the caterpillar in the dried-up cocoon takes a new
+life with the arrival of Spring. Before they reached that part in
+that precious Book where it begins to tell of the sufferings of and,
+finally, the death of the Lord Jesus, Ondrejko felt in his heart that
+all happened for him also. He could not quite explain it, and no one
+expected him to, but he knew it in his heart.
+
+Once, when he went with Palko to his hut, he prayed that the Lord
+Jesus would forgive him everything and asked Him to come into his
+heart. Ondrejko thereupon believed without fail that it happened,
+because it is still true today, "If thou shalt believe, thou shalt see
+the glory of God." Therefore what he believed, he also had. Ondrejko
+de Gemer already had suffered much on this earth. He suffered many
+heart-aches for the want of a father or mother. Many nights he cried
+about it when no one heard him. Very few realize how much pain a
+little child may suffer from sorrow and hopelessness from lack of
+love. Before Ondrejko came to Filina he often used to wonder what
+would become of him, since he had nobody, although both of his parents
+were living. Would he always have to live with strange people? A book
+could be written of the thoughts of that forsaken little soul while
+he was building castles and bridges, and when people thought he was
+deeply interested in his play. Fortunately Palko Lesina arrived,
+and through his daily talk made it plain to his little comrade that
+Someone good and beautiful lives, and that this beautiful and good
+One also loved him, little forsaken Ondrejko de Gemer, whom even his
+father did not love, and He wanted to live with him always, that
+Ondrejko need not feel forsaken anymore. Now he had Someone to bring
+his complaints to, and he could confide everything to Him, yea,
+everything. How beautiful that was! Yes, verily, the Lord Jesus now
+had one servant more.
+
+Even the herdsmen sighed to Bacha, "How shall we ever get along
+without Palko Lesina? Ever since the boy has been with us, it seems
+that the sunrise looks more beautiful and the dew is richer on the
+ground."
+
+"He is a blessed boy," admitted Filina with a sigh. Oh, how very much
+he needed this boy! Therefore when, instead of Lesina, a letter came,
+he was much relieved. Lesina wrote that he would not be able to come
+back till six weeks later, and asked Bacha to keep Palko with him in
+the meantime, that he would be useful in every way. He didn't want to
+let the boy come home alone because it was so far, and he was his only
+child. When that letter came, the boys jumped for joy, and Fido helped
+them, but the greatest joy after all was that of Filina himself.
+
+In the evening of that day, while they were sitting before the hut and
+Palko was blowing on the horn, suddenly Dr. H. stood before them. With
+evident pleasure he noticed the strange boy. Fido wagged his bushy
+tail in a friendly manner because more than once he had received a
+good bacon-rind from this kind gentleman. Dunaj, stretched out by the
+feet of his master, lifted his head also, but made no sound. He knew
+already whom to let alone and whom not. Formerly he would have jumped
+up and barked, and tested the long coat of the doctor to see if it was
+made of good material or not. Today, he would rather snap at a fly
+which paid with her life for daring to buzz around his nose. Well, the
+dogs did not give it away and the people did not notice that they had
+a listener, neither then nor even after Palko began to read in his
+Book, where there was written about the great man who was the captain
+of the taxgatherers, who had great riches and many friends, but did
+not have peace or happiness in his heart because he did not know the
+Lord Jesus. Palko read how the Lord Jesus spoke to him while he sat in
+the sycamore tree and invited Himself as his guest.
+
+"Uncle Filina," suddenly Palko interrupted, when he came to the words
+of the Lord, 'The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was
+lost'--"If you simply do just like Zaccheus; and say to the Lord
+Jesus, 'This day is salvation come to this house,' that would be
+first, the house of your heart and then the whole hut. Uncle, I beg of
+you, receive Him today. Zaccheus received Him at once with joy, and
+how much greater joy did he find afterward when the Lord Jesus forgave
+him all his sins."
+
+Surprised, the doctor looked at the strange boy and also at Bacha who
+arose and without a word entered the hut. Then Petrik noticed the
+guest; both the boys ran to welcome him and each one wanted to be the
+first to tell him who Palko was and what he was doing among them. The
+Doctor liked Palko, like everyone else who came in contact with him.
+Then the boys found out why the doctor had come that day. He wanted to
+find a cottage near the hut where he could place one of his patients
+for a week, whom only quietness and air and sun could heal.
+
+"Palko, do you hear?" whispered Petrik, but so loud that all could
+hear him. "That cottage of yours is empty, your father will not come
+for six weeks, and you could live here with us; that would be a good
+place for the lady."
+
+"What did you say, boy?" asked the doctor.
+
+Ondrejko began to explain that Lesina had a cottage at the very foot
+of the "Old Hag's Rock," where the path led to town, and that at the
+present it was empty.
+
+"Do you think, Palko," asked the doctor, "that your father would agree
+to lend us the cabin, if it would suit us?"
+
+"Why would he not agree?" said the boy with shining eyes. "Does not
+the Lord Jesus say, 'I was sick, and ye visited Me?' If the cabin
+suits you I will give you the key. Just let the sick one come."
+
+It was too late in the evening to go to see the place; so the boys
+prepared to go with the doctor early in the morning to the cottage.
+
+This time the doctor did not sleep with the boys in the hayloft,
+because he spoke a long time with Filina. When Filina went to look at
+the boys, as it was his custom to do every evening, he stood above
+them a long time in deep thought, then he carefully covered Ondrejko,
+and sadly stroked his forehead, gently, as if he was very sorry for
+the boy. But why? Did he not look very lovely, somewhat browned from
+the sun, with beautiful roses on his velvet-like cheeks, and his small
+mouth as red as a poppy-flower. It was plainly noticeable how the
+mountain air and plain food were strengthening and healing him. His
+face also betrayed his inner happiness which the Lord Jesus had put in
+his heart. Why then was Bacha sorry for him?
+
+During the night, a thunderstorm of short duration passed over the
+mountain. The spring morning broke very beautifully, as it can only
+after a storm. On the grass hung large pearls, and the leaves of the
+trees were full of diamonds as the sun shone on them. Everything sang
+praises to the Creator--every bird, every insect, and fly. The vapor
+rose like the smoke from a great sacrifice. No wonder then that Palko,
+leading their expedition, began to sing. Petrik gave a sigh, glanced
+at the doctor, thinking, "What will he say to that?" Ondrejko joyfully
+joined him, with his clear voice ringing like a golden bell. And thus
+it sounded over the mountains:
+
+  "Let us give thanks to God our heavenly King;
+  To Him who loved and kept us, let us sing.
+  To Him be given honor, glory, praise;
+  To God, Eternal, let our voices raise.
+  We pray, 'Be constantly with us this day
+  And guard us from all evil by the way,
+  That we may to Thy glory ever live,
+  And blessings to our neighbors ever give;
+  And when at last we reach the glory shore
+  We know that we shall praise Thee evermore.'"
+
+The doctor knew that song. He had learned it in his childhood. It made
+him add his own voice to those clear notes of the children. It may
+seem strange, but it is true, that nothing will refresh the mind like
+such an early morning song, sung whole-heartedly on such a beautiful
+morning, when all nature is joining in praises to the Creator, and at
+every step man feels His holy, pure, and shining nearness.
+
+"Listen, Palko," the doctor said after a moment's silence when the
+song was finished; "do you understand what we have sung?"
+
+"That song?" wondered the boy; "Isn't every word quite clear?"
+
+"Do you think so? Then you explain it to us," smiled the doctor
+good-humoredly.
+
+"Explain it? Why, we know well what the good Lord sent us during the
+past night, and we can walk sound and refreshed through this world,
+and that He is our King. We also know that He is the everlasting God."
+
+"Well, that is so, but little children know that much. Go on."
+
+"The third verse I like very much. He is already on the earth, always
+present with us, even now He goes with us, and so will protect us from
+evil all day long. I am very glad to see at least a small piece of His
+garment."
+
+"Where do you see it?" asked Ondrejko.
+
+"Just look how the rays of the sun shine around us. On every drop of
+dew you see a piece of the rainbow. That is the hem of His garment,
+and in that soft breeze, His Spirit is touching us. He is very near
+to us. Verily, He is a good Father. We cannot see Him just because we
+could not bear the full glory. What a man was Daniel! Yet he almost
+died when he saw Him. But also this verse is beautiful, 'That we may
+to Thy glory ever live.'"
+
+"And how do you do that, you little doctor of theology?" said the
+doctor.
+
+"I think," said Palko, "that just what we do today is pleasing to
+the Lord Jesus; we are going to look for a place for one of His sick
+sheep, and if you should like the cottage we will gladly take care of
+the necessary wood and flowers. It is clean already, even the windows
+are washed."
+
+"You little wise man, and lo, surely there is that cabin of yours."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the boys. And Dunaj, as if he would confirm it, ran
+directly to the door.
+
+"Listen, boy, that cottage of yours is just as if it had been built
+for that patient of mine," admitted Dr. H., after he had looked the
+cottage over inside and out. "I shall have some furniture brought
+here, carpets shall cover the floor, that it be not cold, and your
+bed and table we will put in the kitchen, that will be for her nurse.
+Though the windows are small there are three of them, so there will
+be plenty of sun all day long. And what surroundings! This beautiful
+valley with the background of green woods and high mountains! The
+spring is close to the house, and, too bad there is no bench beside
+it!"
+
+The three boys cried, "We shall ask Bacha, and he will send Stephen."
+
+"He can make a very beautiful bench," said Ondrejko. "We can go and
+watch the sheep for him in the meantime."
+
+The doctor stroked the boy's golden hair. "I would like to see you
+turn in the sheep."
+
+"But he would not have to do that," remarked Palko; "for that purpose
+we have Whitie and Playwell. They are very wise dogs."
+
+"Well, now; we shall see what can be done. But the bench must be put
+here. I would like to taste that water."
+
+Palko ran for the flowered pitcher and a cup. They all drank their
+fill. The water was excellent. Then they sat beside the brook, and the
+doctor pulled cheese and bread out of his pocket. Each of the boys
+had his own bread--and quite a big piece at that. When Bacha cut the
+bread, he counted also on the appetites of Dunaj and Fido. The doctor
+divided the cheese. They ate the cheese and bread, and drank water. It
+tasted good to all of them.
+
+Dunaj did not move his eyes from Palko, who shared with him
+faithfully. Greedy Fido ran from one comrade to the other and even sat
+down in front of the doctor, and not in vain. But when he came near
+Palko, Dunaj growled at him, which certainly in a dog's language
+meant, "Are you not ashamed?" So Fido did not try it a second time.
+
+The doctor saw how the children enjoyed their food and noticed that
+Ondrejko also ate with a good appetite. He suddenly began to say,
+"Palko, you said that you would carry wood to the cottage. That will
+not be necessary. I will have a cord of wood brought and cut, but if
+you would take care of bringing the flowers that would be very good.
+The lady is to drink whey. As long as she is weak you could also bring
+that to her every morning. As soon as she is strong enough she will
+have to go to the sheepfold herself, and ask for it at the hut. Now,
+what do you say? Will you help me so that she will get better soon?"
+
+They all heartily agreed that they would do it.
+
+"I will tell you what is the matter with her. For a long time she made
+day out of night, but she could not change the day into night. Thus
+she lacked many nights' rest. Now she would like to sleep, but she
+cannot! She is a sad, unhappy person, and has lived to see much
+sorrow. It will be well if you help me to cheer her up; then she will
+recover sooner."
+
+"And does the lady understand Slovak?" fearlessly asked Palko. The
+doctor smote his forehead.
+
+"You are a wise little fellow, boy. I didn't think of that. But wait!
+I overheard when she bought oranges, she spoke in Czech. Then you will
+be able to understand each other. Do you want to help me, boys?"
+
+"We would like to very much," said Ondrejko.
+
+"If Bacha will permit us," added Petrik. Palko thought that nothing
+would hinder him as long as he was there.
+
+In good spirits the boys returned to the sheepcote. The doctor left
+them at the "Old Hag's Rock." They took from him a closely-written
+note for Bacha Filina, who readily enough agreed to everything. He
+even sent Stephen to build the bench, and also gave permission to the
+boys to carry whey and flowers to the sick lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+Again it was Sunday. That day no one from the hut went to church. Very
+early in the morning they read a part of the Word of God, sang a song,
+prayed, and everybody went his way. Filina had an invitation from the
+manager of the Gemer estate. He had to go to the castle, and the boys
+said they would go to Palko's cottage, not to enter, because the
+doctor had the key, but to see if the wood had been already brought
+and where the draymen had stacked it. But who can describe their
+surprise when they reached the cottage. They saw all the windows open
+and on the kitchen-table sat a large white cat. The fur around her
+head looked like a cap. Her eyes were blue and round like those of an
+owl. Her long broad tail hung out of the window. Around her neck she
+had a band decorated with small pearls, and a small gilt bell was
+hanging from it. When they saw her they were glad they had not brought
+the dogs along. Fido went with his master and Dunaj was somewhere
+roaming in the woods.
+
+"Someone must live here already," remarked the surprised Ondrejko.
+
+"Really, so it is. The cat would not be sitting there by herself,"
+added Palko. They walked carefully around the cottage. In the yard
+they found the wood already cut and stacked. Then they took counsel
+together. If the ladies had already come, they must find flowers for
+them. The boys calculated that by the time they would return, the new
+inhabitants of the cottage would be up.
+
+When they returned, in about an hour, each one had a large bouquet of
+flowers and foliage. Palko arranged them for all three. He was already
+a master in that work. Ondrejko carried his bouquet before him with
+both hands, so that he could hardly see the path in front. Petrik
+carried his bouquet over his shoulder. He was the first to notice that
+the door was open and smoke was coming from the chimney.
+
+The next moment an elderly lady with a black dress and white cap
+stepped into the doorway. Her otherwise good-looking face bore
+evidence of much care, and she looked distressed, seeming to say,
+"What shall I do now?"
+
+"She certainly needs something," said Palko, as the boys ran toward
+the cottage.
+
+To their greeting, the lady answered in the Czech language. Her kind
+face brightened as she looked at the boys and their large bouquets.
+
+"Are you the nurse of the sick lady?" Palko began. "We promised the
+doctor that we would bring flowers, so we have brought them now. They
+are wilted, but if you put them in the brook they will freshen up."
+
+"Thank you very kindly. My lady will be glad."
+
+Taking the flowers from the boys, the lady placed their ends in the
+brook.
+
+"Since you are not familiar here, perhaps you will need something that
+you cannot find in the woods," Palko said thoughtfully. "We shall be
+glad to serve you; just let us know."
+
+"I shall be very thankful, boys, if you will help me. We have brought
+everything except salt and bread, which we do not have, because the
+bag in which the eatables were, must have been left in the coach. We
+came late last night instead of this morning, so the doctor did not
+accompany us, and my surroundings are still strange."
+
+"We will bring some salt and bread. Our hut is near by," Petrik cried
+zealously. "Also the whey will be ready. Come on, Ondrejko."
+
+"Are they to bring us milk and bread from the hut?" inquired the lady.
+
+"That will be from us," Ondrejko assured her. "But we have to go at
+once so that we can return soon."
+
+"I will stay with you," decided Palko, "because the cottage belongs
+to my father. Although you may be used to having things arranged
+differently, I may be able to show you where you can put one thing and
+another."
+
+"So this is your cottage? Then you can advise me where to put
+everything that we have brought along. What shall we call you?"
+
+"Palko Lesina. The other boy is Petrik Filina, and the third one is
+Ondrejko de Gemer."
+
+"What is his name?" asked the lady, startled.
+
+"De Gemer. The sheepfolds belong to his father. The doctor sent
+Ondrejko to Bacha Filina because he was weak. Here he thrives well.
+From the time that he has lived as we live and not like a gentleman,
+he has been getting well and strong. And how about your lady; could
+she sleep last night?"
+
+"Oh, my poor lady!" sobbed the elderly woman. "If she only knew. I
+don't know whether she slept in the night, but now she sleeps as she
+has not slept for a long time. Come, Palko, enter softly."
+
+It was good that there was a hall between the bedroom and the kitchen,
+for thus the sleeper was not disturbed. Palko proved to be a very good
+helper. From the kitchen which looked like a county fair, they carried
+away trunks, bags, coverings, raincoats, and towels, into the clean
+storage room, which the lady had not yet discovered. Some things they
+laid on the shelves which Lesina had already put up, and others were
+hung on nails on the wall. One of the trunks, the lady emptied. In it
+were the china and all the kitchen utensils. These Palko carried at
+once to the new kitchen cupboard. Some things he hung up near the
+stove. One of the table-cloths he spread over the table. After he had
+found the broom which his father had made from the branches that he
+had cut and brought, he swept the kitchen, for with the carrying in of
+so many things, much dirt had accumulated. He ran with the pitcher for
+water, and placing one of the bouquets in it, set it on the covered
+table. Just as he had finished, his comrades came running, hot and
+perspiring. Ondrejko carried the crock with a narrow neck, completely
+covered with braided straw, and the covered can of milk. Petrik
+carried quite a heavy bundle on his back.
+
+When the nurse returned from the storeroom she could hardly believe
+her eyes. On the table on a wooden plate lay the black-bread, salt was
+in a new wooden bowl, cheese in a dish, on a plate there was fresh
+golden butter, and in a can, milk. The fire that had gone out in the
+kitchen stove, was burning brightly now. The boys sat on the bench by
+the window, Palko standing in front of them.
+
+"Are you already here, my children?" asked the nurse; "and what have
+you brought?"
+
+"Bread and salt, as you have asked. The whey is in the crock. The milk
+we brought for you, because you are not sick," explained Petrik.
+
+Ondrejko added, "It may be that your lady will not want to drink the
+whey today, and that you will make coffee instead, for yourself."
+
+"For you," Petrik added, "there is also butter and cheese. Palko is
+able to do this because some day all this around here will be his."
+
+The boys were surprised when the eyes of the nurse suddenly filled
+with tears. She wiped them off and kissed the small messengers.
+
+"You are right, Ondrejko, today I will fix coffee, and you all will
+take breakfast with me. In the meantime perhaps my lady will be up."
+
+Before the coffee was finished, the boys found out that the nurse's
+name was Moravec and that they could call her Aunty; that she was born
+in the mountains of northern Bohemia in just such a cottage as this.
+She went to America with her parents, and was married there, but when
+her husband died, and not having her own daughter any more, she had
+served this lady ten years, and took care of her like her own child.
+Before the boys realized it, each had in front of him a beautiful
+cup with a golden edge, full of fragrant coffee, and a big piece of
+Bohemian bun. After all, they had found the seemingly lost bag, and
+really, it would have been a pity if the good Bohemian buns had been
+lost!
+
+Just as their breakfast was finished, the sound of a silver bell was
+heard from the room. Aunty ran in quickly, like a young girl.
+
+"Perhaps it is time for us to go," advised Petrik. Ondrejko looked at
+Palko to see what he would say. He had succeeded in attracting the
+beautiful cat to him. She sat beside him on the bench, and with her
+front paws, like a squirrel, took the dipped bun from him. Now she was
+even sitting on his knees and was purring.
+
+"We cannot leave these dishes thus, when they were dirtied by us. She
+has no help here," said Palko.
+
+So he ran with a tin bucket for water, and Petrik ran to bring wood.
+In the meantime Ondrejko remained alone in the kitchen, when the doors
+of the bedroom opened. At first he heard the voice of Aunty--and then
+another. The blood rushed to his head, the voice was so clear and
+so beautiful. Oh, such mysterious recollections, as from times
+so distant, very distant, as if from the secrets of long past
+remembrances! What they said he did not understand. The cat wriggled
+out of his hands, lifted its long tail and jumped to the door.
+The door was not fully closed and she opened it with one paw and
+disappeared before the eyes of the surprised boy. He was not even
+aware of it. He was so fully taken up with the voice that he did not
+hear any more. The boys' coming disturbed and awakened him.
+
+Palko washed the dishes, Petrik dried them; they put everything away,
+and disappeared as quietly as they could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Seven days passed. How short! but sometimes how long seven days may
+be! How much one can live through, experience, and suffer! Time
+passes; you awaken, wipe your eyes, and wonder if it is true that it
+has passed already.
+
+Even thus Ondrejko de Gemer, wandering through the woods, wondered
+if all was true that had passed in the last seven days, or if it was
+merely a dream. Oh, it was no dream, really. She came, the sick lady.
+Truly, she lived in Palko's cottage and though Ondrejko had carried
+the whey there already three times he had not seen her. Aunty always
+said that she was asleep, and must sleep very much. Ah, why did she
+always sleep just when he came? She had spoken already to Petrik, and
+gave him a box full of candy. Palko had already read to her from his
+Book, and had told her that she was almost as beautiful as his mother
+at home; Ondrejko, alone, had not seen her yet.
+
+How much he had prayed already, especially that morning, that she
+might not be asleep again when he went there, that he also might
+welcome her to those woods and mountains. Formerly Ondrejko didn't
+think of it, but he did now, when the herdsmen, especially Stephen,
+again and again reminded him that these sheepfolds were his father's,
+and therefore his also, and that he had a rightful claim to
+everything. When they gave him cheese and butter for the lady, they
+gave him plenty, saying, "Just take it; it is yours." This thought
+seemed to appeal to him--all is ours. If Palko could say "our
+cottage," why could not Ondrejko say, "our sheepfolds, our land, and
+our woods? Oh, then she came to us though she lived in the cottage of
+Palko. When she gets stronger she will come to us to drink whey from
+our sheep."
+
+Lost in his meditation, the boy did not realize that he had come to
+the parting of the paths, one of which turned above to the "Old Hag's
+Rock," and the other, below to the cottage in the valley. The weather
+was again so clear that from the green clearings in the woods you
+could hear the great bells of the rams and the little ones of the
+sheep.
+
+"There is the ringing of the bells of our sheep," smiled the happy
+Ondrejko. He ran quickly to the bench, intending to sit upon it and
+rest, but he did not do so for it was occupied by someone like one of
+the fairies from the woods of which Stephen often told him, that on
+St. John's Night came out of the "Old Hag's Rock" and danced on the
+meadows. None of them could be more beautiful than the lady sitting
+on the bench, with its firm back covered with a flowery blanket; a
+similar cushion lay on the arm-rest, and on the cushion rested a white
+arm. On the small narrow palm a forehead was resting, and beautiful
+dark-gray eyes looked far away above the mountains.
+
+The boy set down the crock and folded his arms.
+
+Thus he looked at the lily-white face, and the lips which seemed as if
+the Lord God had made just for song. And again his heart felt as if
+someone carried him far, far away, into the land of remembrances. It
+is too bad that the lady, covered with a light yellow Cashmere shawl
+does not look at the boy. Is he not also good-looking? and how
+beautiful! On Saturday the doctor sent him a new suit, almost the same
+kind as Palko had, but the shirt was embroidered with flowers, with
+broad sleeves, narrow pants, decorated sandals, a round hat with
+bands, and a small embroidered bag. Petrik also received a new suit,
+the kind that he used to wear. Ondrejko was very glad that now he
+would be altogether like his comrades. When they were all three in the
+church yesterday, the people looked around at them.
+
+If the lady would only look this way! Surely she never saw such a
+beautiful little Slovak! But she did not look. At last, the boy came
+to himself. Oh, surely, it must be she!--surely, herself! Who else
+would be sitting on his bench? And she had that beautiful cat beside
+her. Here she was, already up, and he was just bringing her breakfast.
+He was late! Oh, he knew it was necessary for the whey to be warm.
+When, then, will she eat her breakfast?
+
+He took courage and greeted her. The lady aroused herself, opened her
+big eyes, and in surprise looked at the boy timidly drawing near.
+
+"Good morning," greeted Ondrejko. "I am bringing you the whey, but
+surely too late. However, I have hurried quite a bit, therefore please
+do not be angry at me."
+
+"Do you bring me my breakfast?" the lady asked astonished. She arose
+and took the heavy crock out the hand of the boy. "It must be very
+heavy for you."
+
+"It was not," said Ondrejko, more at ease, as he fastened his
+beautiful eyes on the lady's face. Oh, how happy he was that finally
+he too could see her, and that she talked with him and even took him
+by the hand.
+
+"And what is your name?"
+
+"Ondrejko," he replied.
+
+"And do you live here at these sheepfolds?"
+
+"Yes," said he, "I live with Bacha Filina. I like it very much."
+
+The lady walked with the boy and he carried the crock. She was small
+in stature, but every movement reminded one of a princess.
+
+"Why did not Petrik or Palko bring this whey?" she asked, to start a
+conversation with Ondrejko.
+
+"We change about," said he.
+
+"Change about? But I have never seen you before."
+
+"I have carried the whey already three times, but you have always been
+asleep," said Ondrejko.
+
+"So, I have always been asleep during your visits? Therefore I will
+not leave you quickly today. You must rest with us. Look, Aunty is
+already waiting." The lady stopped and almost joyfully handed the
+crock to Aunty Moravec.
+
+"Look who brought the whey for us today, but you are already
+acquainted. We have seen each other for the first time now! Please
+prepare a good breakfast for my guest." The hands of Aunty shook
+somewhat when she received the crock, and she hastened to heat the
+whey at once.
+
+Who could have told Ondrejko how the Lord Jesus would answer his
+prayer? Petrik saw the lady only in the kitchen, but she took him into
+her room. How beautifully she had things arranged there! A plush sofa
+and arm-chair, and many such things as they had in the castle de Gemer
+were in the room. He was permitted to sit with her on the sofa and
+look over a large book with photographs, all of beautiful lands and
+cities. She pointed them out and named them.
+
+"And you have been in all these places?" he dared to ask.
+
+A sad expression clouded her face. "Yes, I have, Ondrejko, but now I
+have only one wish--to remain forever in these mountains and never
+again have to look at that evil, deceitful world outside."
+
+After a while Aunty brought breakfast. Ondrejko had to sit down at the
+beautifully-covered table. He was used to praying before eating in the
+hut, so he did it now also, and in the joy which overflowed his heart,
+he added, "I thank Thee, dear Lord Jesus, that You have so kindly
+answered me."
+
+The lady had already lifted the cup to her lips, but she set it down
+again, and as if ashamed, bowed her head too. A tear appeared on her
+golden eyelashes. When the boy had finished eating, she asked him what
+he had asked Jesus Christ for. He confessed how much he had desired
+to see her, and that he almost envied his comrades. Then he asked
+permission to look also into the other book which lay on a small
+table. It was full of photographs of people. He looked at her out of
+the corner of his eye, because about ten of them were pictures of
+herself, but she was dressed in all kinds of strange costumes. In one
+of the pictures she had on a loose dress like a cloak and a crown on
+her head. Under the picture was printed, "Mary Slavkovsky as Marie
+Stuart." The boy rested his curly head on his small palms, and
+thought.
+
+"Why do you look so much at that picture?" said the lady, stroking his
+golden curls.
+
+"Is this really you in all these pictures? Have you perhaps played in
+a theatre?" said Ondrejko.
+
+She was astonished. "What do you know about theatres? Have you perhaps
+been in one of them?"
+
+"No," he shook his head. "That could not be possible. I have not
+been." The boy's face saddened.
+
+"What do you mean, Ondrejko?" said the lady, drawing him nearer to
+her.
+
+"Oh, my mother also is pictured in photographs, but I shall never see
+her again."
+
+"Your mother?" said she, wonderingly. "Is she not a country woman?"
+
+"Oh, no!" The eyes of the boy glowed. "She is a famous singer, but I
+shall not see her again, because she has forgotten me long ago--and so
+I have nobody to look after me, no mother, no father, although I was
+adjudged to him. I used to be very sad about it, but since Palko came
+to us, and I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and received Him in my
+heart, I am no more just a forsaken orphan, because He loves me, and
+He it with me." The boy stopped because the lady became very pale, and
+the arm with which she had caressed him, fell down and a deep sigh
+escaped her lips.
+
+"Aunty!" cried the scared boy, and not in vain. Aunty Moravec ran into
+the room. She washed the deathly-pale face of the lady with some kind
+of fine-smelling water. She placed a cushion under her head and put
+her feet on the sofa. After a while, the lady began to breathe better
+again. Aunty took the boy by the hand and led him to the kitchen. At
+his anxious questioning she told him only that the lady was still
+very weak and must rest. Ondrejko repeated to her what they had been
+speaking about together. At hearing this, Aunty sighed and caressed
+him, and said, "It is all in vain. It had to come and the sooner the
+better." She did not hinder Ondrejko from going home, but did not
+allow him to carry the crock.
+
+"Send Palko, in the afternoon. He promised to take the lady to you.
+From tomorrow on, she is to come to your sheepfold to drink the whey.
+The doctor ordered that."
+
+"But is she not sick?" the boy said, showing some anxiety.
+
+"She is not sick any more, only weak, and this weakness she must
+overcome by walking," responded Aunty.
+
+In this world there is no sweetness without bitterness. If something
+strange had not happened, that boy would have returned home very proud
+and happy. Thus Bacha Filina found him not far away, all in tears,
+and when he took him into his strong arms like a little lamb, the boy
+threw both arms around his neck and told him everything.
+
+"Bacha, I have surely said something bad, though I really don't know
+what, and she became very sad about it," cried Ondrejko.
+
+"Do not cry," the man comforted him. "You said only what the Lord God
+put in your mouth. Anyway, when the lady comes in the afternoon, all
+will be well again."
+
+With these words, the Bacha carried the tired boy to his wooden hut,
+laid him on the bed, and sat beside him. He stroked his arm and
+forehead, and before long he had put his little charge to sleep. Then
+he looked at him once more, sadly, and left. About half-an-hour
+later the herdsmen found him dressed in his Sunday suit going in the
+direction of the "Old Hag's Rock." They thought he was going to town,
+and wondered why, because he had been there only yesterday.
+
+At the same time, bitter crying sounded in Palko's cottage, which
+Aunty Moravec could in no way silence. There the weeping lady said,
+"He was here; he, my beautiful golden-headed child, and I did not know
+him. The heavy crock he brought to me himself. He wanted to see me,
+but did not recognize me. How could he, when I myself did not know
+him? That his own mother forgot him long ago is not true. All the
+glory of the world could not replace my lost treasure. Oh, my father,
+my father! If you only knew what became of your daughter! You taught
+her to fold her hands in prayer, but she forgot everything--even that.
+Unfortunate, betrayed wife, craven mother! If you only knew how your
+warnings have been literally fulfilled!"
+
+The lady cried bitterly. There was no comfort for her. Usually there
+is none for the son or daughter who has trampled the good advice of
+his parents under his feet and after that has had to suffer everything
+which has been foretold them.
+
+Finally Aunty went out. She heard steps in the hall. After a while she
+returned asking if Bacha Filina might enter, that he would like to
+speak of something important with the lady.
+
+In a moment Bacha was in the room. "I have come, Madame Slavkovsky, to
+talk with you," he began seriously. "It is time to make an end to
+the sin, which for years you have already committed as to my little
+charge. The doctor told me that you are his mother, and my lord is his
+father. Now is this tender, sensitive child to grow up as somebody
+said: 'Whether father or mother, whether sister or brother, nobody
+comes to welcome me'?" The man spoke seriously.
+
+The lady stretched out her hands towards him imploringly. "What can I
+do? They took him away from me and adjudged him to De Gemer. My lawyer
+did everything that he could, but in vain."
+
+"But would you love him, would you like to take care of him as it
+behooves a decent mother, if my lord would return him to you?"
+
+"Why would I not! I deserve that you ask me that. Whether you believe
+me or not, Bacha Filina, I would give everything if I could only get
+him back again. I see he loves me, unworthy though I am."
+
+"Yes, he loves you as only forsaken children know how to do. Therefore
+I came to you, lady--today or never God gives you an opportunity to
+get your treasure back again. Your former husband fell deeply into
+debt. His administrator received the order to sell the estate of the
+De Gemer family. If you have enough money--the doctor told me that you
+have--buy it out of the first hands before the Jews get hold of it.
+When your lawyer writes him that you will have the estate turned over
+to the boy, if Lord de Gemen will give it to you in black and white,
+he will be glad to do so, I know, and will give you the boy. He always
+boasted that the 'De Gemer' estate shall belong to Ondrejko, his
+first-born. Everybody in the neighborhood knows about it. It would not
+be such a great shame on the family, that they had to sell the family
+castle, if, after all, the property remained in his son's hands. It
+is a beautiful estate, and it is wisely managed. It will bring a much
+larger income later on, than it does today. Even if you had to borrow
+some money to purchase it, it would be worthwhile to do so."
+
+"Oh, Bacha Filina!" The lady took the man's hard right hand into her
+small ones. "How can I thank you enough for this good and beautiful
+advice? I don't know if my ready money will suffice, but I have
+beautiful jewelry, and when I sell that, we will have something to
+start with at least. I am not altogether so unfamiliar with managing
+as you may think; I am the daughter of a farmer. But who will buy this
+for me? My lawyer is not here."
+
+"Leave Ondrejko with the doctor. Ride to the administrator's office
+and buy the estate yourself. He has orders to sell it. Do not begin to
+deal about the boy before the estate is yours. At least, that is what
+I think. But today let Ondrejko know that you are his mother, that the
+boy may not suffer longer. Come to us in the afternoon. I will send
+Palko for you."
+
+Filina arose. "I would not have come to you while you are still weak,
+but we must hurry with the buying, and Ondrejko cared so much that he
+shook all over, thinking that surely he had said something bad to
+you so that you fainted. The boy is very tender. He needs not only
+strengthening with me--that is only for the body--but his heart needs
+a mother. The God in the heavens has become his Father. Good-bye,
+then."
+
+"Bacha Filina," the lady stopped the man. "Do you know why I parted
+with De Gemer? Or do you think that because I am a singer, I have left
+him like an unfaithful wife?"
+
+"The doctor told me that my lord had wronged you. I do not ask more.
+Everyone of us has enough of his own sins. God sees us and knows us.
+Do not judge that ye be not judged." The deep voice of Filina sounded
+almost gentle. He shook her hand and left.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Uncle Filina! Did you already return from the city?" sounded a voice
+from the clearing where he went to look at the flock. Palko ran to
+meet him. In his hand he carried a basket full of beautiful mushrooms.
+
+"I was not in the city, Palko; but what are you doing here?" Filina
+was cheered with Palko's presence and sat down on an old log overgrown
+with moss. The boy joyfully threw himself down on the deep mossy
+cushions.
+
+"I carried a letter to Stephen which the forester's boy brought for
+him from his mother. It cheered him very much. She had been sick, but
+now she writes to him herself. Praise the Lord!"
+
+"I am very glad of that; she is a good woman. And the son which has no
+mother has no home anywhere," said Filina. "Where did you find these
+mushrooms?"
+
+"They are beautiful, aren't they? Oh, I just happened to see them. Joe
+said he would cook the stew for supper. They will fit in well."
+
+"Yes, they will. Pick out the best ones, and take them to the ladies
+this afternoon, in your cabin. Perhaps they will like them."
+
+"Shall I really go for the lady? Will it not be too far for her yet?"
+thoughtfully asked the boy.
+
+"I think not, but you must go slowly."
+
+"But she is still so weak, Uncle."
+
+"I know it; I have just left her."
+
+"Is that so? You saw her? And you just came from there? Did you stop
+there on the way from town?"
+
+Bacha was silent for a moment as if deciding something. Then he
+fastened his eagle eyes on the boy's face. "Palko, I am going to tell
+you something. God grant that you may help me in a very difficult
+thing."
+
+"I would love to, Uncle. Just tell me."
+
+"The master of these sheepfolds is Ondrejko's father. You know that;
+do you not?"
+
+"Yes, I know it."
+
+"And the beautiful lady there, is his mother."
+
+"What did you say!" Palko jumped up at once and sat down again. "But
+how is it that they are not together, and that Ondrejko is not with
+them?"
+
+"They had parted, and he took another wife many years ago."
+
+"And the Lord Jesus permitted that? It seems to me that He said, 'It
+should not be so.'"
+
+"You know, Palko, the world does many things that the Lord God
+forbids--even this. I know it is a sin, but it is already that way and
+it cannot be changed now. The lady, before De Gemer took her, was a
+famous singer in America. She must have been very beautiful because
+she is still so today. He brought her to Europe to his family. They
+were displeased with him because the lady was not of noble birth. They
+did not treat her well, and he did not stand by her as would have been
+his duty. Because as far as I know him, he is not the man to guard his
+wife against the whole world. It may also be that he has been sorry
+already, that he had shut himself out of the world because of her,
+while on the other hand, many noble ladies were offered him. How it
+was among themselves, I do not know. I only know that once, when he
+was not at home, she took the boy and fled away. Then they lived in
+Budapest. She did not know how to make a living any other way--so she
+gave the boy into the care of strange people, and went again to the
+theatre. Then came the law suit. He charged her with leaving him, and
+she did not want to return to him, so the court separated them. They
+adjudged the boy to his father, and so he came to us. While Ondrejko
+was with those people, where she cared for him, they told him all good
+things about her, but when he came to where his father put him you can
+imagine that they did not speak well of her. So the poor boy has heard
+all kinds of stories about his mother, and yet he longs for her, and
+so I visited the lady today. I wanted to advise her how she could
+take the boy herself and acknowledge him today. Therefore I tell you,
+Palko, everything, that you may tell Ondrejko who it is that is coming
+to us today."
+
+There was silence in the mountains. Bacha looked at the boy deep in
+thought. "Will you tell him, Palko?"
+
+"Yes, Uncle. But I must first ask the Lord Jesus for help, for that is
+not a small thing. It is good that Ondrejko is already God's lamb. He
+will even help his mother to find the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we will
+do that part. But, Uncle Filina, when will you tell me that you have
+received Him?--that you are His?" The question from the boy, put with
+so much loving concern, brought the tears into the man's eyes.
+
+"I do not know myself, what to tell you, my boy. It is all so strange
+to me. From the time that I took the Lord Jesus, like Zaccheus,
+it seems to me there is no more of that great burden that always
+oppressed me. Sometimes it seems to me as if the Son of God was
+actually with me, and when I read the Bible it seems as though He is
+living in my heart and opens my eyes. Now I don't know, my boy, what
+more can I do."
+
+"Oh, Uncle," Palko began to jump for joy. "Really, you have already
+accepted Him. He came and took away your load, and threw it behind
+God's back."
+
+"What do you say, boy?" said the surprised man. "Is that all?"
+
+"Yes, that is all. We are only to believe Him. You know well how He
+said, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+give you rest.' Don't you believe He means what He says?"
+
+"I do believe, my boy, and already believe, and even understand all
+like Zaccheus. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He
+came to seek even me, the lost sinner, and I let Him find me."
+
+When the next moment they kneeled before God, the man and the boy,
+there was great joy in heaven that again a sinner had received the
+Lord Jesus Christ. Because to those who receive Him, to them gave He
+power to be the sons of God. Thus the angels wrote His name in the
+Lamb's book of Life. They wrote that Peter Filina believed, and that
+Jesus of Nazareth took his heavy burden of sin upon His cross, there
+suffered for him the penalty of death, and thus it was that Filina was
+forgiven all, and received the Son of God for ever and ever. So for
+the first time Filina prayed with his whole heart to God as his
+Father. He thanked the Lamb of God for His death, and thanked Him also
+for Palko whom He had sent to those mountains.
+
+When they were done, the boy sighed deeply. Said he, "Since I am
+finished with you, I don't have to ask the Lord Jesus any more for
+you, but can ask so much better for Ondrejko's mother. Surely He will
+grant to me that she will soon accept Him too."
+
+They went together a little way, but Bacha turned to the clearings and
+Palko ran back again to the hut at the sheepfold. On the way, he sang
+until the echo rang everywhere.
+
+There was much stirring in the hut that afternoon. The boys cleaned
+and arranged everything so that no particle of dust could be found
+anywhere. They brought flowers to Ondrejko that he might braid a chain
+of them. It was a very long one. Bacha himself afterwards draped it
+over the door.
+
+"Well, it is time for me to go," announced Palko. "Ondrejko, come with
+me part of the way. I saw some nice flowers not far away and you can
+pick them. These we will place on the table afterwards."
+
+"Verily it is time that you go," agreed Bacha, "and go together."
+
+Ondrejko obeyed very gladly. Merrily the boys went into the woods and
+soon found the flowers they wanted.
+
+"Let us sit down a while," said Palko when they had picked the flowers
+and placed them in the nearby spring. "I would like to tell you
+something. Do you remember anything about your mother?"
+
+"About my mother?" said the surprised Ondrejko. That kind of question
+he did not expect. "I remember but a little, that she was very
+beautiful, and had a very fine voice."
+
+"And if she suddenly came for you, would you be glad?"
+
+"For me?" and the boy's beautiful eyes opened wide. "She cannot come
+for me any more, because I do not belong to her, but to father."
+
+"And what did the lady where you lived formerly tell you about her?"
+
+"That she left father and me because she loved the theatre more than
+us, and because sometimes the people hitched themselves to wagons
+instead of horses, and gave her beautiful jewels."
+
+"And you believed it?" retorted Palko, with clouded face.
+
+"No, I did not believe it, because I loved her, loved her very much."
+
+"You are right; don't you believe it. Bacha Filina told me that she
+went away because your father's family did not like her because she
+was not of noble birth as themselves. But she went to the theatre only
+because she could not make her living otherwise. Your father brought
+her from a very great distance to which she could not return. What
+could she do? What the theatre is, I do not know. Only that she sang
+there beautifully. Perhaps that would not have been so bad if she had
+known the Lord Jesus as we know Him. He would surely have advised and
+helped her otherwise, and if that which she did was wrong, when she
+once knows Jesus and asks Him to forgive her, He will do so. But we
+must tell her about Him, you and I."
+
+"We? But she is far away, very far."
+
+"Do not believe it, Ondrejko. The Lord Jesus sent her back as far as
+here. The lady at our cottage--that is she."
+
+"You say that is she?" Ondrejko jumped up.
+
+"Yes, yes; that is she."
+
+"She was just like her, and had the same kind of a voice! And so it
+aroused in my heart remembrances of long ago when she spoke and when
+I looked at her. It seems to me I recognized her, but she didn't know
+me," sadly sighed the boy, and his eyes filled with tears.
+
+"But how could she have recognized you in those farmer's clothes? We
+too, Petrik and I, hardly recognized you."
+
+"Do you think so?" Ondrejko calmed down. "Palko, take me to her; she
+doesn't know that I am her Andreas. She doesn't know me."
+
+"She knows already. Uncle Filina was there. He told her the truth."
+
+"Oh, then take me with you, because I have made her very sad--till she
+almost died."
+
+"I don't care. Come, then. Surely the Lord Jesus wants it so."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No matter how long Ondrejko Gemersky lives he will never be able to
+forget how it was when the doors in the cottage opened and a beautiful
+lady in a light blue dress, the color of forget-me-nots, stepped out.
+In her hands she carried a broad hat, but she dropped it with a cry,
+"My Ondrejko!" as she ran toward them. He flew like an arrow to meet
+her.
+
+"Mother, my mother!"--and already held her around the neck. She,
+kneeling, hugged him to her breast. They both cried, and Palko with
+them.
+
+"Oh, mother, my mother, how I love you! Verily I am yours, and surely
+you will keep me now," begged Ondrejko with tears. He stroked the
+beautiful face and forehead of the lady.
+
+"Yes, you are mine." She jumped up. "I will not give you up any more
+to anyone, anyone in the world. But no, come, my son, we have to go to
+Bacha Filina. He will take care of it, that no one can take you away
+from me."
+
+Surely Ondrejko will never forget this, nor how they walked together
+to the sheepcote, how well they were received there, what a good time
+they had that afternoon and evening, because Ondrejko's mother slept
+together with Aunty Moravec in his hut. Bacha counted on that. He took
+counsel with Aunty and sent Stephen to the cottage to bring whatever
+was necessary for the lady, especially sheets, covers, etc. Thus
+Ondrejko sat beside his mother in the evening when Joe roasted the
+lamb over the fire, and Petrik helped Aunty to cook soup in the pot.
+
+Bacha told them about the life at the sheepcotes, and many interesting
+things from his experiences with the flocks. Then they had supper
+together, there in the open. Then they sang the evening song, prayed,
+and Palko read from his Book. At Filina's request he read the 15th
+chapter of the Gospel of Luke, about a good shepherd, about a woman
+who lost her coin, and about a prodigal son who had a good father, but
+nevertheless ran away from him, and how badly he fared in the world
+until he returned to his father. During the reading Palko made many
+beautiful remarks, as he usually did. They all loved to hear him. When
+he closed, only the fire crackled, and the stars in the heavens were
+sparkling like a multitude of eyes. The moon lit up the tops of the
+mountains and woods. Often one of the sheep rang its bell in the fold.
+
+Bacha suddenly lifted up his bowed head, and spoke with a voice such
+as they had never heard before: "That lost and found sheep am I, my
+children. The gracious Lord God forgave all my sins. The Lord Jesus
+sought and found me, and I have surrendered myself to Him altogether,
+including our huts. Let us pray."
+
+He took his hat off, folded his hands, and prayed thus, "Our Father,"
+in such a manner, that nobody had ever heard such a prayer before.
+Never will Ondrejko de Gemer forget that moment, but I think that none
+of the others present there will ever be able to forget it either.
+
+When in the huts everything quieted down--not even the dogs barked
+that night--Bacha, as his custom was, walked all around to see if
+there was any danger anywhere, before he betook himself to rest. He
+walked also around the wooden hut and suddenly stopped. There on
+Ondrejko's little bench, under the window, wrapped up in a shawl,
+Madame Slavkovsky sat in the moonlight. Her hands were twined around
+her knees, and she was thoughtfully looking into the beautiful starry
+night. He coughed, that she might not be startled. She turned her
+head, and with a motion indicated her wish that he should take a place
+beside her. He obeyed.
+
+"You said, Bacha Filina, that that lost and found sheep was you," she
+began in her sweet, sad voice. "That woman who lost that coin is also
+I. More than that even, I am the prodigal daughter."
+
+"What do you mean by that, lady?" asked Filina seriously.
+
+"When Palko explained how good that father was and how the naughty boy
+left him, I thought that I did just that to my good dear father; and
+therefore, from that time on, what sad experiences I have had!" She
+sighed deeply.
+
+"Tell me all about it. I am an old man and could be your father. I
+shall understand you."
+
+"Yes, I will tell you everything, because if you had not saved my poor
+child he would not have had anybody. Did you not care for him like a
+father?"
+
+"We lived on a beautiful farm in America," she went on. "My
+grandfather and grandmother came from Bohemia as a young couple. They
+bought a small farm and worked diligently, and God blessed them. They
+were good people, who trusted in God. They had one son and a daughter.
+Their son wanted to study, so they sent him to school. As he did not
+work on the farm they had to take a helper, and he also came from the
+old country. They took a liking for him at once because he fitted in
+so well in the family. Once when grandfather was so seriously ill that
+he thought he would die, he called his helper and asked him, since he
+was single and without relatives in the land, if he would marry his
+daughter. He would be more easy if he knew in whose hands he had left
+his daughter and wife. That the daughter liked the good-looking and
+good-hearted young man, they knew well. But the young man asked for
+some time to think it over, and then told their daughter his history
+from the old country. What it all was I don't know, and when she,
+in spite of it all, was willing to take him, he acceded to my
+grandfather's wish, and none of them were ever sorry for it. My father
+was very kind to my mother. She had no reason to be sorry that she had
+married him. Grandfather recovered from his illness. For many years
+after that he worked together with his son-in-law and everything went
+well, so that with his help the small farm became a large one. My
+recollections are only of the big farm. I was their only child. My
+uncle Vojta was at that time a professor in New York, was married, and
+advised my parents to send me to him there, that I might go to school
+and become a lady. Grandfather approved of this; thus I was at home
+only in the summer, and over the winter at Uncle's in school till I
+was really trained. My Uncle noticed that I had a talent for singing,
+and the teachers confirmed it. Without the knowledge of my home folks
+he sent me to learn to sing. I loved to sing, but loved still more the
+praise showered upon me by the audiences at the school-concerts.
+
+"In the meantime, so great a change transpired in my home that I
+hardly recognized it when they called me to grandfather's deathbed.
+Our farm was not far from the mountains. In those mountains was a
+mission conference for several weeks. Our whole family used to go to
+listen to those speakers who held religious lectures there--and all
+of them, as it was well-known about there, turned to Christ. I shall
+never forget how happy grandfather died, how he blessed us all, and
+with what fortitude grandmother bore her loss. For the first time I
+was really glad to be able to run away from my dear parents to my
+Uncle's. My beloved ones started a family altar at home. They sang
+songs to the honor of the Lamb who, they claimed, had delivered them
+from their sins. Well, I did not like to sing those songs. It seemed
+to me as if even the walls of our house would fall down on me.
+
+"My splendid, kind father let me go sadly. I had half-a-year more
+school to complete, and one more examination. My dear parents rejoiced
+that then I would be wholly their's, because they had only me, and for
+me they worked and saved. My Uncle agreed with me in everything. Like
+me, he did not want to enter the narrow path which leads to glory.
+With the conclusion of the school-year, my study of singing also
+ended, and I returned home with the intention of persuading my parents
+to permit me to enter the opera--that means, to become a singer. More
+than half-a-year I fought at home with pleas and tears, but in
+vain. My father was wonderfully patient and kind to me. Mother
+and grandmother were often not so patient, but, like these grand
+mountains, they would not move, nor could anyone move my father to
+break his word that he would never give me permission to go. Well,
+what he did not give me, I took myself."
+
+"What did you do?" compassionately asked Bacha. The lady broke out
+crying.
+
+"I left home, leaving a letter behind saying that I loved the world,
+in which and for which, I wanted to live, and I loved the glory of the
+world and did not want to bury myself on the farm. I ran away to my
+Uncle's. My dear father came at once for me. He begged and pled, but I
+didn't want to go back with him, and did not do so.
+
+"'When you find out that the world is as vain as soap-bubbles, and
+your heart is full of disillusionment, ready to despair, then remember
+that you have a father and a home to return to,' said father. 'Until
+that time you cannot count yourself one of us. We are standing on two
+different paths: the one we go on is narrow and leads high; the other,
+which you have chosen, is broad and will lead you from the heights to
+a deep abyss. Our prayers will surround you always like a fiery wall.
+I know that you will have to suffer much evil and much sorrow, but our
+prayers will prevent you from sinning as grievously as you will see
+others do around you.'
+
+"Those were his last words. Oh, Bacha Filina, I went over that broad
+path. In a short time I was a famous singer. The people carried me on
+their arms. Though I was a simple farmer's daughter, because of the
+courses of the good schools which I had attended, the doors of high
+society opened to me, and I, like the prodigal, very soon forgot my
+parents, and especially my good father. Then Lord Gemer came into my
+life, and I married him, being ready to leave everything for him, even
+my fame. He promised me that even when I was his wife, he would agree
+to my keeping on with my singing. He kept that promise while we were
+in America and Italy. But in his native country it was impossible.
+
+"And then everything began to turn out just as my dear father
+foretold. But I don't want to talk about that. I just wanted to say
+that I am that prodigal son."
+
+"That you are, my lady, but only half-way; because the son returned,
+and you haven't returned yet."
+
+"No, you are right. I haven't returned yet. When I had forsaken the
+man who betrayed me, I was ashamed, for I was forsaken, betrayed, and
+robbed of all means to return home. When I asked my uncle to help me,
+though he sent me some money, he also sharply admonished me either to
+return to my husband or to go back to my parents and do penance, but
+this I did not want to do. It seemed to me that all sinned against me,
+and I only was innocent. I had to live. And so I began to sing again,
+though with a broken heart. In a short time I had the world again
+lying at my feet, but, being so forsaken, I soon recognized its whole
+rottenness. How right my father was; I could not sin as I saw others
+around me doing. Therefore I had to suffer much till I could go on no
+longer. Since my health broke down, I cancelled my contract and betook
+myself to search for my son. I wanted to see him, at least once more,
+before I died. That is all."
+
+"That is not everything," said Filina kindly with a smile as he
+rose. "The end will be only when the daughter returns, first to her
+heavenly, and then also to her earthly father. He that received me,
+will surely receive you too. But now come and go to rest, and think
+how perhaps in a distant land your father is praying just now for you,
+and that the heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave His only
+Son for us. Goodnight!"
+
+In a little while the stars shone down upon a quiet place while the
+people slept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+The doctor came the next day, just as Bacha Filina had expected him.
+He came in his coach as far as the sheepcotes, and before Ondrejko
+realized it, he carried away his mother, and also Bacha Filina. Before
+they went they arranged for Ondrejko to remain longer with Bacha, and
+he would go to his mother only for visits.
+
+"Palko, take the boys," commanded Bacha, "and go with them somewhere
+in the woods where nobody will interfere, and pray that the Lord God
+may help us to successfully arrange for what we have before us."
+
+So they prayed, and believed that the Lord Jesus heard them.
+
+Late in the evening, Bacha returned. The boys were already asleep. In
+the morning he told them that everything that could be done yesterday
+was carried out successfully, but that there was another matter which
+would take about a week before they could know how it would turn out,
+so they must keep on praying.
+
+And what a week it was! The boys never lived through another like it.
+Sometimes they were with Ondrejko at his mother's. Again she came to
+the sheepcotes, and when she remained till the evening she loved to
+spend the night in the wooden hut. Aunty used to return before the
+evening in the company of Petrik. He loved to do this, because he
+always got a very good supper there. Then Ondrejko slept with his
+mother. How beautiful that was! She sat on his bed, told him many good
+things, petted, and kissed him till he fell asleep. In the morning
+again, he woke her up early. He jumped from his bed, threw his arms
+around her neck and timidly kissed her beautiful lips. What beautiful
+moments these were! Ondrejko was allowed to accompany his mother even
+when Bacha Filina took her to show her all three sheepfolds. They
+walked together over the clearings, looked at the herds of sheep, and
+spoke with the herdsmen. She was so friendly and kind to them. On the
+other hand, this helped to improve her health. After such a walk
+she ate and slept very well. Ondrejko was glad that she liked Bacha
+Filina. He treated her very nicely, just like a lady, as if she were
+his own daughter. On Saturday Ondrejko went with his mother to the
+cottage. There he was to have dinner with her. Both of his comrades
+were invited for the afternoon, and with them, of course, came Dunaj
+and Fido, but the cat was not afraid of them, and when they saw this
+they let her alone.
+
+The boy ran joyfully into the room, but on the doorstep he halted,
+because his beautiful mother sat at a table. In her hand she held a
+long letter ready for the mail, and she cried. Oh, how bitterly she
+cried! She was cheered up when he ran to her and began to hug and kiss
+her; she returned his kisses but did not stop crying. "Why do you cry
+so much, my mother?" he said sadly. "What is it about?"
+
+"About myself, my loved one, because I am very bad."
+
+Ondrejko would not admit that. To him, a mother seemed like an angel,
+but Palko had read only yesterday the saying: "THEY ALL HAVE SINNED
+AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD," and added that so long as one
+does not realize this and thinks himself good enough, the Lord Jesus
+cannot save him, because only sick ones need a doctor; and Bacha
+Filina had added that only the Holy Spirit can bring a soul to such
+conviction. It must be then, that the Holy Spirit had begun to teach
+his mother also. Surely the Lord Jesus would soon find her!
+
+"Why do you think, mother, that you are bad?" the boy timidly asked.
+
+"Because I have a very good father, and have grieved him very much.
+Look, Ondrejko; I have written now for the first time in many years."
+
+"And surely you have asked his forgiveness? Have you not?"
+
+"Yes, I did; but is it possible to forgive such a sinner?"
+
+"The father forgave his prodigal son because he loved him," the boy
+said seriously. "Did your father love you also, my mother?"
+
+The lady sighed sadly, but did not cry any more.
+
+"He would surely receive you if you would return home."
+
+"I will see if he will answer me, and what he will say."
+
+"Mother, was not your father my grandfather?"
+
+"Yes, my darling; and if the good Lord grant that I may be able to
+count you all my own, and you will be only mine, then we will go
+together, and you will help me to ask him. He will surely not refuse
+you; you will understand one another better, because you both love the
+Lord Jesus and you are His sheep."
+
+The boy rejoiced. The grandfather loved the Lord Jesus! "How glad I
+am! Oh, then he will surely forgive you."
+
+They could not continue their talk because Aunty Moravec called them
+to dinner, which was very good. Joe came after dinner; he was carrying
+cheese to town and stopped to ask if there was anything to be mailed.
+The lady gave him her letter, and Aunty a slip and money to buy
+various things at the stores, with a big piece of cake to eat on the
+way. From the lady he received money to buy cherries for himself and
+the boys, if there were any good ones.
+
+That afternoon it was quite jolly in and about the cottage when the
+comrades came. Ondrejko was glad that his mother was so joyful. She
+taught them all kinds of nice games. She even went with them on the
+"Old Hag's Rock," and there Palko had to tell her also how he found
+his Sunshine Country. That interested her very much. He recalled
+twice, how he was lost as a small child and grew up with strange
+people, and how the Lord Jesus took care that he came again to his
+parents. A whole book could be written about how he fared in the
+world.[A] Madame Slavkovsky was very much interested in that. When
+they later walked to the sheepcotes, all along the way she asked about
+Palko's mother, who in her sorrow for the lost boy also lost her
+reason till she finally found him and the Lord Jesus returned her son
+to her. They did not realize how quickly they came to the huts.
+
+[Footnote A: See the first part of "The Sunshine Country."]
+
+It was a beautiful evening; the sunset covered the sky with its rosy
+curtains. The sun sank behind the mountains, and as if in parting
+kissed the valleys and the people, and especially seemed to kiss the
+beautiful lady who sat by the open fire in deep thought.
+
+"If you can sing so beautifully," begged Palko, "and many people went
+to hear you, we also would like you to do so. Sing for us, if you
+please."
+
+"Oh, Palko." The lady shook her head. "You wouldn't like my song.
+Besides you wouldn't understand me. I sang mostly in English, Italian,
+but also in Czech, but the text of these songs would not fit in with
+this sacred evening closing around us. But because I would like to
+reward you, Palko, for so beautifully relating your experiences, let
+me just think a moment."
+
+They waited; and it was so quiet around them that they could almost
+hear one another breathe; and in the distance the bells of the flocks
+tinkled.
+
+Finally, she lifted her head. "After all, I remember something, and it
+is in the Slovak language. Once I learned this song about the sea,
+and when I sang it, thousands of people wept. It is a ballad about a
+shipwrecked vessel. Would you like to have me sing it?"
+
+"Yes, yes," they all cried. Bacha had just arrived and sat among them.
+What a beautiful thing it is when the Creator puts such a voice in the
+human throat that no bird or instrument can equal it! You can hear
+everything in such a voice: the ringing of gold and silver, the
+moaning in the tops of the pines when they move in the wind; the
+babbling of the brooks as well as the roar of a great cataract--yes,
+everything!
+
+  "Master, the tempest is raging!
+    The billows are tossing high!
+  The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness,
+    No shelter or help is nigh;
+
+  "Carest Thou not that we perish?
+    How canst Thou lie asleep,
+  When each moment so madly is threat'ning
+    A grave in the angry deep?"
+
+Sweetly, yet mysteriously and sadly, the notes of the song floated on
+the evening breeze down to the valley. Once, when the lady tried the
+song for the first time, thousands of people cried. Today only a small
+company of listeners cried, but I think that even the woods and the
+brooks and everything round wept also. Above all of them wept Bacha
+Filina. Palko who sat next to him laid his arm around his neck and
+cried with him. He understood him. Thus perished once the ship that
+carried Stephen. It sank in the terrible depths with him. In vain they
+waited, in vain they called. Uncle Filina would never see him again.
+
+The boys did not dream, nor the helpers of Bacha, that anything
+existed as beautiful as that which was hidden in the lady's throat.
+You could almost hear the crashings of the breaking ship, and feel the
+hopelessness of the situation. It ended like sad, soft wailings of the
+perishing ones. The lady noticed the weeping her song had awakened.
+She realized that it would not be easy to stop it. Then she did
+something which that very morning she would have been in doubt that
+she would be able to do. She sang a song hidden in her memory from her
+old home, and which she had hated with her whole heart, because she
+could not forget it.
+
+  "My faith looks up to Thee,
+  Thou Lamb of Calvary,
+    Saviour Divine!
+  Now hear me while I pray,
+  Take all my guilt away,
+  Oh, let me from this day
+    Be wholly Thine!
+
+  "May Thy rich grace impart
+  Strength to my fainting heart,
+    My zeal inspire!
+  As Thou hast died for me,
+  Oh, may my love to Thee,
+  Pure, warm, and changeless be,
+    A living fire!
+
+  "While life's dark maze I tread,
+  And griefs around me spread,
+    Be Thou my guide;
+  Bid darkness turn to day,
+  Wipe sorrow's tears away,
+  Nor let me ever stray
+    From Thee aside.
+
+  "When ends life's transient dream,
+  When death's cold, sullen stream
+    Shall o'er me roll;
+  Blest Saviour, then, in love,
+  Fear and distrust remove;
+  Oh, bear me safe above,
+    A ransomed soul!"
+
+Perhaps nowhere and never before, were those beautiful lines sung so
+impressively. When she stopped, Bacha Filina stood near her and very
+seriously said, "Thank you, Madame Slavkovsky, for that precious song.
+You have shown me great kindness thereby. Your beautiful ballad opened
+a deep wound in my heart which was not quite healed. It almost seemed
+that I must die because of it, but this holy song healed it again. God
+bless you for it! But one thing I must ask you: let us write this song
+down, and you must teach us the melody that we may cheer ourselves
+with it in life and death."
+
+The lady promised, but asked that they might now read the Word of God,
+as she felt tired. They did this very gladly, and in a little while a
+wonderful quietness reigned.
+
+"Listen, Steve," said Joe to his comrade; "In the castle they said
+that when the lady went home after singing in the theatre that
+gentlemen unhitched the horses from her carriage, and hitched
+themselves to it and thus drew her along. I am not surprised. Really,
+when she sings, she can do anything with a person."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+On Sunday morning the doctor brought some papers. They all had met
+at breakfast in the hut. When the lady read the letters, she folded
+Ondrejko in her arms, and half-crying and half-laughing said, "My dear
+son, now you may really say, 'our woods,' 'our sheep,' because I have
+bought it all for you, my Ondrejko, and all this ground. Only I don't
+know if I dare say: 'Our Bacha Filina.' I cannot, if it were not for
+you. He himself must decide if he will stay with us. Do tell him that
+he must stay."
+
+"Do not ask, Ondrejko," smiled Bacha. "If you are at all satisfied
+with me--yes, if you are satisfied with all of us--we all will be glad
+to stay; isn't it so, boys?"
+
+"Surely we will be very glad to stay," answered the herdsmen.
+
+Soon it was known at all three sheepfolds that Madame Slavkovsky had
+bought Lord Gemer's estate and that she would deed it to Ondrejko if
+Lord Gemer would give up her son to her. No one doubted that he would
+do this, and since the present manager gave notice to leave, because
+he had been called to manage a different estate, the lady hoped that
+she would find some other responsible man. She promised everyone a
+raise in wages as soon as the change of ownership of the estate was
+recorded and improvements made. Everybody rejoiced. It almost seemed
+that even the sheep knew that Ondrejko had become their master. It was
+lovely how they rang their bells.
+
+Over the sheepcotes every once in a while sounded the song which they
+called the lady's: "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary."
+The boys taught it to everybody who wanted to learn it, and what
+Slovak would not like to learn a new song? When Aunty Moravec noticed
+how they all liked it, she confided to Palko that she still had a
+whole book of such songs from America. Thereupon, Ondrejko begged his
+mother to sing one of them once in a while. She made no excuses. Every
+day she taught them a new one, each more beautiful than those before.
+They did not realize that she taught them the very songs from which
+she ran away in the home of her parents, and which she would neither
+hear nor sing there. Bacha permitted the herders from the other
+sheepcotes to come over to his hut. They loved to come for those
+songs. They had good voices, clear as the evening bells. The lady
+even taught them to sing one in four parts. When Sunday came, they
+practised the whole afternoon, and sang in the evening, so that it
+sounded over the mountains like a beautiful melody.
+
+That Sunday Palko read and explained how the Lord came from Nazareth
+to live in Capernaum, since they did not want Him in Nazareth, and
+that even today the Lord Jesus did not want to compel anybody, even as
+He had not compelled those in Nazareth, but went away and left them
+forever. Then he begged everybody not to send the Lord Jesus away, but
+permit Him to live with them. "It would be very sad if our sheepcotes
+would be like those of Nazareth, and if He had to forsake us and go
+farther on to Capernaum. Where He is, there is heaven and there is
+life. He heals every sickness. Just notice how many people He healed
+in Capernaum. But where He is not, there is darkness, just as in that
+song it says: 'Oh, there is no more salvation.'"
+
+With serious thoughts they all departed to their rest. Ondrejko slept
+very soundly, but in spite of that it seemed to him that he heard his
+mother crying. In the morning he saw from her eyes that she had not
+slept very much. He dared not wake her up. So he stole out on tiptoe
+with his suit and dressed outside.
+
+Once when Joe brought things from the city and Aunty Moravec gave him
+a good meal, he began to praise his new lady and asked sincerely, "But
+why did Lord de Gemer part with her? He will not find another like her
+in the world."
+
+"He did not part with her, but she parted with him," said the old
+nurse with clouded face. "He is a bad, unfaithful man. The poor woman
+loved him so much and believed everything. When she took him, she had
+much money; and he just lived on her money and wasted it. He played
+cards and did all kinds of evil things. By the time we came to
+Budapest she was robbed of everything. He wanted her to continue to
+sing there. She had beautiful jewels; he told her he would deposit
+them in a bank, but he pawned them, because at the horse-races he had
+lost a big bet and needed much money. When he said that I warned her
+not to let everything go out of her power, through false accusation he
+separated me from her, accusing me of causing trouble between them.
+When there was no one else to defend her and she was robbed of
+everything, they began to look down upon her--his mother, his sisters,
+and he himself. She was born in America; there they treat women
+differently. In spite of it she suffered a whole year because she
+loved him very much. Once she saw her jewelry on another lady, and
+asked where she had bought them. Thus she found out that they were
+pawned and had been sold for the charges on them. There were many
+evil-minded people around her; they opened her eyes after that to what
+kind of a husband she had, how he fooled and robbed her, that he loved
+only her money. That was most insulting to her. Not an hour more would
+she stay with him under the same roof. She got together the last
+things she had--above all her little son--and went to Vienna. There
+I found her dangerously sick. She asked her husband to send her her
+things, for she was sick. He again asked for the boy but she would not
+give him up. In order that they might not take him away, I, myself,
+took him to northern Bohemia, to my own family, where it was well with
+him. In the meantime the lawsuit ended, and they took him away from
+her because he was assigned to his father. Because she did not give
+the boy up at once, he sent her, from her clothing and laundry, only
+what was old and shabby. His relatives divided her beautiful, valuable
+garments among themselves. Thus they dealt with her because nobody
+would protect her. In those hard days, her uncle from America, who had
+arranged for her training in singing, helped her. Thus she could pay
+for the upkeep of the boy, and we went first to Berlin, then to Rome
+and Paris. She sang to make her living, but also that she might regain
+the honor of which Lord Gemer wanted to rob her, when he had parted
+with her and had told all kinds of evil about her, which he could not
+prove. Later we went to England, and finally to Russia. There she
+fared the best. There she might have become a rich princess, but she
+would not look at any man again. How glad the gentlemen there would
+have been if she would have spoken to them as kindly as she speaks
+here with you. But the purer the life she led, the more they bothered
+her, and the more she did not want to live. She said she wanted to see
+her boy once more before she died. For a long time we could not find
+out where the boy was. Finally, she got sick on the railroad, and by
+God's direction Dr. H. helped her. From him she learned all the truth,
+and after that he brought her here. And now you know why she left the
+Lord de Gemer."
+
+"That robber, that gypsy, that deceiver, how he fooled and robbed her!
+If one of us steals a chicken or the like he is put at once behind the
+bars. Such a gentleman can do everything, but if she would just go to
+law he would have to return her everything," said Joe angrily.
+
+"Yes, he would have to, but she doesn't want to. She is not concerned
+about mammon. All she wants is to have peace from him forever. But
+that he should not make any trouble about the child, I wrote to our
+lawyer who was to make the arrangements for her, to threaten him with
+a lawsuit for the jewelry and money if he would not give up the boy
+willingly. My lady will never know what I did. Our lawyer is a good
+friend, and a decent and honest man, not such an one as we had
+before."
+
+That Joe did not keep this news to himself is true. Thus Filina's
+helpers found out what kind of a master they had only after he ceased
+to be their lord. To the last one all took the lady's part. All were
+sorry for her and wished her to have the record very soon in black and
+white, that the boy was hers only, and the father had no more claims
+on him. Everyone greeted her very respectfully wherever they met her.
+She walked sadly and in deep contemplation. Only among the boys was
+she cheerful.
+
+In the sheepcotes also they were once in a while in sad contemplation.
+They counted the days before Lesina would come for Palko and take
+him away. When Ondrejko with tears in his eyes confided this to his
+mother, her cheeks turned pale with fright. It had never occurred
+to her that Palko would leave, and she could not even imagine those
+surroundings without him. One day he accompanied her to the cottage.
+She had promised him a nice song; he had come in to get it.
+
+"Palko, do you want to go away from us?" she began suddenly, and took
+the boy by the hand.
+
+"Verily, even next week my father is coming," he said seriously. "Then
+we will have about five days' more work with the timber, and then we
+shall leave."
+
+"But you will be glad to go home; will you not?"
+
+"Really very glad," he confessed sincerely. "Since I have not seen my
+mother for weeks, nor grandfather nor grandmother and all, nor have
+they seen me. They will be glad when I come, and I more than they all,
+because we all will be together again."
+
+"And will you not be sorry for your comrades? They will miss you
+sadly."
+
+"Yes, indeed; I will be very lonesome without them and Uncle Filina.
+I love him very much, like my old pastor Malina. I am thankful to the
+Lord Jesus that Uncle is healthy and will not yet die, but will tell
+his helpers about the Lord Jesus, and everybody else. Only one thing
+worries me; it is that when I go away, I shall not find out what you,
+lady, will do with the Lord Jesus. You taught us such beautiful songs;
+till my death I shall be thankful to you for them. You have sung so
+beautifully for us, like an angel from heaven; but you do not believe
+what you have been singing. I am sorry for that, and the Lord Jesus is
+sorry also. Yesterday you taught us the song:
+
+  "Safe in the arms of Jesus,
+    Safe on His gentle breast,
+  There by His love o'ershadowed,
+    Safely my soul shall rest."
+
+"It would fit you so beautifully if you would give yourself in His
+hands just as the shepherd carries the lost sheep. It would be so good
+for you in His arms; I know that best of all. While here among you,
+more than once homesickness for my mother threatened to overcome me;
+but when I considered that He is with me, it was well with me at once,
+and I was right at home. You have met already much evil in the world
+and more than once you were sad, were you not? But He would console
+you. However, if you would let Him go away like the people of
+Nazareth, He will go on, but you would remain alone. Ondrejko told me
+that you have a very good father, that your father already belongs to
+the Lord Jesus. Ondrejko belongs to Him also; sometime they both will
+go to Him, and you will be left alone," and Palko broke out crying.
+
+"Do not cry," said the lady in a peculiar voice. "I don't want to be
+like the people at Nazareth. I would like to go on that narrow path,
+but I cannot find it. I am too full of sin for God to receive me. So
+long as my earthly father does not forgive me, I cannot seek the face
+of God."
+
+Their talk was broken off when they came to the bench, because Aunty
+Moravec came to meet them, all pale, "A special messenger brought a
+telegram. Please sign here."
+
+The lady's knees began to tremble. She sat on the bench, signed the
+paper, and handed it to Aunty, then quickly she opened the telegram
+and read. Dark spots formed before her eyes. Unable to see, she handed
+the telegram to the boy. "Palko, read me that," and Palko read:
+
+"New York. I am embarking. Coming to see you. Your loving father."
+
+"Is it really so, Palko?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Oh, my father, my father! He is coming to us. He still loves and
+forgives. Palko, pray for me, for something will happen to me,"
+bitterly crying, the lady fell on her knees.
+
+Palko prayed, "Thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that her father is coming, that
+he has forgiven her, though he is still far away, yet Thou art here.
+If she will just ask Thee, Thou wilt forgive her, because Thou dost
+love her so much, I know. Amen."
+
+Life and death is in the power of the tongue. In the words of Palko
+there was life. The lady believed that the Good Shepherd was really
+there, that He came to meet her. Once she had run away from Him; today
+she did not want to run away. Today she confessed her transgressions
+to Him. She knew well that it was against Him she had sinned most,
+that she had gone from Him, to her own destruction. She had despised
+Him when He had stretched out His pierced hands to her, though they
+had been nailed on the cross for her sake. She had not wanted to sing
+to His honor and glory; and had hated the songs of the Lamb. She had
+wanted to sing for the people and had--but they had repaid her by
+breaking her heart. But He, whom she despised, had followed her here.
+She had not wanted to hear famous preachers; but He had sent a
+child along her path that he might lead her to the feet of the Good
+Shepherd. The Good Shepherd did not despise her; at last He had
+received her. Palko did not understand what the lady prayed, for she
+prayed in English, but he understood the tone. The Lord Jesus was
+with her and she knew it and talked with Him. Palko rose silently and
+respectfully, and left the place which now belonged to the lady and
+the Good Shepherd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+"Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what the day may
+bring forth," says the Word of God, and that truly. Even at the
+sheepfolds they did not dream what the next day would bring to them,
+the serious illness of Ondrejko's mother. The doctor, very much
+worried, said that the unexpected message about the arrival of her
+beloved father, whom she had not seen for years, shocked her so much,
+that she fell into a nervous illness, which he had wanted to prevent
+by bringing her here to the mountains. Only Palko and Bacha Filina
+knew that there was something more which overcame her. They spoke
+about it only between themselves and prayed for the lady very much.
+She seemed to recognize no one. She lay in her bed like a beautiful
+flower broken from its stem. In vain did Ondrejko whisper to her, and
+stroke and kiss her. She looked at him but did not answer. Only one
+thing consoled her poor child, that she had an expression, whether
+she slept or not, as though she were very happy. At times she sang
+beautiful songs to the honor of the Lamb; other times again, a sea
+ballad, and after that always the song, "My faith looks up to Thee."
+Thus two weeks passed by without any change.
+
+In the meantime Lesina came; he finished what was necessary and
+went away, but did not take Palko with him. He could not do that to
+Ondrejko, who nestled to his comrade like a little bird driven out of
+its nest. The doctor said Ondrejko would surely be sick if his comrade
+left him just at this time. Bacha promised Lesina that he himself
+would take Palko home when the lady got better, because he believed
+that the lady would get well, although the doctor gave no hope that
+she would not die or that she would not lose her mind. For this reason
+also, Lesina could not take Palko away, for it seemed that the sick
+lady knew him. When he read in his Book she looked at him as if she
+listened, and though she did not say anything, she was always so quiet
+and happy.
+
+In the meantime the answer came from Paris, and the unfortunate lady
+did not know that the boy who sat beside her bed so pale, now belonged
+only to her, and that no one else had any right to him. Neither did
+she know about another message--yes, even two; one coming from Hamburg
+in which her father announced that he had arrived safely; the other
+announcing his coming on Saturday evening to the nearest railway
+station. The Bacha very sadly stood at the foot of the lady's bed with
+both messages in his hands, and Aunty Moravec cried bitterly.
+
+"What shall we do, Bacha Filina? He is coming from such a distance and
+knows nothing. How will he take it, when he finds her thus, and
+will hear that because of his telegram this sickness overcame her?
+Previously, in Russia, the doctors had told her that some day her
+nerves might give way. Oh, what will the poor father say? He wanted to
+give her joy, and it has turned out like this."
+
+"What God does and permits, is always good," Filina said, nodding his
+head. "Do not worry; I am going for her father, and on the way will
+prepare him for what he will find here."
+
+"Bacha Filina, take me along to meet Grandfather," begged Ondrejko,
+when Bacha was getting ready in the afternoon.
+
+"I am going on foot; that would be too far for you, my boy," said
+Bacha, stroking the boy's head. "You just remain with your mother
+and wait for your grandfather here. At the station I shall take a
+carriage; I think that in the evening, about eight o'clock, we shall
+be here."
+
+Bacha kissed the boy, though he usually did not do so, and in a moment
+his giant-like figure disappeared in the thicket by the clearing. He
+picked the shortest way over paths well-known to him, but still it
+took about two hours before he reached the main road leading to J----.
+There he suddenly stopped. He turned to the east, where on a steep
+rock stood an old, recently repaired cross. Oh, human memory, how
+strange thou art! Bacha needed only to look at the cross, and at once,
+as if the years flew back, it seemed to him as if he was standing
+there like a nineteen-year-old youth. A desire overtook him to go up
+to the cross, bend over its side and look again on the path on which,
+on that summer morning, his brother, Stephen, had left, never to
+return again. He went on that "breaking" ship to a "cold grave." Bacha
+Filina could not resist that desire. For about a quarter of an hour
+he kneeled at the cross, and rested his forehead on the stone step.
+Inexpressible sorrow shook him. It wanted to rob him of his assurance
+of forgiveness, but in and around him it was suddenly as if somebody
+sang:
+
+  "My faith looks up to Thee,
+  Thou Lamb of Calvary,
+    Saviour Divine!
+  Now hear me while I pray,
+  Take all my guilt away;
+  Oh, let me from this day,
+    Be wholly Thine!"
+
+His heavy load of sin had been cleansed by that precious blood! The
+Lord Jesus took his guilt with Him on the cross and the Holy God had
+forgiven him! But what was he doing here now? What had he come here
+for? What did he waste the time here for? Yonder in the cottage,
+Ondrejko's mother was half-alive and half-dead, and from afar her
+father from beyond the ocean was coming to his child. If he, Filina,
+would delay here, they might miss each other at the station.
+
+Bacha stood up, dusted off his Sunday clothes, put his firm arm around
+the cross and bent over, as once many years ago! It was good that the
+cross was firm and also the arm that clung to it. Bacha saw on the
+sloping path a man of slim figure, in a gentleman's suit, drawing
+near. Just then he stopped. He turned round; he took his hat from his
+head and looked in the direction where once stood Filina's hut. All
+that marked the place were a few half-burned timbers, now overgrown
+with weeds. Oh, that face! There was only one like it, never
+forgotten, younger--but nevertheless!
+
+Bacha closed his eagle eyes that they might not fool him. He opened
+them only when the steps drew nearer to him from below. He let go the
+cross and crossed his arms on his chest. Looking up he stood face to
+face with the stranger.
+
+"Good evening," said he.
+
+"Oh, Stephen!" It came out of the chest of Bacha. Half cry, half
+terror.
+
+"Peter! Is it you!" Two arms twined around Filina's neck.
+
+"Stephen! You live? Really? It is not possible!"
+
+"I live, Peter, and at last, I am coming. It is rather late, it's
+true, but I did not know before that the loved one who once separated
+us, had passed away long ago, and that you and I would not have any
+more heartaches. I am coming to you for my treasures, which are in
+your care."
+
+"Your treasures?" Bacha was surprised still, not knowing whether it
+was a beautiful, but impossible dream. He could not get enough of the
+voice that was speaking to him. The face was older, changed, but the
+voice was the same. It always sounded to Peter Filina like music. And
+so it was today.
+
+"We are expecting the father of Madame Slavkovsky today, and I am
+going to meet him."
+
+"I am that father."
+
+"You, Stephen?" Bacha released the stranger. "I do not understand
+that."
+
+"I believe you, my Peter. Well, how you have changed, how strong you
+have gotten, how giantlike, like the beautiful mountains all around!
+I would not have recognized you, if it were not for the voice--no one
+has called me thus since--and by your eagle eyes under those heavy
+eyebrows."
+
+"Stephen, tell me, how is it possible that you live? Was not that ship
+wrecked?"
+
+"Yes, Peter, she went to the bottom of the sea; but I was among the
+few immigrants which another ship saved. God does not want the death
+of a sinner, but rather that he be converted and live; so He saved me.
+The first steady work that I had in America was on the farm of Mr.
+Slavkovsky. My daughter wrote me that she told you everything about
+us. Thus you know what Slavkovsky asked of me and that I agreed to do
+as he wished. When he heard from me that I did not want you to know
+that I still lived, he advised me to adopt his name and thus disappear
+forever from this world. His wife and son, and even my good wife,
+agreed with it. Thus Stephen Pribylinsky died and only Stephen
+Slavkovsky remained. I could not return home and live with you, as our
+father planned. Eva was your wife and I loved her. I did not really
+know God and the Lord Jesus then, nor understood His Holy Law; but
+this much I knew, that it would have been a constant and a great
+temptation for us all. Thus, I chose to die to you."
+
+Slavkovsky finished, and out of Bacha's breast came a deep sigh. "You
+died for us, and until recently I worried very much about it, that I
+had become a murderer and was like Cain."
+
+"You? And why?"
+
+"Did I not drown you the second time in that swamp, by driving you to
+America? Eva loved you more. Had it not been for me, you could have
+lived as happily as in Paradise. You would have been mated much
+better. At my side, she perished of sorrow. My father did not live
+long; I took care of mother, but could not replace her son to her. See
+yonder the burnt remains of our hut, where we once lived so happily.
+Years ago, when I took up this service which I have held ever since, I
+rented it to a neighbor. He did not take good care and it burned down.
+I could, but would not rebuild it. What would it have been good for to
+me? I was forsaken in the world, like a stick."
+
+Sudden quietness prevailed on the step at the foot of the cross, where
+both men sat. It seemed that the popular song could be applied to
+them:
+
+  "Mountain, green mountain, Ahoy!
+    My heart is hurting, sadly I cry!
+  Painful, so painful is my woe,
+    My heart is fainting, my joy is gone."
+
+"Forgive me, Peter," suddenly said Stephen Slavkovsky. "It was not
+right that I hid myself from you. I have caused you much sorrow. While
+I imagined that you were living with Eva in our mountains, which I
+never could forget, perhaps surrounded with children, and our parents
+were happy with you--you have lived alone for years. It was not good
+that I did not let you know about myself. Once some one from this
+neighborhood came to America but did not know me and told me that
+father died. I had already written a letter to mother, to send her my
+love, but I did not send it. I thought how good I was to you, but that
+heart of ours is deceitful and perverse, full of self-righteousness
+and pride. I have done wrong both to mother and to you, but I was
+repaid when my only child forsook me, and after ten years I must come
+as far as here to find her."
+
+Bacha roused himself, "Come, Stephen, let us delay no longer; but if
+we go on foot we shall arrive very late."
+
+They both arose. "I am on foot. I have a coach; however, I told the
+driver to feed the horses a bit. Now I hear them; they will be ready.
+Let us go; on the way we can tell one another more."
+
+Thus among the Slovak mountains rode two brothers, who had grown up
+among them, and were so closely united to them, that one of them in
+a distant land almost died of home-sickness, and the other could not
+have lived without them at all. Now they did not think about the
+beauty around them, because Stephen Slavkovsky found out his child
+was waiting for him, and that only the Heavenly Doctor could save His
+sheep which had returned to Him.
+
+The proverb says that bad luck does not wander among the mountains but
+among the people. Now it was among the mountains. Who can describe the
+moment when the father stopped at the bed of his only child and saw
+her so broken and read on her beautiful face the confirmation of all
+of which he had once warned her. The setting sun shone upon the broken
+flower and on the man who was kneeling at her bed, his head laid on
+his crossed arms. No one dared to disturb him in his sadness and
+prayer. Suddenly the lady opened her eyes; she turned them to the
+window and began to sing softly the song which she had recently taught
+the boys:
+
+  "Jesus, Lover of my soul,
+    Let me to Thy bosom fly,
+  While the billows o'er me roll,
+    While the tempest still is high;
+  Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
+    Till the storm of life be past;
+  Safe into the haven guide;
+    Oh, receive my soul at last."
+
+Her father cried silently and the others with him. But she sang on,
+and as Joe said sometime ago, "She could do anything with them when
+she sang." The weeping stopped, and the small room seemed to be full
+of the presence of Him who is the King of Glory, the Prince of Peace,
+and the only Healer.
+
+  "Other refuge have I none,
+    Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
+  Leave, oh, leave me not alone,
+    Still support and comfort me:
+  All my trust on Thee is stayed,
+    All my help from Thee I bring;
+  Cover my defenceless head
+    With the shadow of Thy wing."
+
+Palko believed and felt that his Lord was there, and the lady sang on:
+
+  "Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
+    More than all in Thee I find;
+  Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
+    Heal the sick and lead the blind:
+  Just and holy is Thy name,
+    I am all unrighteousness;
+  Vile and full of sin I am,
+    Thou art full of truth and grace.
+
+  "Plenteous grace with Thee is found--
+    Grace to cover all my sin;
+  Let the healing streams abound,
+    Make and keep me pure within;
+  Thou of life the fountain art,
+    Freely let me take of Thee;
+  Spring Thou up within my heart,
+    Rise to all eternity."
+
+The song concluded. A silence followed during which the lady turned
+her look away from the window and fastened it upon the face of the man
+who bent over her.
+
+"Mary, dear, my golden darling, do you not recognize me?" asked the
+trembling lips of the man, so tenderly, as only a good father can
+speak to his only child. For a moment the beautiful eyes of the lady
+fastened themselves on the man's eyes. The doctor entering the room at
+that moment, with a quick movement of his hand tried to hinder this
+critical situation, but it was too late. The lady's pale face glowed
+suddenly, as after the dark night the day breaks over the mountains.
+
+"My father! Oh, my father!"
+
+She sat up, stretched out her arms and would have sunk back, had not
+her father's arms clasped her; her head was resting on his breast, her
+arms twined around his neck, and the lady clung closely to him like
+a little chick pursued by the hawk, when the hen spreads over it her
+protecting wings.
+
+"Did you come? Did you forgive? Do you love? Oh, at home, home! No
+more in a strange land. I am not fleeing any more--the Lord Jesus was
+merciful, He received me.... Now I can die!" Thus whispered the lady,
+crying softly, returning her father's kisses.
+
+"Indeed not! Who would die now?" the doctor interrupted at this tender
+moment. "You haven't even shown Ondrejko to your father, and the poor
+boy can hardly wait any longer." It was as if a new life had been
+poured into her.
+
+"My Ondrejko!" She stretched out her hand to the boy, still crouching
+beside her. "Just look! Grandfather has come, and you don't have to
+beg him any more. Just welcome him!"
+
+Ondrejko found himself in the arms of his grandfather and was very
+surprised. He had expected to see an old man with a gray beard, but
+grandfather was without beard and still quite young and handsome.
+The boy felt, what he had never known before, what a joy it is to be
+kissed and hugged by a father. His saddened heart rejoiced, and he was
+filled with a feeling of protection and safety.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+Some things happen in this world at which we cannot wonder enough.
+Thus it was at the sheepfolds of the Gemer estate. There still lived
+people in that neighborhood who had known old Filina, the father of
+Bacha, very well. They remembered how he had told them that one of his
+boys had prepared to go to America, and the other one had married at
+home, and when Stephen had made some money across the sea, he would
+return home and they would all live together. They also remembered how
+the message came that the ship was wrecked, and that Stephen would
+never see his homeland again. But that did not happen! Thirty years
+passed and Stephen Pribylinsky came home after all. He appeared to
+them as if he had been raised from the dead, and the resurrection had
+come when the sea had given up her dead and returned him. They spoke
+about his coming for his daughter and grandchild. But when the
+fragrance of his beloved Slovak mountains filled him, would he be able
+to go again far across the sea? Will he not fear that he was like a
+stranger, for years in a foreign land? He fared there very well, but
+he was not at home. Only in the homeland on that black ground was
+there sweet sleep.
+
+Who can describe the surprise of all three boys when they learned who
+it was that came with Bacha Filina--that it was his Stephen. Palko,
+when he heard it, could not stay with the others. He ran away to the
+woods and cried there for joy. He thanked the Lord Jesus that He had
+comforted Bacha Filina forever. There was still salvation possible,
+even though the ship was wrecked. After all, he had lived to see his
+brother, Stephen. The Lord Jesus had given him back to Bacha.
+
+There was something more, very good for Palko. It was not necessary
+for him to read to the people out of his Book. He could himself sit
+down at the feet of Uncle Stephen, whom he loved greatly, and listen
+to the truth of God from his lips. That was a joy for the boy.
+
+Ondrejko rejoiced again that Bacha Filina belonged to his family and
+Petrik also. The boys hugged each other for joy that they would not
+now have to part any more till death. And who can describe the joy of
+Madame Slavkovsky when they took her again for the first time to the
+sheepfold. "It seemed to me at once that I was among my own, that I
+had come home," she said to Bacha, "and you, Bacha Filina, I loved at
+once like a daughter."
+
+Then she found out all about the small and big Stephen. Bacha,
+himself, told her, and her father even said, "I am sorry about it, my
+daughter, after considering it all, that I did not let those at home
+know where I was, but now I see it all. The Lord Jesus in His love
+turned all this evil for our good. For me there in America and for
+Peter here at home, it is a true saying, 'He brings them to the
+desired haven.'"
+
+Then Bacha Filina showed Ondrejko's estate to his brother. Since the
+lady had already had the deed recorded, they all rode to the castle.
+Petrik and Palko had to go with them also. The boys played there in
+the park with the rubber balls which grandfather had brought from
+America. The servants brought a folding-chair for the lady, since the
+doctor ordered her to rest in the shadow of the horse-chestnuts. She
+watched the play of the boys and took pleasure in their joy. Ondrejko
+left his comrades once in a while, ran to her, laid his curly head
+beside hers, kissed his mother, and on receiving her kiss, ran again
+with a loud "hallo" after his ball. Who could understand how much joy
+now filled the once-forsaken heart?
+
+In the meantime the assistant manager showed the lady's father all the
+buildings and those cattle which were not in the pasture. He noticed
+that Mr. Slavkovsky understood the affairs of the estate, and when he
+pointed out one thing and another that should have been different, Mr.
+Slavkovsky said seriously, "I see it." Finally he spoke up, "There
+will have to be a different management from the bottom up, in order
+that everything may prosper."
+
+In the meantime the cook prepared a splendid repast for the new
+owners. She set it outside under the horse-chestnuts, so the lady
+would not have to enter the house. The castle had been bought with all
+its furnishings. If the proud Lady de Gemer, the grandmother of
+the last lord, could have awakened from the dead and seen how her
+porcelain dishes and table-covers were spread before the despised
+Slovaks, she would have turned over in her beautiful casket. But now
+that could not be helped. Bacha Filina arranged his matters with the
+housekeeper. At the repast he ate very little because he could not
+take his eyes from the boys, how they ate, and how Ondrejko urged his
+comrades to eat. The lady also rejoiced very much over them. Even the
+doctor laughed heartily about it, but at the same time took care that
+his patient did not forget to eat. He did not urge her to take the
+various sweets served, but he did the fruit. Only Mr. Slavkovsky
+was somewhat buried in thought. They almost had to force him into
+conversation.
+
+After their meal the boys again began to play, and asked the two boys
+of the assistant manager to help them. Mr. Slavkovsky walked along the
+lane till, from a turn in it, he could overlook the beautiful, but now
+neglected garden. Suddenly he took off his hat and prayed. By the time
+he ended, Bacha stood beside him.
+
+"Is there something which does not suit you, my brother?" he asked
+thoughtfully. "Do you think we have paid too much for the estate,
+since everything is so neglected?"
+
+"I do not think so, Peter. It is really cheaply bought in spite of all
+its neglect." He smiled kindly on his brother.
+
+"Nevertheless you seem to be troubled by something."
+
+"Certain cares trouble me. Just now I laid them all at the feet of our
+heavenly Father. Now I do not worry more about anything. He surely
+will arrange everything. I will tell you, my brother, what it was.
+But for the time, keep it to yourself. I cannot take my daughter to
+America now, since she is so weak. Here in our homeland she will get
+well sooner. My beloved grandchild I need not take there, since he has
+enough here to live on. Now when my daughter takes this estate over,
+she needs a manager. It is hard to find one that would not cheat her.
+Then I thought, why does she need a manager, if she still has a father
+young enough, and who knows how to run a farm in Europe?"
+
+"Oh, Stephen!" Filina was astonished.
+
+"But, you know, there is a great hindrance. My farm is deeded to me.
+My brother-in-law I can settle with, and thus that would not hinder
+me. But my beloved wife was born in America. Will she want to leave
+her home and go to a foreign land? I would not like to constrain her
+in anything. I will first have to write to her about all that has
+happened, and if I see from her answer that it would not be too great
+a sacrifice for her, I will go for her. I will then sell the farm and
+deposit the money, because I would not want to add to this estate. It
+is big enough for us to make a living, and I could earn, as a manager,
+bread for myself and my wife, and she could rest; she has worked
+enough."
+
+"Day and night will I ask the Lord Jesus about it," said Filina,
+"that He will lead your wife to agree, because round about us is only
+darkness. No one cares for these souls. They do not know the Lord
+Jesus. I have not been able to imagine how we could live here when the
+boy would leave us. But you could take his place."
+
+"That hardly, Peter. The Lord Jesus has in Palko a faithful servant.
+That measure of the Holy Spirit that this child has, I do not have.
+But instead I have experiences with my Lord. The last ten years
+of suffering united me very closely to Him who saves. I know your
+sorrows. Considering the situation, I long to be the witness of God's
+grace here in my homeland, where there is no one else. That also draws
+me here to my beautiful homeland. Therefore I hope that my Agnes will
+agree that we shall come, and it will happen after all as your father
+used to say to the people; 'When Stephen shall have made some money
+beyond the sea and comes back again, we shall live together.' Now
+there is no more all of us, only we two. And if the Lord grants me to
+come again, do you know what is the first thing that I will do?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"I will rebuild our hut. It shall lay waste no longer. I will prepare
+it for Petrik. You shall raise him and give him the ground and the
+fields. So if he lives, we can take care of him together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+Sometimes the days pass as quickly as a thought, and the weeks like a
+dream. In the following weeks which just flew by, Bacha Filina took
+Palko to his home. He became acquainted with his family. Just then
+Juriga's son and daughter-in-law came from America, and Lesina had to
+find a place to move to. They all rejoiced in Palko. His mother and
+grandmother could hardly stop caressing him. Old Juriga had a good cry
+when the boy hugged him.
+
+Lesina complained to Bacha that he was worrying about his wife
+living with the wife of Juriga's son. Juriga's daughter-in-law was
+a gossiping, noisy person, and had two small children who were
+disobedient cry-babies. It was because of those two little ones that
+Juriga's son had returned to the home country. His older children had
+been dying one after the other. Here was Filina's opportunity to give
+Lesina good advice, namely, to take his wife, her mother, and Palko,
+and move before the winter to his cottage in the Gemer mountains. He
+told him also that Madame Slavkovsky meant to give him some trees from
+a piece of land that needed to be replanted. In the meantime he could
+find some other place where he would like to stay. All they would
+have to take with them would be their clothing and small belongings,
+because any other things needed they would find in the castle:
+bedsteads, tables, chairs, and all that was necessary for the kitchen.
+They were all very thankful for this good advice.
+
+In those weeks that had passed so quickly, Madame Slavkovsky moved
+with her father and Aunty Moravec to the castle. Every morning she
+rode to the sheepcotes and remained till the evening. Once in a while
+she also stayed overnight in Ondrejko's hut. At other times, she took
+the boys along. In the castle under the supervision of Mr. Slavkovsky,
+many changes were made, and when the gardener had the means at his
+disposal and the advice of his master, he went joyfully to work. In
+two weeks you would not have recognized the garden nor the castle. The
+masons repaired broken places, the painters painted everything, the
+joiners repaired doors, window-frames, and hardwood floors. In the
+course of the repairs, chairs, bedsteads, and tables, and more that
+was necessary in the cottage of Palko, was set aside, in order that
+when the Lesinas came they might have plenty on hand to settle and
+feel at home. Even for Dunaj they fixed a nice dog-kennel, so he
+wouldn't have to suffer in rainy weather.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was again a beautiful summer evening. In front of the sheepcotes
+everything was ready for a big bonfire. Bacha Filina called all his
+helpers and told them they would have a celebration such as none
+of them had seen before. Through the woods in the direction of the
+cottage wandered Petrik, Ondrejko, and between them, Palko. Ahead of
+them, chasing one another, ran Dunaj and Fido. They also rejoiced to
+see each other. The boys returned from a visit at Lesina's and carried
+with them all kinds of gifts. A water-gun, by which you could squirt
+the water to the top of the highest trees; singing tops which could
+spin almost a quarter of an hour. From Palko's mother they got a whole
+box full of prunes filled with nuts, which Ondrejko thought were
+better than figs and dates.
+
+"My mother is very glad today!" Ondrejko told Palko, "because a letter
+came at last from my grandmother in America. They gave me a letter
+written especially for me, in which grandmother writes very nicely. I
+will show it to you afterwards, Petrik."
+
+"They even sent greetings for me," said the comrade.
+
+"What they wrote to mother, I don't know, but mother ran to
+grandfather, threw herself into his arms and cried and laughed. I am
+sure they did not want me to understand, because they spoke English,
+but they will tell us all about it. Bacha Filina said we shall have a
+celebration."
+
+"We also have a song, such a beautiful one, and that will be sung
+tonight, and I am sure your parents will like it," said Petrik.
+
+It really was a beautiful celebration. First of all, on two spits they
+roasted two lambs. Bacha Filina portioned out large pieces of the best
+kind of cheese to everybody. Madame Slavkovsky handed out pears and
+large plums. Stephen brought two large crocks of mineral water to wash
+down the roasted mutton. Aunty Moravec divided rolls and cookies among
+all. They all served Palko's quiet, lovely mother, and his good old
+grandmother, and his father as well. Then they sat around the bonfire.
+Mr. Slavkovsky prayed, opened the Holy Writ, read Psalm 103, and spoke
+very nicely about the great forgiving love of God. Then they sang the
+beautiful songs which the lady had brought. But Palko also had to
+read in his Book. He read about Cornelius who, with his whole house,
+received the Lord Jesus. Palko spoke so beautifully about how sad it
+was that in the house of the great man, though he often prayed and did
+much good, he did not know the way to the true Sunshine Country, since
+he did not know the Lord Jesus. How happy he was afterwards, when he
+and his devout knights and his obedient soldiers welcomed the Apostle
+Peter there, and with him also, the Lord Jesus, whom they forever
+received in their house and heart. Then on a sign from the lady they
+started a beautiful song which Palko had not heard before, but which
+was very fitting to his story.
+
+  "I heard the voice of Jesus say,
+    'Come unto Me and rest;
+  Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
+    Thy head upon My breast,'
+  I came to Jesus as I was,
+    Weary and worn and sad,
+  I found in Him a resting-place,
+    And He has made me glad."
+
+As that song sounded over the woods, it was noticeable from the faces
+of the hearers around the camp fire, that they all had experienced it,
+but especially from the serious face of Filina. Then it was so silent
+that you could hear the distant bells of the sheep. Though the sky was
+covered with storm-clouds, and the lightning was to be seen in the
+west once in a while, and in the distance the rolling of the thunder
+was heard, the storm was nevertheless very far away, and would not yet
+come there.
+
+Suddenly Bacha Filina arose, and after he had first thanked the Lord
+Jesus in an audible prayer that He came and also sought and saved that
+which was lost, he began to explain what they were celebrating, and
+which pleased him most--not only Madame Slavkovsky, but her father
+also was remaining in the Gemer mountains. He said, "Tomorrow Mr.
+Slavkovsky will leave for America to bring his wife here. When he has
+sold his farm there, he will at once return to his birthplace to leave
+it no more." Bacha's eyes were full of tears when he gave the message,
+but added, "Is not that very joyful news?"
+
+Who can describe the joy that prevailed after that? Ondrejko hugged
+his mother and grandfather and nestled next to Bacha Filina. "We shall
+all stay at home, at home with Bacha Filina. We shall not go into the
+distant foreign world. Oh, we remain in our mountains. Even Palko will
+be here with us," he said.
+
+"Yes, my son." The grandfather drew the boy close to him. "We shall
+remain at home. We shall live here together with the Lord Jesus and He
+with us."
+
+After a while the campfire began to die down. The voices subsided.
+Only in the distance the thunder rolled, the lightning flashed, but
+above the sheepcotes shone the clear stars. Around the buildings Bacha
+Filina made his rounds, watching that no danger threatened anywhere,
+and again at the bench--as once long ago--he stopped. This time, the
+father and daughter sat there together; no longer a prodigal, she had
+returned first to the heavenly, and then to the earthly father. She
+had come home and was accepted. He wanted to step aside, but they had
+been waiting for him.
+
+"We knew that you would pass by," said Slavkovsky, and made room for
+his brother beside himself. "Mary has a request to make of you."
+
+"Me?" Bacha was surprised.
+
+"Yes, you, my dear Uncle. Cease to be 'Bacha.' Come among us. You
+shall have the supervision of things; be one family with us," the lady
+begged with her whole heart, but Bacha shook his head.
+
+"I thank you, my daughter," he spoke, deeply moved, "I would love to
+make one family with you because you are all very dear to me; but do
+not take me away from my calling. Once I started as an unhappy man,
+and this occupation cheered me in my sorrow. I grew up with the sheep,
+with the work and with nature about me. Now when the heavens have
+opened above me, leave me at this heaven's gate. Do not let it vex you
+that you have a rich estate and I am but a poor 'Bacha.' All that I
+need for my living, I shall earn honestly. I have somewhere to live,
+and you love me; I am no more alone. You will come to visit me and
+I will visit you, especially when you, my brother, return. Only one
+thing I ask of you, if you have more than you need for your living,
+send Palko to school. His father grieves that he is not able to do it
+for him. God has given him what no school can supply, but if people
+with such faith could stand in the pulpits there would be a real
+awakening in our nation."
+
+"Oh, Bacha Filina, I thank you. I have been thinking about the same
+thing, only did not dare to speak with Lesina about it." The lady
+grasped Bacha's hard hand in hers. "Believe me, we will gladly do
+anything for Palko. He brought us life and salvation; let him in the
+future carry it to thousands."
+
+The quiet mysterious night settled upon the world, its silence broken
+only by the soft sound of the shepherd's flute. Stephen had the night
+watch and thus he played to himself:
+
+  "If I but knew where she abides,
+  Where to the night so quickly glides,
+  I would like an arrow run,
+  And thus compel it to return."
+
+But the night was passing, never more to return; but what about it?
+After it a new morning will arise, and with it the fresh grace of God
+for those who receive the Lord Jesus, and to whom He gives the right
+to be the sons and daughters of God.
+
+Would that all souls would receive Him!
+
+
+--THE END--
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Comrades, by Kristina Roy
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12143 ***
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12143 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12143)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Comrades, by Kristina Roy
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Three Comrades
+
+Author: Kristina Roy
+
+Release Date: April 25, 2004 [EBook #12143]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE COMRADES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joel Erickson, Martin Agren, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE COMRADES
+
+_by Kristina Roy_
+
+of Stara Tura, Slovakia.
+
+Translated by Charles Lukesh
+
+First Edition, 3,000--November, 1941
+
+
+
+
+THE THREE COMRADES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE
+
+
+In the whole wide world there were no comrades who loved each other
+better than Petrik,[1] Ondrejko,[2] and Fido. All three were orphans
+and had had a hard time in the world thus far. Both parents of Petrik
+had died of a malignant fever. He became a public charge and was
+sent from place to place, till finally he was placed in charge of
+"Bacha"[3] Filina, who was his father's uncle, and had charge of the
+sheep pasturing on the mountain clearings of the estate of Lord Gemer.
+There was but a poor hut, but to mistreated Petrik it was like a
+paradise. Ondrejko, whom they called at home Andreas de Gemer, came
+to the old "Bacha" at the order of the doctor, that he might grow
+stronger in the mountain air, drinking whey and eating black bread. As
+it was, Ondrejko did, and did not, have a father--at least he could
+not remember him. He was but two years old when his parents separated
+for ever. His mother took him with her when she left, but even then he
+did not live with her. She left him with strange people whom she paid
+to keep him, and went alone into the world. The people talked about
+her; said that she was a famous singer, and that many went from
+distant places to hear her.
+
+[Footnote 1: Diminutive for Peter.]
+
+[Footnote 2: Diminutive for Andreas.]
+
+[Footnote 3: "_Bacha_"--shepherd overseer.]
+
+Ondrejko remembered only one of her visits, and that she was very
+beautiful, and brought him a box full of chocolates, a rocking-horse,
+a trumpet--and who knows what more? After that he never saw her again,
+and probably would never see her any more. The lady with whom he
+stayed talked about a law-suit, at the conclusion of which it came
+about that he belonged neither to the mother nor the father. Finally,
+he came to the castle of Lord Gemer, and from there the doctor sent
+him to the mountains because he was like a candle that was ready to go
+out. About his father he knew only that he was somewhere far away, and
+had already a second wife and two boys. It seemed to him he was as
+much of an orphan as Petrik. The dog Fido didn't remember his mother
+either, because he had hardly begun to run about the kennel when a
+wild boar killed her. Thus it is not surprising that all three loved
+each other.
+
+For Ondrejko they built a special room beside the shepherd's hut.
+There were three large sheepfolds, and "Bacha" Filina had charge
+of them all. Ondrejko had in his room a real bed, and a spare one
+prepared for the doctor when he came to see him; but, because he was
+rather lonesome, he preferred to sleep with Petrik on the hay, and
+because Fido couldn't follow them to the loft up the ladder, he at
+least guarded the ladder so nothing would happen to the boys. Bacha
+Filina was a large man like a giant. His face was aged and stern; all
+his teeth were still perfectly white and he had not a single gray
+hair; but, strangely, his eyebrows began to get gray. But, when he
+creased his forehead above his eagle-like black eyes which could see
+everything far and wide, it seemed as if storm-clouds were gathering.
+Not only both the boys, but everybody else was afraid of these
+storm-clouds, even the herdsmen and the sheep, as well as the
+longhaired, fourfooted guards of the sheepfold. Bacha Filina did not
+get mad easily, but when he did, it was worthwhile. Though Ondrejko
+was the son of his lord, Bacha Filina didn't let him get by with
+anything. The boy had not been taught to obey; however, Filina taught
+him this hard lesson without scolding him or touching him with even
+one finger. When the doctor brought him to the mountains he said to
+Bacha, "What this boy needs is to eat black bread and drink whey. He
+has been raised on fancy foods and they do not agree with him. It
+would be good for him to wash in cold water, but he is afraid to get
+wet. You must not worry about him being a Lord Gemer because it is a
+question of his health."
+
+"Oh, that!" said the Bacha, wrinkling his forehead, "I am able to
+handle such a little brat"--and he was. The first few days Ondrejko
+did not dare resist this big man in anything, and now he would not
+even dream of it. The boys did not know a more noble man in the whole
+world than Bacha Filina. He didn't bother much the whole day what they
+did, but in the evening before the sheep were gathered, he sat with
+them in God's beautiful nature before the cabin, and there they could,
+even had, to tell him everything. They sat near him, one on the one
+side, the other on the other, and Fido laid his great hairy head on
+the knees of his master and looked on so wisely, that it seemed he,
+too, would want to tell all that happened during the day. He was still
+a young, lively fellow. You could see by his nose and ears he was not
+trained very much; his fur was often quite tangled because he started
+quarrels with the older dogs, Whitie and Playwell.
+
+The first time Bacha found the two boys sleeping together on the hay
+he frowned and they were afraid of what was going to happen--but
+nothing at all happened; he only ordered Ondrejko to spread his sheet
+on the hay and cover himself with a blanket; so they both covered
+themselves and slept very well in the fragrant hay.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO
+
+
+It was on a Sunday afternoon. The quiet of the holiday was noticeable
+even on the mountains where, hand in hand, the little comrades walked.
+They were nicely washed and arrayed in Sunday clothing, because Bacha
+Filina would not suffer anybody to desecrate Sunday. Everyone who
+could, had to go to the next town to church, though it was almost two
+hours' walk. He himself seldom went; he was not able to take long
+walks. Once a timber fell on his foot in the woods and from that time
+on he had pains in it, but since he did not go down to church, he read
+in his large old Bible. Today he had gone to church and the boys went
+to meet him. They missed him very much. He ordered them to memorize
+the reading of the Gospel for the day and each had to recite
+separately.
+
+Suddenly Petrik became silent; he drew his comrade aside and pointed
+with a silent nod of the head toward a cut-down tree lying in the
+woods. There sat Bacha Filina with his head resting in the palms of
+his hands as if something were pressing him down to the black ground.
+
+"Let us go up to the Bacha," advised Petrik; "he seems to be sad."
+
+"Truly very sad," worried Ondrejko. "Perhaps the sadness will pass
+from him when we come to him."
+
+The crackling of dry branches under the bare feet of the boys roused
+Bacha. He looked around. The children stood a short distance off.
+Should they go to him--or not?
+
+"Where are you going?" he called to them. They came running. "Only to
+meet you, Bacha."
+
+"Well, why did you come to meet me?" His usually rough voice seemed to
+sound different. "We were lonesome without you," haltingly admitted
+Ondrejko, and presently they sat on the moss carpet at the feet of
+Bacha.
+
+"And why, Bacha, were you sitting here so sadly?" Petrik looked
+surprisedly at Ondrejko, that he dared to ask. Would not Bacha be
+angry?
+
+"Did you think that I was sad?" Bacha stroked the golden hair
+surrounding the pale face of the child, which in the sunshine looked
+like a halo on a saint.
+
+"And were you not?" The blue eyes of the boy, like two lovely blue
+flowers, gazed into the black eagle-like eyes of the man.
+
+"Well, child, I was sad, and you have done well that you came to
+meet me. While I rest a while, recite to me the Gospel that you have
+learned."
+
+Both boys, one after the other, recited the parable of the rich man
+and Lazarus.
+
+"May I ask you, Bacha, to tell me why the rich man did not help
+Lazarus?" Petrik dared to ask.
+
+"Why? Because his heart was like a stone. The dogs were better than
+he. Remember that, children, and never do any harm to birds or
+animals; they are better than we. Now let us go."
+
+Bacha took Ondrejko by the hand and giving his book to Petrik they
+walked through the woods toward home. High above them in the clearing
+sounded the bells of the flock, and off and on the impatient barking
+of Whitie and Playwell, and in between sounded the trumpet of the
+youngest herdsman, Stephen. He played with such an ardor that it
+seemed the notes were running over;
+
+  "Come, come, ye gentle sheep,
+  Keep out of waters deep;
+  Pasture on meadows green
+  Where grass grows sweet and clean."
+
+How the trumpet resounded as if some one were weeping in the woods!
+Even the echo seemed to answer in the same way.
+
+The boys liked the beautiful tune. They knew the words of this song,
+but Bacha bowed down his proud head as though some great burden were
+pressing him down.
+
+After they had finished their simple supper, they sat again as usual
+in front of the hut, Bacha on a stump and the boys at his feet. They
+were looking one at the other, wondering if they dare ask for some
+story. He knew so many of them, and when he was in good humor he knew
+very well how to tell good stories.
+
+"I beg, Bacha, will you not tell us something?" Ondrejko finally
+asked, and looked at the same time in such a way at Bacha that he
+would have to be a very hard man to refuse.
+
+Disturbed from his meditation, Bacha looked for a while into the
+beautiful inquiring eyes, then with a deep breath he began:
+
+"Many years ago I was a boy like you two. I'm telling you this that
+you may know what you should never become, if the Lord God is not to
+be very angry at you. I will tell you today something about myself
+which I have not yet told anybody on earth," began Filina. He stopped
+a moment and the boys waited eagerly for him to go on.
+
+"When I was five years old my mother died. My father brought another
+mother in the house. She was a young, beautiful woman, a widow. With
+her came a son from her first marriage. We called him Stephen, and
+when I look at you, Ondrejko, I always have him before me as he
+entered our hut for the first time. On his head he had a hat with a
+long band, a cloak thrown over his shoulder, an embroidered shirt, and
+narrow trousers. He was like a picture of a saint--so beautiful and so
+lovely.
+
+"I was my father's youngest child. The older ones died, so I never had
+a brother, and suddenly he came--and was to be my brother. You love
+each other--I know. That also reminds me of my childhood. I began to
+love him more than I could my own brother. We were of equal age, but
+I was strong and he weak; I was wild and he tame; I was ugly and he
+beautiful. In spite of this we loved each other, and our parents were
+well satisfied. They could leave him under my care--because they knew
+I was able to defend him--and could leave me under his care, because
+when he was with me I was much more tame.
+
+"Would that it had remained so always. But a proverb says, not in
+vain, that 'Where the Devil cannot go himself he will send an old
+woman.' And he sent her to us. It was your father's Aunt, your
+great-aunt, Petrik. She came once to us and asked me aside if the new
+mother liked me, and was sorry for me that I was a poor orphan. Said
+she, 'Who has a step-mother has also a stepfather. Your father doesn't
+love you as much as he does Stephen.' She didn't stay long with us.
+Just as she came, so she went, but she took with her my love for
+Stephen. Because I was so wild and always did something wrong, my wise
+father had to punish me often; but Stephen was never punished because
+he always did what was pleasing in the sight of father and mother.
+From that time on I always remembered the words of the great-aunt
+that I was punished and he not because they loved him, and his mother
+interceded for him, and there was no one to stand by me. But my
+step-mother quite often interceded for me. She was a kind woman and
+never did me any harm, but I wanted her to show more love to me than
+to her own boy. But that could not be. This wrong thought grew in my
+heart, and my envy increased from year to year till we were about as
+old as you two boys; and now comes the sad part which I never shall
+forget, and that is what is pressing me to the earth unto today."
+
+Bacha pointed over to the mountain opposite them.
+
+"Do you see yonder mountain?" The boys nodded.
+
+"There we used to live at the foot of the mountain. Look toward the
+West, where the sun is lying down to sleep; there in the valley lived
+the weavers, to whom from all our homes, the wool was carried to be
+woven. Two paths led to those huts; the one up and down over the
+rocks--the other through the valley, easier but more dangerous,
+because there was a stretch of swamp into which, if somebody fell, he
+could never get out by himself. One who knew how, could get over by
+jumping from rock to rock and to clumps of grass, but it seemed as if
+some black power wanted to pull one down.
+
+"Once our parents had us carry our wool. Going, we went the upper
+way, as we were told, but after we delivered the wool to the weavers,
+Stephen handed me an apple, which the weaver's wife had given him,
+saying he had another in his bag from his mother. Mother gave me
+nothing for the journey because I didn't take leave of her, and she
+didn't even see me when I grabbed my bag. And now, even the weaver's
+wife had not given me anything. It made me sad. I got angry, threw the
+apple away, and would rather have cried. Here was evidence, I thought,
+that what the great-aunt said was true. Nobody cared for me, at home,
+nor anywhere else. Everybody liked Stephen, and it always would be so.
+
+"I used to hear some people say that the Devil is walking on the
+earth, though we do not see him, and whispers to us what we should
+think and do. If it is true, I don't know, but that he was with me
+that time and gave me bad, gruesome advice, is sure. Only he could
+have told me that. When we left the weavers, I said to Stephen,
+'Going over the mountain is too far. Let us go by the lower and more
+convenient path; it is nearer.'
+
+"'But mother said we must go only over the hill,' objected Stephen,
+'and father called also from the yard, 'Do not go by the lower way.'"
+
+"Well, however it was, when we came where the paths divided we went on
+the lower path anyway. I claimed that my feet hurt, I had stubbed my
+big toe, and had a thorn in my heel. Stephen was sorry for me, and
+thought that when we explained it to mother she would see the reason,
+and father also, why we took the lower path after all.
+
+"Truly it was fine to run there, like on carpets, till we came to the
+swamp. 'You must now jump from rock to rock,' said I, and I ran ahead.
+We came near the opposite side. There was only one more jump. Because
+I was larger, and my feet longer I managed to jump over, but I knew
+that Stephen could not jump over. There were bunches of grass and I
+advised him to run over them. He listened to me, came over two or
+three, but the third one began to move under him and he jumped back on
+the rock.
+
+"'Stay there,' I called to him. 'Not far from here lives the forester;
+I will run for him and he will help you.' I ran as fast as I could but
+not to the forester's house.
+
+"'Petrik, do not leave me. I am afraid,' called Stephen after me, and
+right after that followed a cry:
+
+"'Mother mine!'
+
+"Thus I have heard him day and night, as in the past years, so even
+till today, and I shall perhaps in the hour of death and in the whole
+of eternity. I was still a small boy, but a bad one, and at that
+moment hard as a rock. 'Surely he will fall in and will drown,' I
+consoled myself. 'Nobody will give him any more apples, and people
+will love me and me only.' No old criminal could have felt worse than
+I felt then. I began to run still faster till my legs broke down under
+me and my breath failed. Yes; I ran through the woods alone, forsaken,
+as once Cain did when he killed his brother and ran away from the face
+of God. Suddenly a great pain gripped me that could not be expressed,
+because the voice that whispered to me before, 'Drown him in that
+swamp,' now whispered to me, 'You dare not go home. What will you say
+when they ask you about Stephen?' Tired and hungry as I was I threw
+myself on the ground and started to cry bitterly till I fell asleep.
+
+"At day-break the drivers passed by with their wagons for lumber. They
+found me and, recognizing me, laid me sleeping on a wagon and took
+me as far as our hut. There they awakened me, laid me down, and
+half-sleeping I didn't realize at once what had happened the day
+before. I ran to the hall and opened the door.
+
+"The rays of the rising sun struck our bedroom first--the same that
+day. It lit up the bed of my father, and ..." Bacha stopped and tears
+ran down his cheek.
+
+"And what, Bacha? Oh, what, Bacha?" with bitter cries both boys
+exclaimed. The tears were already running down Ondrejko's pale face.
+
+"There on the bed in the rays of the sun like a holy picture, rested
+our Stephen, sleeping. Mother sat beside the bed. There was a humming
+in my ears and blackness before my eyes, and if father had not jumped
+and caught me I would have fallen over. It was long before they
+brought me back to consciousness."
+
+"So he didn't drown?" both boys were astonished and rejoicing.
+
+"Didn't he fall into that swamp?"
+
+"He fell in it, children. Oh, he fell in, and there was no man who
+could have saved him. But we had a large dog called Whitie who went
+around always with us, as Fido with you. When we left home we left him
+behind, but he followed us, and the Lord God Himself sent him in that
+moment when the stone under Stephen gave way, and he lost his balance
+and fell. Whitie caught him by the hair and dragged him to the shore,
+and whined and barked till the forester came.
+
+"He carried Stephen to the brook, washed off the mud, and revived him,
+for he was almost dead, and then carried him home. I expected father
+would punish me but he did not. Mother kissed me crying, and gave me
+breakfast. They were afraid something had happened to me. They thought
+I had been drowned because I couldn't be found anywhere. I saw clearly
+that they both loved me very much, but it did not please me, I was
+afraid it would become known what I had intended to do. My parents
+are already in eternity, and I can not now ask them for forgiveness
+because after death there is no more forgiveness.
+
+"Stephen never let it be known that I made him go that way, and from
+that time on we loved each other as from the beginning. I was no
+longer jealous of the love of father and mother to him. I knew and
+felt now that they loved me also, and that I didn't deserve this love.
+
+"From that time I couldn't look at the dog Whitie. It was always
+painful to me that he, a dog, saved Stephen, when I wanted to drown
+him. But though he didn't drown that time the Holy God took him to
+Himself. He must be angry at me, a sinner, to this day. Thus I say,
+'Never do any harm to animals; they are much better than people; they
+are God's creatures; they never do wrong things before God but obey
+always.' And now, boys, run and go to sleep."
+
+Though the boys had many questions on their hearts they obediently
+bade him "good night" and went. For a long time, lying on the hay,
+they spoke together about Stephen, how he jumped over the bunches of
+grass, how the rock turned under him, how he fell, and how Whitie
+saved him.
+
+"I am very sorry for Bacha Filina," said Ondrejko. "I can never forget
+it. It must pain him--could it be that God is still angry with him?"
+
+"But where is this Stephen?" worried Petrik. "They were the same age,
+so he must be just as old now. Perhaps he will tell us some other time
+about him." They were stopped from further talking by Fido. Somehow he
+had managed to get to them and they were rejoiced. They told him once
+more about the hero Whitie and enjoined upon him to follow him. He
+wagged his tail, licked their hands and faces, whining for joy as if
+he were promising it all, and when the boys slept, he slept with one
+eye open because he had to stand guard over his comrades.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE
+
+
+The following week Bacha Filina had much work to do, so he could not
+look much after the boys, though they did all they could; they obeyed
+him and tried to please him in every way. On Tuesday the doctor came
+to look at Ondrejko. He was told where Ondrejko slept, but he only
+laughed: "Good for you, boy, that will help you; though your father is
+a great lord and a proud Magyar, everything serves in its time. Thus I
+trust we shall live to see that the Tatra Mountains will belong to the
+Slovaks and also these woods. Because your grandfather lived there as
+a great Slovak, you also as a good Slovak will be living. Just learn
+the language of your father and draw near to that soil which they once
+cultivated." The boys didn't grasp what he meant. They only felt that
+he was their friend.
+
+The evening came. They had to make a bed for the doctor beside
+themselves on the hay. In the morning he drank the good milk and ate
+the black bread with cheese. Then the boys took him as far as the "Old
+Hag's Rock." On the way Ondrejko asked about his father. He learned
+that he now lived in Paris and did not purpose to come that year for
+the summer. The boy breathed more freely because he felt that if his
+father came he would have to go to him, away from Bacha Filina and
+away from Petrik. That would not please him; he did not want to go at
+all. When the doctor took leave of the boys they followed him with
+their eyes as long as they could see his straw hat, then they climbed
+the rock to see him better, but in the meantime he had disappeared
+altogether. Instead of that they saw on the other side of the "Old
+Hag's Rock" a beautiful little valley, and in it a solitary house
+with small windows which was made of wood and covered with shingles,
+standing there by the brook. It looked like a fairy-story house set
+among the springs coming out from the rocks. The herder Steve had told
+the boys several times about witches who lived in solitary huts, and
+it seemed to them that one of them might be living there. A large
+white dog sunned himself in front of the hut. If Fido had been with
+them, he surely would have started a fight with him. As the boys were
+looking at the cottage the door opened, but no old woman came out,
+only a boy who was a little larger than themselves, in a cape and
+belt, sandals, and with a hat on his head. The dog jumped up, wagged
+his broad tail, and stretched himself, yawned and barked happily. The
+boy stroked him on the head and smiled at him, then both began to walk
+up toward the great rock.
+
+The dog spied our comrades first and stopped. They could see he was
+not as young as Fido, but that he was wise and did not bark uselessly
+at anybody, so they knew that he must be friendly to people. Soon the
+boys stood face to face, and the strange boy, whose dress indicated
+that he was not from that section, greeted them in a friendly manner.
+He asked them what they were doing and where they were from. They told
+him that they had accompanied the doctor that far. Ondrejko dared to
+ask him if he lived in that little house.
+
+"The hut belongs to us, but I am from Trenchin. I came only a week ago
+with my father. A distant uncle of my mother died, and because there
+is no nearer relative my mother inherited this hut. Father wants to
+sell it, but a nice bit of woods with fine timber belongs to the hut,
+which we could use very well in our business. Therefore we shall stay
+here for some time, cut the wood and take it along."
+
+"And the dog is yours?"
+
+"Yes, it is our Dunaj. He did not want to stay at home; we had to take
+him along, though we had to pay for him on the railroad."
+
+"Surely you didn't have him along in the carriage?" ventured Ondrejko.
+
+"Oh, no; and he did not like where they locked him up, at all. He
+almost knocked me down when he regained his freedom. Isn't that so,
+Dunaj?" The dog whined and cuddled down at his master's feet.
+
+"We too have a dog which is still young, but he also will be big when
+he grows up," Ondrejko said, appraisingly.
+
+"And where are you going?"
+
+"Only up here on the rock to see what is behind it. In our country we
+also have a large rock, but much higher and broader, and when you look
+down from it it seems as if you look down into Sunshine Valley, as the
+story goes. And after the storm a rainbow appears, like Heaven's gate
+which appeared once to Jacob in a dream. Once upon a time I believed
+that Heaven's gate was only there, but today I know that Heaven is
+everywhere open that the Lord Jesus might come to us where and when He
+wants to. Do you know Him too?"
+
+"Who?" wondered the boys.
+
+"The Son of God, the Lord Jesus. But I see already that you do not
+know Him, and He surely sent me to you, so that I could tell you all
+that I know. Do you have time?"
+
+"We can spend about an hour," said Petrik, who felt the new stranger
+was very friendly and he would like to have him for a comrade.
+
+"Let us then sit down here on the rock, and I will tell you how it was
+that I came to the Sunshine Valley the first time, and what kind of
+book I found there. I have it even here with me because I could not
+be without it. But tell me first your name. I am called Palko, though
+they once baptized me in the name of Nicholas. But this is a long
+story."
+
+"My name is Petrik, and he is called Ondrejko. At home they call him
+Andreas de Gemer in the Magyar tongue, but Bacha Filina says, 'Why
+should we break our tongues with foreign names?' Anyhow, Ondrejko is
+much nicer," zealously spoke Petrik.
+
+"That is a nice name. It was the name of one of the disciples of the
+Lord Jesus who brought to Him the boy with the loaves and fishes. I
+have it beautifully written in this book."
+
+In the meantime the boys climbed the rock, sat down, and the new
+comrade drew out a book carefully wrapped up in paper and began to
+tell them the beautiful things about it. If one would want to repeat
+them it would take a whole book.[A]
+
+[Footnote A: See first part of "Sunshine Country."]
+
+Among other things, he told them that whosoever takes this book into
+his hands dare not read it otherwise than word for word, from the
+beginning to the end, because only in this way will he get to know
+the Way which leads to the true Sunshine Country, where, through the
+Heaven's gates, the Lord Jesus went to prepare a place for all those
+who obediently went that way.
+
+The boys would not have tired listening till the evening, but suddenly
+Fido came, and as if he knew that with such a dog as Dunaj he mustn't
+start a fight, just licked his comrades and was friendly to the
+stranger. His arrival reminded the boys of Bacha, and what he would
+say if they stayed too long. They rose, and Palko promised to
+accompany them that they might show him where their hut was standing,
+and when he had time he would come to visit them.
+
+He ran down to close his house and they had to wait a while. When he
+returned he carried a large piece of bread which he divided equally
+into five parts, and then they followed the narrow path over the
+meadows to the sheepcotes.
+
+The newcomer told them many things on the way. They could hardly part
+from him.
+
+When Bacha came to supper they endeavored to out-do one another in
+telling him about it. He listened intently, and said he would be glad
+when the strange boy, who it seemed was very decent, would visit them.
+They all hoped that he would come the next Sunday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR
+
+
+It is a true saying that, "People keep with people, and mountains
+with mountains." How one person gets used to another you can scarcely
+believe until you have seen it yourself. What is it that draws one
+to another? Long lived our three comrades with Bacha Filina without
+Palko, and nothing was lacking, but now if a day passed without seeing
+him it seemed as if they could not stand it. Though it may seem
+strange, Bacha Filina would have missed him most. Wherever he went,
+whatever he did, he always had in mind the moment when the bushes
+parted on that beautiful Sunday afternoon, and, like a picture in a
+frame, stood the strange boy so clean and neat with his cape over his
+shoulder, small hat in his hand, resting his hand on a shaggy white
+dog. It would truly be a fine picture for a painter to paint in those
+wide mountains, if he could but make it so true to nature--you could
+not look at him enough. And he remembered again how Palko sat with
+them in front of the hut with the Holy Book in his hand, reading word
+for word, chapter for chapter. Such beautiful and good things. So must
+Jesus have looked when He sat amongst the Jewish teachers. Oh, how did
+he understand the Word of God! No sermon had moved old Bacha as did
+the talks of Palko the boy, though he had heard many in his life.
+Bacha had a whole Bible which he read sometimes on Sunday. He had also
+a big book with sermons, but since the time that Palko Lesina came
+every evening to them it was as if a veil had been removed from the
+man's eyes. The Bible became to him the living Word of God.
+
+"The Lord Jesus used to walk by the Sea of Gennesaret," said the boy
+seriously. "Now He walks through these mountains of yours. Sometimes
+He passed through our mountains to seek us, and now He seeks you."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again it was Sunday. Filina got the boys ready to go to church, but he
+himself remained in front of his hut. Fido who was not permitted to
+run with the comrades, lay at his feet. Suddenly he pricked up his
+ears, jumped up, and like an arrow flew into the nearby thicket. Bacha
+paid no attention. He sat with his head bowed down. He did not even
+hear someone speak to the dog, nor hear any greeting; he did not
+arouse himself till he heard close to him the pleasant young voice
+which he loved so much.
+
+"Good morning, Uncle Filina. Why are you so sad and so lonely? Where
+is everybody?"
+
+"Welcome, Palko," gladly replied the man. He held out his brown hand
+to the boy. "If I had known you would come, I would not have sent the
+boys to the church. Everywhere is the house of God. And I suppose you
+are bringing the Bible, about which you spoke yesterday?"
+
+"Yes, I do. My father went away for a few days. He asks you kindly if
+you will let me stay with your boys that I may not have to stay alone
+in the hut. Will you take me?"
+
+The beautiful eyes of the boy gazed longingly on the face of the man.
+
+"Why, surely. We will be only too glad if you stay with us," answered
+Bacha. "But why did your father go home?"
+
+"He went with some wood. He could not take it all at once. The balance
+we shall put on a float, and so carry it to our destination. Thus I
+could bring the Bible to show it to you."
+
+"Is that the one from Pastor Malina?"
+
+"Yes, Uncle, and I esteem it very much. There are many notes in Latin
+which I do not understand, and also some in Slovak. When I look at the
+writing I see the pastor in front of me. I would like to show you what
+he wrote the last Sunday when he became so seriously ill. Do you have
+time for it, Uncle?"
+
+"Oh, yes, my son; it is Sunday. Just read on."
+
+"You will understand it better than I because you are older. There
+is something very good: 'I have missed very much; my whole life is
+wasted,' began the boy, and his voice sounded so solemn, almost as
+if he were reading the Word of God. 'Even though I would, I cannot
+improve anything. It is too late; it is too late! Souls passed into
+eternity--it may be I did not bring salvation to them. They never come
+back that I may ask them forgiveness and love them. Oh, how glorious
+are the words, 'By grace ye are saved ... it is the gift of God.' In
+this holy gift I take my refuge, my holy God and Saviour. I know that
+You have pardoned me and have even taken the punishment that I merited
+on Yourself. I cling to Thy cross; I fall at Thy wounded feet, and
+thank Thee--Oh, so thank Thee; yes, I will praise eternally Thy holy
+name, O Jesus!'" read Palko.
+
+"Thus believed Pastor Malina ..." but the boy stopped because the
+Bacha sat with his head bowed down, and cried aloud.
+
+"'Even if I would, I couldn't make anything good. It is too late. The
+souls went on to accuse me,'" he repeated in his crying. "That is what
+is pressing _me_ down to the ground, and all my good life since that
+time doesn't help anything ..."
+
+The boy rested his curly head in the palms of his small hands.
+
+"Uncle, will you not tell me what is worrying you so much? It could
+not be the sin that you wanted to drown your Stephen, as Petrik told
+me?"
+
+"Stephen didn't drown. I, when something is pressing me, confess it
+and feel easier at once."
+
+"The Apostle James says, 'Confess your sins one to another.' It is
+true I am only a boy, but I know already how the soul and the heart
+ache--and there is no comforter. But the Lord Jesus will grant it to
+me that I may be able to understand and to help you."
+
+The man looked at the boy. He stroked his whiskers. "If I have to tell
+somebody about it as I have wished for years, it will suit me best to
+tell it to you. The Lord God gave you more wisdom than me, an old man,
+just as Samuel the boy had more than the old priest Eli."
+
+Bacha strode over to his stump where he usually sat. Palko lay beside
+him on the grass. He drew the Bible near him, and laid his hand on the
+head of Fido who cuddled close beside. Thus he waited patiently.
+
+"Since Petrik told you what kind of a boy I was, I do not have to
+retell it again," began the man presently. His whole appearance did
+not fit into that beautiful Sunday morning.
+
+"Thus we both grew up, and I can say with a good conscience that
+Stephen and I loved each other very much. I could never forget that he
+did not tell our parents how I forsook him in his plight. He convinced
+me that our parents loved us both. All was well now and might have
+remained so always, had not mother after her sister's death brought to
+us her niece, Eva. She was a small beautiful girl. From the beginning
+she seemed to be afraid of me, but with Stephen she was at once,
+friendly, until I once saved him from vicious dogs. From that time she
+clung always to me. Thus it was as we grew up together, and after we
+were grown up. You cannot understand more now, therefore I can only
+tell you this much. When we became young men, there was no more
+beautiful girl to us in the whole wide world. It seemed to me that her
+black eyes shone brighter than all the stars, and that such lilies
+and roses as were on her face did not bloom on any bush. At that time
+there was a large immigration to America. Many times I wondered how
+people, just for the sake of mammon, could go so far into the world
+when in spite of our poverty it was so beautiful and lovely here. To
+me, the woods and meadows were like a paradise and in my heart all was
+song--like the heavens; but there is no paradise upon this earth and
+the heavens are too high. Once when I returned from work--it was
+already evening--mother and father sat in front of the house in
+consultation about us children, as they often did. I did not want to
+disturb them, therefore I sat down not very far away and listened."
+
+"Do you think, then," said mother, "that one of the children will have
+to go to America?"
+
+"You see, my wife, there the people achieve something quicker than we
+do here. We suffer bravely and yet barely live," sighed father. He was
+a good man but already worn out by hard labor.
+
+"'And which one do you think should?' mother asked with a sigh.
+
+"'That we will leave for them to decide. I think thus: Let one stay at
+home and take Eva for his wife, so you have some help. Let the other
+one go to America for a few years, and after he has made some money
+and God granting that he will return safely, then they may live
+together. I would not like that after our death they should be
+separated. It is well for them to be together.'
+
+"I noticed how mother gave a sigh of relief, but to me it seemed as if
+someone stuck a dagger into me. They surely expected me to go. Stephen
+would remain at home and take Eva. That night I did not sleep at home.
+A similar trouble overtook me as in my childhood, only stronger and
+much more terrible. Where I gathered strength to return in the morning
+I do not know. Eva ran to meet me, and as soon as I saw her I told
+myself that verily, I would never go to America, and Eva must never
+belong to anyone else but to me. Since that hour I could hardly give a
+kind look to Stephen though he gave me no reason for anger.
+
+"We had a meadow beyond the swamp. There I went with Eva the next day
+to turn over the cut grass, and I asked her to be mine. I did not have
+much luck at first, but since I pleaded so much and promised so much,
+she finally promised that she would not take anyone else.
+
+"After the affair was settled, Eva bound up a bundle of grass, and
+looking around I noticed Stephen departing along the pathway. He had
+heard us without us noticing him.
+
+"The following week we had some work in the city and Stephen said that
+he would go. Mother tried to prevent him. She had rather I should go
+because Stephen did not look very well. Really he looked thin and
+pale, as if after a serious illness or before one. But I insisted that
+I would not go this time, and father agreed. He had some work for me.
+
+"'Come with me part of the way,' said Stephen the following day, after
+he had taken leave of our parents and Eva. So I went. We took the
+steep path to the cross above, on top of the hill. There he stopped.
+We looked at each other.
+
+"'Mother told me what plans father had for us. One of us must go to
+America,' he began. 'It cannot be you. I saw you and Eva not long ago
+on the meadow. Father wants one of us to take Eva. Now that she is
+yours what should I do here any longer? Once before in childhood I was
+in your way, so that you wanted to get rid of me in that black watery
+grave. The second time I shall not stand in your way. It would be
+difficult for mother to part with me. You must realize that, because
+she has only me. So I want to spare her the leave-taking, but I want
+to tell the truth to you that you may be satisfied and not begrudge me
+anything more. I am really leaving everything to you: parents, home,
+and Eva too. She cannot belong to both. Those were hard moments for
+me on yonder meadow. If you had to bear what I went through in those
+moments you could not stand it. Thus it is good that she chose you. To
+me it was as if I was drowning again, only the swamp into which you
+threw me this time was much deeper than the one before. Mother said I
+seem to be ill. Here I shall never get well--over there far away, I
+can recover sooner. I give you my hand in parting, and you give me
+yours without any bitterness. Let us part like brothers.'
+
+"I clasped his hand silently. He took his things, then ran down along
+the path into the thicket. Bending over beside the cross I tried to
+see him once more--and I did. He lifted his beautiful face marked with
+deep sorrow toward the valley where he could see our hut for the last
+time. Suddenly tears gushed from his eyes. I wanted to make a step
+forward, wanted to call him back, to leave everything to him, and I go
+to America. But there was no strength in me. So I let him go for ever.
+We never saw him again."
+
+Bacha cried aloud again, and Palko with him.
+
+"Uncle, tell me all, to the end," he begged after a while. "Then what
+about his poor mother? How did you tell her about it?"
+
+"I didn't have to tell her, my boy," said Filina as he calmed down.
+"He took care of all that. Mother had a distant relative who came
+to us the third day and brought everything that Stephen should have
+brought from the city; also a letter from him, wherein he begged our
+parents not to be angry with him because he was thus leaving for
+America. In that letter he again made no mention that it was I who
+drowned him in the depths of sorrow. It was a very beautiful letter.
+We treasured it as a keepsake, and when mother was dying the poor dear
+asked me to have it placed in her coffin. I endeavored to make good to
+her the son she lost. After father passed away, mother blessed me many
+times for the good care she enjoyed, but it did not bring peace to my
+heart.
+
+"The distant relative who brought to us Stephen's letter intended
+to go to America himself. He had already bought the ticket, when
+circumstances hindered him from going. He complained to Stephen that
+he could not go, and Stephen asked him to sell the ticket to him. He
+borrowed some money from him on his part of the inheritance. This we
+had to repay later, because that ship never reached its goal. It sank
+in a storm. Thus you see, Palko, that after all, I had drowned my
+brother. If he had not run away from my presence he might have found
+another girl and could have lived till today. Thus he died, and his
+death accuses me before God's face for my selfishness. Verily, God's
+punishment came upon me soon. I enjoyed my happiness but a short time.
+From the time that the message reached us about the sinking of the
+ship, Eva just pined away, and after the death of our son, she died.
+In her fever, not knowing what she said, she told how she loved
+Stephen, and I realized that her longing for him made her perish by my
+side. Well, now they are both gone and I only am here--all alone."
+
+"And your son, where is he?"
+
+"Him also the good Lord took. When his mother died there was no one
+who could give him the necessary care. He took cold, and in three days
+he was also with God. Now I have told you everything, my boy. I have
+confided all to you, but you do not understand."
+
+"Do not think that I do not understand, Uncle. I know that your heart
+is sad because of the injustice Stephen suffered because of your envy.
+I know that you have sinned grievously. Why could you not like
+the priest, Malina, grasp the cross and the feet of Christ? You
+understand, in the Spirit, by faith, and receive the gift of
+God--salvation. There further is this quotation: 'Christ Jesus came
+into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief,' and here again
+it is written, 'It seems to me I am the one, the most sinful of the
+sinners, but I believe, I believe, O Lamb of God, that Thou hast died
+for me also, and I am casting my heart at the foot of Thy cross, that
+Thy blood pouring over me may cleanse it also.'"
+
+"I see there are very good things written there, Palko. Leave this
+book with me for some time that I may be able to read it at leisure,
+and see if also on me the Son of God will have mercy and forgive my
+grievous sins. Now continue to read where we left off last time."
+
+"Now I will also bring the song-book and we shall have a song. This
+will be our Sunday worship." Bacha brought the book and they had a
+lovely time in worshiping God. Christ came to them through His Spirit
+and made the Word of God living, to the young soul who walked with Him
+continually like Enoch, and also to the one who could say, "I have
+gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant" (Ps. 119: 176).
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE
+
+
+Verily, verily, this quotation is true, "Be not forgetful to entertain
+strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" (Hebrews
+13:2). Bacha Filina and those in his household proved it. It was just
+as if God's blessing had moved to them with Palko Lesina. They all
+had success in everything they undertook. The boy was ready to help
+everywhere, and set the house in such order as it never had been
+before.
+
+"You see, the Lord Jesus lives here," Palko explained sweetly. "He is
+here, and we don't know when He comes and where He would like to sit
+down. We would not have any place to receive Him."
+
+Stephen taught him how to play the shepherd's horn and he played on
+it beautiful Christian songs, so that the mountains fairly resounded.
+When he played tag or blind man's buff with the boys he was the
+most joyful of them. But as soon as he was invited to read from his
+precious Book, he obeyed at once and sat among them, as once his Lord
+did among learned old men in Jerusalem. On Petrik especially he had a
+good influence. Petrik was often self-willed and disobedient, so that
+Bacha had to punish him.
+
+"Why should you make Uncle Filina cross? Just tell it to the Lord
+Jesus when the Devil is tempting you, and He will deliver you, He will
+help you," advised Palko.
+
+Ondrejko became more quiet and thoughtful. He liked the talks with
+Palko very much. He believed everything, even that the Lord Jesus is
+constantly present. Therefore it is necessary to be always washed and
+clean and dressed decently, and also that it is necessary to give
+one's heart to the Lord Jesus when He wants it, and that He takes the
+heart and cleanses it. Before Palko realized it, the Lord Jesus had
+one servant more. And thus His Holy Word was fulfilled; "I thank Thee,
+O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things
+from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes"
+(Matt. 11:25). No one can find out how it happens; it passes human
+understanding, how the caterpillar in the dried-up cocoon takes a new
+life with the arrival of Spring. Before they reached that part in
+that precious Book where it begins to tell of the sufferings of and,
+finally, the death of the Lord Jesus, Ondrejko felt in his heart that
+all happened for him also. He could not quite explain it, and no one
+expected him to, but he knew it in his heart.
+
+Once, when he went with Palko to his hut, he prayed that the Lord
+Jesus would forgive him everything and asked Him to come into his
+heart. Ondrejko thereupon believed without fail that it happened,
+because it is still true today, "If thou shalt believe, thou shalt see
+the glory of God." Therefore what he believed, he also had. Ondrejko
+de Gemer already had suffered much on this earth. He suffered many
+heart-aches for the want of a father or mother. Many nights he cried
+about it when no one heard him. Very few realize how much pain a
+little child may suffer from sorrow and hopelessness from lack of
+love. Before Ondrejko came to Filina he often used to wonder what
+would become of him, since he had nobody, although both of his parents
+were living. Would he always have to live with strange people? A book
+could be written of the thoughts of that forsaken little soul while
+he was building castles and bridges, and when people thought he was
+deeply interested in his play. Fortunately Palko Lesina arrived,
+and through his daily talk made it plain to his little comrade that
+Someone good and beautiful lives, and that this beautiful and good
+One also loved him, little forsaken Ondrejko de Gemer, whom even his
+father did not love, and He wanted to live with him always, that
+Ondrejko need not feel forsaken anymore. Now he had Someone to bring
+his complaints to, and he could confide everything to Him, yea,
+everything. How beautiful that was! Yes, verily, the Lord Jesus now
+had one servant more.
+
+Even the herdsmen sighed to Bacha, "How shall we ever get along
+without Palko Lesina? Ever since the boy has been with us, it seems
+that the sunrise looks more beautiful and the dew is richer on the
+ground."
+
+"He is a blessed boy," admitted Filina with a sigh. Oh, how very much
+he needed this boy! Therefore when, instead of Lesina, a letter came,
+he was much relieved. Lesina wrote that he would not be able to come
+back till six weeks later, and asked Bacha to keep Palko with him in
+the meantime, that he would be useful in every way. He didn't want to
+let the boy come home alone because it was so far, and he was his only
+child. When that letter came, the boys jumped for joy, and Fido helped
+them, but the greatest joy after all was that of Filina himself.
+
+In the evening of that day, while they were sitting before the hut and
+Palko was blowing on the horn, suddenly Dr. H. stood before them. With
+evident pleasure he noticed the strange boy. Fido wagged his bushy
+tail in a friendly manner because more than once he had received a
+good bacon-rind from this kind gentleman. Dunaj, stretched out by the
+feet of his master, lifted his head also, but made no sound. He knew
+already whom to let alone and whom not. Formerly he would have jumped
+up and barked, and tested the long coat of the doctor to see if it was
+made of good material or not. Today, he would rather snap at a fly
+which paid with her life for daring to buzz around his nose. Well, the
+dogs did not give it away and the people did not notice that they had
+a listener, neither then nor even after Palko began to read in his
+Book, where there was written about the great man who was the captain
+of the taxgatherers, who had great riches and many friends, but did
+not have peace or happiness in his heart because he did not know the
+Lord Jesus. Palko read how the Lord Jesus spoke to him while he sat in
+the sycamore tree and invited Himself as his guest.
+
+"Uncle Filina," suddenly Palko interrupted, when he came to the words
+of the Lord, 'The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was
+lost'--"If you simply do just like Zaccheus; and say to the Lord
+Jesus, 'This day is salvation come to this house,' that would be
+first, the house of your heart and then the whole hut. Uncle, I beg of
+you, receive Him today. Zaccheus received Him at once with joy, and
+how much greater joy did he find afterward when the Lord Jesus forgave
+him all his sins."
+
+Surprised, the doctor looked at the strange boy and also at Bacha who
+arose and without a word entered the hut. Then Petrik noticed the
+guest; both the boys ran to welcome him and each one wanted to be the
+first to tell him who Palko was and what he was doing among them. The
+Doctor liked Palko, like everyone else who came in contact with him.
+Then the boys found out why the doctor had come that day. He wanted to
+find a cottage near the hut where he could place one of his patients
+for a week, whom only quietness and air and sun could heal.
+
+"Palko, do you hear?" whispered Petrik, but so loud that all could
+hear him. "That cottage of yours is empty, your father will not come
+for six weeks, and you could live here with us; that would be a good
+place for the lady."
+
+"What did you say, boy?" asked the doctor.
+
+Ondrejko began to explain that Lesina had a cottage at the very foot
+of the "Old Hag's Rock," where the path led to town, and that at the
+present it was empty.
+
+"Do you think, Palko," asked the doctor, "that your father would agree
+to lend us the cabin, if it would suit us?"
+
+"Why would he not agree?" said the boy with shining eyes. "Does not
+the Lord Jesus say, 'I was sick, and ye visited Me?' If the cabin
+suits you I will give you the key. Just let the sick one come."
+
+It was too late in the evening to go to see the place; so the boys
+prepared to go with the doctor early in the morning to the cottage.
+
+This time the doctor did not sleep with the boys in the hayloft,
+because he spoke a long time with Filina. When Filina went to look at
+the boys, as it was his custom to do every evening, he stood above
+them a long time in deep thought, then he carefully covered Ondrejko,
+and sadly stroked his forehead, gently, as if he was very sorry for
+the boy. But why? Did he not look very lovely, somewhat browned from
+the sun, with beautiful roses on his velvet-like cheeks, and his small
+mouth as red as a poppy-flower. It was plainly noticeable how the
+mountain air and plain food were strengthening and healing him. His
+face also betrayed his inner happiness which the Lord Jesus had put in
+his heart. Why then was Bacha sorry for him?
+
+During the night, a thunderstorm of short duration passed over the
+mountain. The spring morning broke very beautifully, as it can only
+after a storm. On the grass hung large pearls, and the leaves of the
+trees were full of diamonds as the sun shone on them. Everything sang
+praises to the Creator--every bird, every insect, and fly. The vapor
+rose like the smoke from a great sacrifice. No wonder then that Palko,
+leading their expedition, began to sing. Petrik gave a sigh, glanced
+at the doctor, thinking, "What will he say to that?" Ondrejko joyfully
+joined him, with his clear voice ringing like a golden bell. And thus
+it sounded over the mountains:
+
+  "Let us give thanks to God our heavenly King;
+  To Him who loved and kept us, let us sing.
+  To Him be given honor, glory, praise;
+  To God, Eternal, let our voices raise.
+  We pray, 'Be constantly with us this day
+  And guard us from all evil by the way,
+  That we may to Thy glory ever live,
+  And blessings to our neighbors ever give;
+  And when at last we reach the glory shore
+  We know that we shall praise Thee evermore.'"
+
+The doctor knew that song. He had learned it in his childhood. It made
+him add his own voice to those clear notes of the children. It may
+seem strange, but it is true, that nothing will refresh the mind like
+such an early morning song, sung whole-heartedly on such a beautiful
+morning, when all nature is joining in praises to the Creator, and at
+every step man feels His holy, pure, and shining nearness.
+
+"Listen, Palko," the doctor said after a moment's silence when the
+song was finished; "do you understand what we have sung?"
+
+"That song?" wondered the boy; "Isn't every word quite clear?"
+
+"Do you think so? Then you explain it to us," smiled the doctor
+good-humoredly.
+
+"Explain it? Why, we know well what the good Lord sent us during the
+past night, and we can walk sound and refreshed through this world,
+and that He is our King. We also know that He is the everlasting God."
+
+"Well, that is so, but little children know that much. Go on."
+
+"The third verse I like very much. He is already on the earth, always
+present with us, even now He goes with us, and so will protect us from
+evil all day long. I am very glad to see at least a small piece of His
+garment."
+
+"Where do you see it?" asked Ondrejko.
+
+"Just look how the rays of the sun shine around us. On every drop of
+dew you see a piece of the rainbow. That is the hem of His garment,
+and in that soft breeze, His Spirit is touching us. He is very near
+to us. Verily, He is a good Father. We cannot see Him just because we
+could not bear the full glory. What a man was Daniel! Yet he almost
+died when he saw Him. But also this verse is beautiful, 'That we may
+to Thy glory ever live.'"
+
+"And how do you do that, you little doctor of theology?" said the
+doctor.
+
+"I think," said Palko, "that just what we do today is pleasing to
+the Lord Jesus; we are going to look for a place for one of His sick
+sheep, and if you should like the cottage we will gladly take care of
+the necessary wood and flowers. It is clean already, even the windows
+are washed."
+
+"You little wise man, and lo, surely there is that cabin of yours."
+
+"Yes, yes," cried the boys. And Dunaj, as if he would confirm it, ran
+directly to the door.
+
+"Listen, boy, that cottage of yours is just as if it had been built
+for that patient of mine," admitted Dr. H., after he had looked the
+cottage over inside and out. "I shall have some furniture brought
+here, carpets shall cover the floor, that it be not cold, and your
+bed and table we will put in the kitchen, that will be for her nurse.
+Though the windows are small there are three of them, so there will
+be plenty of sun all day long. And what surroundings! This beautiful
+valley with the background of green woods and high mountains! The
+spring is close to the house, and, too bad there is no bench beside
+it!"
+
+The three boys cried, "We shall ask Bacha, and he will send Stephen."
+
+"He can make a very beautiful bench," said Ondrejko. "We can go and
+watch the sheep for him in the meantime."
+
+The doctor stroked the boy's golden hair. "I would like to see you
+turn in the sheep."
+
+"But he would not have to do that," remarked Palko; "for that purpose
+we have Whitie and Playwell. They are very wise dogs."
+
+"Well, now; we shall see what can be done. But the bench must be put
+here. I would like to taste that water."
+
+Palko ran for the flowered pitcher and a cup. They all drank their
+fill. The water was excellent. Then they sat beside the brook, and the
+doctor pulled cheese and bread out of his pocket. Each of the boys
+had his own bread--and quite a big piece at that. When Bacha cut the
+bread, he counted also on the appetites of Dunaj and Fido. The doctor
+divided the cheese. They ate the cheese and bread, and drank water. It
+tasted good to all of them.
+
+Dunaj did not move his eyes from Palko, who shared with him
+faithfully. Greedy Fido ran from one comrade to the other and even sat
+down in front of the doctor, and not in vain. But when he came near
+Palko, Dunaj growled at him, which certainly in a dog's language
+meant, "Are you not ashamed?" So Fido did not try it a second time.
+
+The doctor saw how the children enjoyed their food and noticed that
+Ondrejko also ate with a good appetite. He suddenly began to say,
+"Palko, you said that you would carry wood to the cottage. That will
+not be necessary. I will have a cord of wood brought and cut, but if
+you would take care of bringing the flowers that would be very good.
+The lady is to drink whey. As long as she is weak you could also bring
+that to her every morning. As soon as she is strong enough she will
+have to go to the sheepfold herself, and ask for it at the hut. Now,
+what do you say? Will you help me so that she will get better soon?"
+
+They all heartily agreed that they would do it.
+
+"I will tell you what is the matter with her. For a long time she made
+day out of night, but she could not change the day into night. Thus
+she lacked many nights' rest. Now she would like to sleep, but she
+cannot! She is a sad, unhappy person, and has lived to see much
+sorrow. It will be well if you help me to cheer her up; then she will
+recover sooner."
+
+"And does the lady understand Slovak?" fearlessly asked Palko. The
+doctor smote his forehead.
+
+"You are a wise little fellow, boy. I didn't think of that. But wait!
+I overheard when she bought oranges, she spoke in Czech. Then you will
+be able to understand each other. Do you want to help me, boys?"
+
+"We would like to very much," said Ondrejko.
+
+"If Bacha will permit us," added Petrik. Palko thought that nothing
+would hinder him as long as he was there.
+
+In good spirits the boys returned to the sheepcote. The doctor left
+them at the "Old Hag's Rock." They took from him a closely-written
+note for Bacha Filina, who readily enough agreed to everything. He
+even sent Stephen to build the bench, and also gave permission to the
+boys to carry whey and flowers to the sick lady.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX
+
+
+Again it was Sunday. That day no one from the hut went to church. Very
+early in the morning they read a part of the Word of God, sang a song,
+prayed, and everybody went his way. Filina had an invitation from the
+manager of the Gemer estate. He had to go to the castle, and the boys
+said they would go to Palko's cottage, not to enter, because the
+doctor had the key, but to see if the wood had been already brought
+and where the draymen had stacked it. But who can describe their
+surprise when they reached the cottage. They saw all the windows open
+and on the kitchen-table sat a large white cat. The fur around her
+head looked like a cap. Her eyes were blue and round like those of an
+owl. Her long broad tail hung out of the window. Around her neck she
+had a band decorated with small pearls, and a small gilt bell was
+hanging from it. When they saw her they were glad they had not brought
+the dogs along. Fido went with his master and Dunaj was somewhere
+roaming in the woods.
+
+"Someone must live here already," remarked the surprised Ondrejko.
+
+"Really, so it is. The cat would not be sitting there by herself,"
+added Palko. They walked carefully around the cottage. In the yard
+they found the wood already cut and stacked. Then they took counsel
+together. If the ladies had already come, they must find flowers for
+them. The boys calculated that by the time they would return, the new
+inhabitants of the cottage would be up.
+
+When they returned, in about an hour, each one had a large bouquet of
+flowers and foliage. Palko arranged them for all three. He was already
+a master in that work. Ondrejko carried his bouquet before him with
+both hands, so that he could hardly see the path in front. Petrik
+carried his bouquet over his shoulder. He was the first to notice that
+the door was open and smoke was coming from the chimney.
+
+The next moment an elderly lady with a black dress and white cap
+stepped into the doorway. Her otherwise good-looking face bore
+evidence of much care, and she looked distressed, seeming to say,
+"What shall I do now?"
+
+"She certainly needs something," said Palko, as the boys ran toward
+the cottage.
+
+To their greeting, the lady answered in the Czech language. Her kind
+face brightened as she looked at the boys and their large bouquets.
+
+"Are you the nurse of the sick lady?" Palko began. "We promised the
+doctor that we would bring flowers, so we have brought them now. They
+are wilted, but if you put them in the brook they will freshen up."
+
+"Thank you very kindly. My lady will be glad."
+
+Taking the flowers from the boys, the lady placed their ends in the
+brook.
+
+"Since you are not familiar here, perhaps you will need something that
+you cannot find in the woods," Palko said thoughtfully. "We shall be
+glad to serve you; just let us know."
+
+"I shall be very thankful, boys, if you will help me. We have brought
+everything except salt and bread, which we do not have, because the
+bag in which the eatables were, must have been left in the coach. We
+came late last night instead of this morning, so the doctor did not
+accompany us, and my surroundings are still strange."
+
+"We will bring some salt and bread. Our hut is near by," Petrik cried
+zealously. "Also the whey will be ready. Come on, Ondrejko."
+
+"Are they to bring us milk and bread from the hut?" inquired the lady.
+
+"That will be from us," Ondrejko assured her. "But we have to go at
+once so that we can return soon."
+
+"I will stay with you," decided Palko, "because the cottage belongs
+to my father. Although you may be used to having things arranged
+differently, I may be able to show you where you can put one thing and
+another."
+
+"So this is your cottage? Then you can advise me where to put
+everything that we have brought along. What shall we call you?"
+
+"Palko Lesina. The other boy is Petrik Filina, and the third one is
+Ondrejko de Gemer."
+
+"What is his name?" asked the lady, startled.
+
+"De Gemer. The sheepfolds belong to his father. The doctor sent
+Ondrejko to Bacha Filina because he was weak. Here he thrives well.
+From the time that he has lived as we live and not like a gentleman,
+he has been getting well and strong. And how about your lady; could
+she sleep last night?"
+
+"Oh, my poor lady!" sobbed the elderly woman. "If she only knew. I
+don't know whether she slept in the night, but now she sleeps as she
+has not slept for a long time. Come, Palko, enter softly."
+
+It was good that there was a hall between the bedroom and the kitchen,
+for thus the sleeper was not disturbed. Palko proved to be a very good
+helper. From the kitchen which looked like a county fair, they carried
+away trunks, bags, coverings, raincoats, and towels, into the clean
+storage room, which the lady had not yet discovered. Some things they
+laid on the shelves which Lesina had already put up, and others were
+hung on nails on the wall. One of the trunks, the lady emptied. In it
+were the china and all the kitchen utensils. These Palko carried at
+once to the new kitchen cupboard. Some things he hung up near the
+stove. One of the table-cloths he spread over the table. After he had
+found the broom which his father had made from the branches that he
+had cut and brought, he swept the kitchen, for with the carrying in of
+so many things, much dirt had accumulated. He ran with the pitcher for
+water, and placing one of the bouquets in it, set it on the covered
+table. Just as he had finished, his comrades came running, hot and
+perspiring. Ondrejko carried the crock with a narrow neck, completely
+covered with braided straw, and the covered can of milk. Petrik
+carried quite a heavy bundle on his back.
+
+When the nurse returned from the storeroom she could hardly believe
+her eyes. On the table on a wooden plate lay the black-bread, salt was
+in a new wooden bowl, cheese in a dish, on a plate there was fresh
+golden butter, and in a can, milk. The fire that had gone out in the
+kitchen stove, was burning brightly now. The boys sat on the bench by
+the window, Palko standing in front of them.
+
+"Are you already here, my children?" asked the nurse; "and what have
+you brought?"
+
+"Bread and salt, as you have asked. The whey is in the crock. The milk
+we brought for you, because you are not sick," explained Petrik.
+
+Ondrejko added, "It may be that your lady will not want to drink the
+whey today, and that you will make coffee instead, for yourself."
+
+"For you," Petrik added, "there is also butter and cheese. Palko is
+able to do this because some day all this around here will be his."
+
+The boys were surprised when the eyes of the nurse suddenly filled
+with tears. She wiped them off and kissed the small messengers.
+
+"You are right, Ondrejko, today I will fix coffee, and you all will
+take breakfast with me. In the meantime perhaps my lady will be up."
+
+Before the coffee was finished, the boys found out that the nurse's
+name was Moravec and that they could call her Aunty; that she was born
+in the mountains of northern Bohemia in just such a cottage as this.
+She went to America with her parents, and was married there, but when
+her husband died, and not having her own daughter any more, she had
+served this lady ten years, and took care of her like her own child.
+Before the boys realized it, each had in front of him a beautiful
+cup with a golden edge, full of fragrant coffee, and a big piece of
+Bohemian bun. After all, they had found the seemingly lost bag, and
+really, it would have been a pity if the good Bohemian buns had been
+lost!
+
+Just as their breakfast was finished, the sound of a silver bell was
+heard from the room. Aunty ran in quickly, like a young girl.
+
+"Perhaps it is time for us to go," advised Petrik. Ondrejko looked at
+Palko to see what he would say. He had succeeded in attracting the
+beautiful cat to him. She sat beside him on the bench, and with her
+front paws, like a squirrel, took the dipped bun from him. Now she was
+even sitting on his knees and was purring.
+
+"We cannot leave these dishes thus, when they were dirtied by us. She
+has no help here," said Palko.
+
+So he ran with a tin bucket for water, and Petrik ran to bring wood.
+In the meantime Ondrejko remained alone in the kitchen, when the doors
+of the bedroom opened. At first he heard the voice of Aunty--and then
+another. The blood rushed to his head, the voice was so clear and
+so beautiful. Oh, such mysterious recollections, as from times
+so distant, very distant, as if from the secrets of long past
+remembrances! What they said he did not understand. The cat wriggled
+out of his hands, lifted its long tail and jumped to the door.
+The door was not fully closed and she opened it with one paw and
+disappeared before the eyes of the surprised boy. He was not even
+aware of it. He was so fully taken up with the voice that he did not
+hear any more. The boys' coming disturbed and awakened him.
+
+Palko washed the dishes, Petrik dried them; they put everything away,
+and disappeared as quietly as they could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN
+
+
+Seven days passed. How short! but sometimes how long seven days may
+be! How much one can live through, experience, and suffer! Time
+passes; you awaken, wipe your eyes, and wonder if it is true that it
+has passed already.
+
+Even thus Ondrejko de Gemer, wandering through the woods, wondered
+if all was true that had passed in the last seven days, or if it was
+merely a dream. Oh, it was no dream, really. She came, the sick lady.
+Truly, she lived in Palko's cottage and though Ondrejko had carried
+the whey there already three times he had not seen her. Aunty always
+said that she was asleep, and must sleep very much. Ah, why did she
+always sleep just when he came? She had spoken already to Petrik, and
+gave him a box full of candy. Palko had already read to her from his
+Book, and had told her that she was almost as beautiful as his mother
+at home; Ondrejko, alone, had not seen her yet.
+
+How much he had prayed already, especially that morning, that she
+might not be asleep again when he went there, that he also might
+welcome her to those woods and mountains. Formerly Ondrejko didn't
+think of it, but he did now, when the herdsmen, especially Stephen,
+again and again reminded him that these sheepfolds were his father's,
+and therefore his also, and that he had a rightful claim to
+everything. When they gave him cheese and butter for the lady, they
+gave him plenty, saying, "Just take it; it is yours." This thought
+seemed to appeal to him--all is ours. If Palko could say "our
+cottage," why could not Ondrejko say, "our sheepfolds, our land, and
+our woods? Oh, then she came to us though she lived in the cottage of
+Palko. When she gets stronger she will come to us to drink whey from
+our sheep."
+
+Lost in his meditation, the boy did not realize that he had come to
+the parting of the paths, one of which turned above to the "Old Hag's
+Rock," and the other, below to the cottage in the valley. The weather
+was again so clear that from the green clearings in the woods you
+could hear the great bells of the rams and the little ones of the
+sheep.
+
+"There is the ringing of the bells of our sheep," smiled the happy
+Ondrejko. He ran quickly to the bench, intending to sit upon it and
+rest, but he did not do so for it was occupied by someone like one of
+the fairies from the woods of which Stephen often told him, that on
+St. John's Night came out of the "Old Hag's Rock" and danced on the
+meadows. None of them could be more beautiful than the lady sitting
+on the bench, with its firm back covered with a flowery blanket; a
+similar cushion lay on the arm-rest, and on the cushion rested a white
+arm. On the small narrow palm a forehead was resting, and beautiful
+dark-gray eyes looked far away above the mountains.
+
+The boy set down the crock and folded his arms.
+
+Thus he looked at the lily-white face, and the lips which seemed as if
+the Lord God had made just for song. And again his heart felt as if
+someone carried him far, far away, into the land of remembrances. It
+is too bad that the lady, covered with a light yellow Cashmere shawl
+does not look at the boy. Is he not also good-looking? and how
+beautiful! On Saturday the doctor sent him a new suit, almost the same
+kind as Palko had, but the shirt was embroidered with flowers, with
+broad sleeves, narrow pants, decorated sandals, a round hat with
+bands, and a small embroidered bag. Petrik also received a new suit,
+the kind that he used to wear. Ondrejko was very glad that now he
+would be altogether like his comrades. When they were all three in the
+church yesterday, the people looked around at them.
+
+If the lady would only look this way! Surely she never saw such a
+beautiful little Slovak! But she did not look. At last, the boy came
+to himself. Oh, surely, it must be she!--surely, herself! Who else
+would be sitting on his bench? And she had that beautiful cat beside
+her. Here she was, already up, and he was just bringing her breakfast.
+He was late! Oh, he knew it was necessary for the whey to be warm.
+When, then, will she eat her breakfast?
+
+He took courage and greeted her. The lady aroused herself, opened her
+big eyes, and in surprise looked at the boy timidly drawing near.
+
+"Good morning," greeted Ondrejko. "I am bringing you the whey, but
+surely too late. However, I have hurried quite a bit, therefore please
+do not be angry at me."
+
+"Do you bring me my breakfast?" the lady asked astonished. She arose
+and took the heavy crock out the hand of the boy. "It must be very
+heavy for you."
+
+"It was not," said Ondrejko, more at ease, as he fastened his
+beautiful eyes on the lady's face. Oh, how happy he was that finally
+he too could see her, and that she talked with him and even took him
+by the hand.
+
+"And what is your name?"
+
+"Ondrejko," he replied.
+
+"And do you live here at these sheepfolds?"
+
+"Yes," said he, "I live with Bacha Filina. I like it very much."
+
+The lady walked with the boy and he carried the crock. She was small
+in stature, but every movement reminded one of a princess.
+
+"Why did not Petrik or Palko bring this whey?" she asked, to start a
+conversation with Ondrejko.
+
+"We change about," said he.
+
+"Change about? But I have never seen you before."
+
+"I have carried the whey already three times, but you have always been
+asleep," said Ondrejko.
+
+"So, I have always been asleep during your visits? Therefore I will
+not leave you quickly today. You must rest with us. Look, Aunty is
+already waiting." The lady stopped and almost joyfully handed the
+crock to Aunty Moravec.
+
+"Look who brought the whey for us today, but you are already
+acquainted. We have seen each other for the first time now! Please
+prepare a good breakfast for my guest." The hands of Aunty shook
+somewhat when she received the crock, and she hastened to heat the
+whey at once.
+
+Who could have told Ondrejko how the Lord Jesus would answer his
+prayer? Petrik saw the lady only in the kitchen, but she took him into
+her room. How beautifully she had things arranged there! A plush sofa
+and arm-chair, and many such things as they had in the castle de Gemer
+were in the room. He was permitted to sit with her on the sofa and
+look over a large book with photographs, all of beautiful lands and
+cities. She pointed them out and named them.
+
+"And you have been in all these places?" he dared to ask.
+
+A sad expression clouded her face. "Yes, I have, Ondrejko, but now I
+have only one wish--to remain forever in these mountains and never
+again have to look at that evil, deceitful world outside."
+
+After a while Aunty brought breakfast. Ondrejko had to sit down at the
+beautifully-covered table. He was used to praying before eating in the
+hut, so he did it now also, and in the joy which overflowed his heart,
+he added, "I thank Thee, dear Lord Jesus, that You have so kindly
+answered me."
+
+The lady had already lifted the cup to her lips, but she set it down
+again, and as if ashamed, bowed her head too. A tear appeared on her
+golden eyelashes. When the boy had finished eating, she asked him what
+he had asked Jesus Christ for. He confessed how much he had desired
+to see her, and that he almost envied his comrades. Then he asked
+permission to look also into the other book which lay on a small
+table. It was full of photographs of people. He looked at her out of
+the corner of his eye, because about ten of them were pictures of
+herself, but she was dressed in all kinds of strange costumes. In one
+of the pictures she had on a loose dress like a cloak and a crown on
+her head. Under the picture was printed, "Mary Slavkovsky as Marie
+Stuart." The boy rested his curly head on his small palms, and
+thought.
+
+"Why do you look so much at that picture?" said the lady, stroking his
+golden curls.
+
+"Is this really you in all these pictures? Have you perhaps played in
+a theatre?" said Ondrejko.
+
+She was astonished. "What do you know about theatres? Have you perhaps
+been in one of them?"
+
+"No," he shook his head. "That could not be possible. I have not
+been." The boy's face saddened.
+
+"What do you mean, Ondrejko?" said the lady, drawing him nearer to
+her.
+
+"Oh, my mother also is pictured in photographs, but I shall never see
+her again."
+
+"Your mother?" said she, wonderingly. "Is she not a country woman?"
+
+"Oh, no!" The eyes of the boy glowed. "She is a famous singer, but I
+shall not see her again, because she has forgotten me long ago--and so
+I have nobody to look after me, no mother, no father, although I was
+adjudged to him. I used to be very sad about it, but since Palko came
+to us, and I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, and received Him in my
+heart, I am no more just a forsaken orphan, because He loves me, and
+He it with me." The boy stopped because the lady became very pale, and
+the arm with which she had caressed him, fell down and a deep sigh
+escaped her lips.
+
+"Aunty!" cried the scared boy, and not in vain. Aunty Moravec ran into
+the room. She washed the deathly-pale face of the lady with some kind
+of fine-smelling water. She placed a cushion under her head and put
+her feet on the sofa. After a while, the lady began to breathe better
+again. Aunty took the boy by the hand and led him to the kitchen. At
+his anxious questioning she told him only that the lady was still
+very weak and must rest. Ondrejko repeated to her what they had been
+speaking about together. At hearing this, Aunty sighed and caressed
+him, and said, "It is all in vain. It had to come and the sooner the
+better." She did not hinder Ondrejko from going home, but did not
+allow him to carry the crock.
+
+"Send Palko, in the afternoon. He promised to take the lady to you.
+From tomorrow on, she is to come to your sheepfold to drink the whey.
+The doctor ordered that."
+
+"But is she not sick?" the boy said, showing some anxiety.
+
+"She is not sick any more, only weak, and this weakness she must
+overcome by walking," responded Aunty.
+
+In this world there is no sweetness without bitterness. If something
+strange had not happened, that boy would have returned home very proud
+and happy. Thus Bacha Filina found him not far away, all in tears,
+and when he took him into his strong arms like a little lamb, the boy
+threw both arms around his neck and told him everything.
+
+"Bacha, I have surely said something bad, though I really don't know
+what, and she became very sad about it," cried Ondrejko.
+
+"Do not cry," the man comforted him. "You said only what the Lord God
+put in your mouth. Anyway, when the lady comes in the afternoon, all
+will be well again."
+
+With these words, the Bacha carried the tired boy to his wooden hut,
+laid him on the bed, and sat beside him. He stroked his arm and
+forehead, and before long he had put his little charge to sleep. Then
+he looked at him once more, sadly, and left. About half-an-hour
+later the herdsmen found him dressed in his Sunday suit going in the
+direction of the "Old Hag's Rock." They thought he was going to town,
+and wondered why, because he had been there only yesterday.
+
+At the same time, bitter crying sounded in Palko's cottage, which
+Aunty Moravec could in no way silence. There the weeping lady said,
+"He was here; he, my beautiful golden-headed child, and I did not know
+him. The heavy crock he brought to me himself. He wanted to see me,
+but did not recognize me. How could he, when I myself did not know
+him? That his own mother forgot him long ago is not true. All the
+glory of the world could not replace my lost treasure. Oh, my father,
+my father! If you only knew what became of your daughter! You taught
+her to fold her hands in prayer, but she forgot everything--even that.
+Unfortunate, betrayed wife, craven mother! If you only knew how your
+warnings have been literally fulfilled!"
+
+The lady cried bitterly. There was no comfort for her. Usually there
+is none for the son or daughter who has trampled the good advice of
+his parents under his feet and after that has had to suffer everything
+which has been foretold them.
+
+Finally Aunty went out. She heard steps in the hall. After a while she
+returned asking if Bacha Filina might enter, that he would like to
+speak of something important with the lady.
+
+In a moment Bacha was in the room. "I have come, Madame Slavkovsky, to
+talk with you," he began seriously. "It is time to make an end to
+the sin, which for years you have already committed as to my little
+charge. The doctor told me that you are his mother, and my lord is his
+father. Now is this tender, sensitive child to grow up as somebody
+said: 'Whether father or mother, whether sister or brother, nobody
+comes to welcome me'?" The man spoke seriously.
+
+The lady stretched out her hands towards him imploringly. "What can I
+do? They took him away from me and adjudged him to De Gemer. My lawyer
+did everything that he could, but in vain."
+
+"But would you love him, would you like to take care of him as it
+behooves a decent mother, if my lord would return him to you?"
+
+"Why would I not! I deserve that you ask me that. Whether you believe
+me or not, Bacha Filina, I would give everything if I could only get
+him back again. I see he loves me, unworthy though I am."
+
+"Yes, he loves you as only forsaken children know how to do. Therefore
+I came to you, lady--today or never God gives you an opportunity to
+get your treasure back again. Your former husband fell deeply into
+debt. His administrator received the order to sell the estate of the
+De Gemer family. If you have enough money--the doctor told me that you
+have--buy it out of the first hands before the Jews get hold of it.
+When your lawyer writes him that you will have the estate turned over
+to the boy, if Lord de Gemen will give it to you in black and white,
+he will be glad to do so, I know, and will give you the boy. He always
+boasted that the 'De Gemer' estate shall belong to Ondrejko, his
+first-born. Everybody in the neighborhood knows about it. It would not
+be such a great shame on the family, that they had to sell the family
+castle, if, after all, the property remained in his son's hands. It
+is a beautiful estate, and it is wisely managed. It will bring a much
+larger income later on, than it does today. Even if you had to borrow
+some money to purchase it, it would be worthwhile to do so."
+
+"Oh, Bacha Filina!" The lady took the man's hard right hand into her
+small ones. "How can I thank you enough for this good and beautiful
+advice? I don't know if my ready money will suffice, but I have
+beautiful jewelry, and when I sell that, we will have something to
+start with at least. I am not altogether so unfamiliar with managing
+as you may think; I am the daughter of a farmer. But who will buy this
+for me? My lawyer is not here."
+
+"Leave Ondrejko with the doctor. Ride to the administrator's office
+and buy the estate yourself. He has orders to sell it. Do not begin to
+deal about the boy before the estate is yours. At least, that is what
+I think. But today let Ondrejko know that you are his mother, that the
+boy may not suffer longer. Come to us in the afternoon. I will send
+Palko for you."
+
+Filina arose. "I would not have come to you while you are still weak,
+but we must hurry with the buying, and Ondrejko cared so much that he
+shook all over, thinking that surely he had said something bad to
+you so that you fainted. The boy is very tender. He needs not only
+strengthening with me--that is only for the body--but his heart needs
+a mother. The God in the heavens has become his Father. Good-bye,
+then."
+
+"Bacha Filina," the lady stopped the man. "Do you know why I parted
+with De Gemer? Or do you think that because I am a singer, I have left
+him like an unfaithful wife?"
+
+"The doctor told me that my lord had wronged you. I do not ask more.
+Everyone of us has enough of his own sins. God sees us and knows us.
+Do not judge that ye be not judged." The deep voice of Filina sounded
+almost gentle. He shook her hand and left.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Uncle Filina! Did you already return from the city?" sounded a voice
+from the clearing where he went to look at the flock. Palko ran to
+meet him. In his hand he carried a basket full of beautiful mushrooms.
+
+"I was not in the city, Palko; but what are you doing here?" Filina
+was cheered with Palko's presence and sat down on an old log overgrown
+with moss. The boy joyfully threw himself down on the deep mossy
+cushions.
+
+"I carried a letter to Stephen which the forester's boy brought for
+him from his mother. It cheered him very much. She had been sick, but
+now she writes to him herself. Praise the Lord!"
+
+"I am very glad of that; she is a good woman. And the son which has no
+mother has no home anywhere," said Filina. "Where did you find these
+mushrooms?"
+
+"They are beautiful, aren't they? Oh, I just happened to see them. Joe
+said he would cook the stew for supper. They will fit in well."
+
+"Yes, they will. Pick out the best ones, and take them to the ladies
+this afternoon, in your cabin. Perhaps they will like them."
+
+"Shall I really go for the lady? Will it not be too far for her yet?"
+thoughtfully asked the boy.
+
+"I think not, but you must go slowly."
+
+"But she is still so weak, Uncle."
+
+"I know it; I have just left her."
+
+"Is that so? You saw her? And you just came from there? Did you stop
+there on the way from town?"
+
+Bacha was silent for a moment as if deciding something. Then he
+fastened his eagle eyes on the boy's face. "Palko, I am going to tell
+you something. God grant that you may help me in a very difficult
+thing."
+
+"I would love to, Uncle. Just tell me."
+
+"The master of these sheepfolds is Ondrejko's father. You know that;
+do you not?"
+
+"Yes, I know it."
+
+"And the beautiful lady there, is his mother."
+
+"What did you say!" Palko jumped up at once and sat down again. "But
+how is it that they are not together, and that Ondrejko is not with
+them?"
+
+"They had parted, and he took another wife many years ago."
+
+"And the Lord Jesus permitted that? It seems to me that He said, 'It
+should not be so.'"
+
+"You know, Palko, the world does many things that the Lord God
+forbids--even this. I know it is a sin, but it is already that way and
+it cannot be changed now. The lady, before De Gemer took her, was a
+famous singer in America. She must have been very beautiful because
+she is still so today. He brought her to Europe to his family. They
+were displeased with him because the lady was not of noble birth. They
+did not treat her well, and he did not stand by her as would have been
+his duty. Because as far as I know him, he is not the man to guard his
+wife against the whole world. It may also be that he has been sorry
+already, that he had shut himself out of the world because of her,
+while on the other hand, many noble ladies were offered him. How it
+was among themselves, I do not know. I only know that once, when he
+was not at home, she took the boy and fled away. Then they lived in
+Budapest. She did not know how to make a living any other way--so she
+gave the boy into the care of strange people, and went again to the
+theatre. Then came the law suit. He charged her with leaving him, and
+she did not want to return to him, so the court separated them. They
+adjudged the boy to his father, and so he came to us. While Ondrejko
+was with those people, where she cared for him, they told him all good
+things about her, but when he came to where his father put him you can
+imagine that they did not speak well of her. So the poor boy has heard
+all kinds of stories about his mother, and yet he longs for her, and
+so I visited the lady today. I wanted to advise her how she could
+take the boy herself and acknowledge him today. Therefore I tell you,
+Palko, everything, that you may tell Ondrejko who it is that is coming
+to us today."
+
+There was silence in the mountains. Bacha looked at the boy deep in
+thought. "Will you tell him, Palko?"
+
+"Yes, Uncle. But I must first ask the Lord Jesus for help, for that is
+not a small thing. It is good that Ondrejko is already God's lamb. He
+will even help his mother to find the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, we will
+do that part. But, Uncle Filina, when will you tell me that you have
+received Him?--that you are His?" The question from the boy, put with
+so much loving concern, brought the tears into the man's eyes.
+
+"I do not know myself, what to tell you, my boy. It is all so strange
+to me. From the time that I took the Lord Jesus, like Zaccheus,
+it seems to me there is no more of that great burden that always
+oppressed me. Sometimes it seems to me as if the Son of God was
+actually with me, and when I read the Bible it seems as though He is
+living in my heart and opens my eyes. Now I don't know, my boy, what
+more can I do."
+
+"Oh, Uncle," Palko began to jump for joy. "Really, you have already
+accepted Him. He came and took away your load, and threw it behind
+God's back."
+
+"What do you say, boy?" said the surprised man. "Is that all?"
+
+"Yes, that is all. We are only to believe Him. You know well how He
+said, 'Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
+give you rest.' Don't you believe He means what He says?"
+
+"I do believe, my boy, and already believe, and even understand all
+like Zaccheus. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He
+came to seek even me, the lost sinner, and I let Him find me."
+
+When the next moment they kneeled before God, the man and the boy,
+there was great joy in heaven that again a sinner had received the
+Lord Jesus Christ. Because to those who receive Him, to them gave He
+power to be the sons of God. Thus the angels wrote His name in the
+Lamb's book of Life. They wrote that Peter Filina believed, and that
+Jesus of Nazareth took his heavy burden of sin upon His cross, there
+suffered for him the penalty of death, and thus it was that Filina was
+forgiven all, and received the Son of God for ever and ever. So for
+the first time Filina prayed with his whole heart to God as his
+Father. He thanked the Lamb of God for His death, and thanked Him also
+for Palko whom He had sent to those mountains.
+
+When they were done, the boy sighed deeply. Said he, "Since I am
+finished with you, I don't have to ask the Lord Jesus any more for
+you, but can ask so much better for Ondrejko's mother. Surely He will
+grant to me that she will soon accept Him too."
+
+They went together a little way, but Bacha turned to the clearings and
+Palko ran back again to the hut at the sheepfold. On the way, he sang
+until the echo rang everywhere.
+
+There was much stirring in the hut that afternoon. The boys cleaned
+and arranged everything so that no particle of dust could be found
+anywhere. They brought flowers to Ondrejko that he might braid a chain
+of them. It was a very long one. Bacha himself afterwards draped it
+over the door.
+
+"Well, it is time for me to go," announced Palko. "Ondrejko, come with
+me part of the way. I saw some nice flowers not far away and you can
+pick them. These we will place on the table afterwards."
+
+"Verily it is time that you go," agreed Bacha, "and go together."
+
+Ondrejko obeyed very gladly. Merrily the boys went into the woods and
+soon found the flowers they wanted.
+
+"Let us sit down a while," said Palko when they had picked the flowers
+and placed them in the nearby spring. "I would like to tell you
+something. Do you remember anything about your mother?"
+
+"About my mother?" said the surprised Ondrejko. That kind of question
+he did not expect. "I remember but a little, that she was very
+beautiful, and had a very fine voice."
+
+"And if she suddenly came for you, would you be glad?"
+
+"For me?" and the boy's beautiful eyes opened wide. "She cannot come
+for me any more, because I do not belong to her, but to father."
+
+"And what did the lady where you lived formerly tell you about her?"
+
+"That she left father and me because she loved the theatre more than
+us, and because sometimes the people hitched themselves to wagons
+instead of horses, and gave her beautiful jewels."
+
+"And you believed it?" retorted Palko, with clouded face.
+
+"No, I did not believe it, because I loved her, loved her very much."
+
+"You are right; don't you believe it. Bacha Filina told me that she
+went away because your father's family did not like her because she
+was not of noble birth as themselves. But she went to the theatre only
+because she could not make her living otherwise. Your father brought
+her from a very great distance to which she could not return. What
+could she do? What the theatre is, I do not know. Only that she sang
+there beautifully. Perhaps that would not have been so bad if she had
+known the Lord Jesus as we know Him. He would surely have advised and
+helped her otherwise, and if that which she did was wrong, when she
+once knows Jesus and asks Him to forgive her, He will do so. But we
+must tell her about Him, you and I."
+
+"We? But she is far away, very far."
+
+"Do not believe it, Ondrejko. The Lord Jesus sent her back as far as
+here. The lady at our cottage--that is she."
+
+"You say that is she?" Ondrejko jumped up.
+
+"Yes, yes; that is she."
+
+"She was just like her, and had the same kind of a voice! And so it
+aroused in my heart remembrances of long ago when she spoke and when
+I looked at her. It seems to me I recognized her, but she didn't know
+me," sadly sighed the boy, and his eyes filled with tears.
+
+"But how could she have recognized you in those farmer's clothes? We
+too, Petrik and I, hardly recognized you."
+
+"Do you think so?" Ondrejko calmed down. "Palko, take me to her; she
+doesn't know that I am her Andreas. She doesn't know me."
+
+"She knows already. Uncle Filina was there. He told her the truth."
+
+"Oh, then take me with you, because I have made her very sad--till she
+almost died."
+
+"I don't care. Come, then. Surely the Lord Jesus wants it so."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No matter how long Ondrejko Gemersky lives he will never be able to
+forget how it was when the doors in the cottage opened and a beautiful
+lady in a light blue dress, the color of forget-me-nots, stepped out.
+In her hands she carried a broad hat, but she dropped it with a cry,
+"My Ondrejko!" as she ran toward them. He flew like an arrow to meet
+her.
+
+"Mother, my mother!"--and already held her around the neck. She,
+kneeling, hugged him to her breast. They both cried, and Palko with
+them.
+
+"Oh, mother, my mother, how I love you! Verily I am yours, and surely
+you will keep me now," begged Ondrejko with tears. He stroked the
+beautiful face and forehead of the lady.
+
+"Yes, you are mine." She jumped up. "I will not give you up any more
+to anyone, anyone in the world. But no, come, my son, we have to go to
+Bacha Filina. He will take care of it, that no one can take you away
+from me."
+
+Surely Ondrejko will never forget this, nor how they walked together
+to the sheepcote, how well they were received there, what a good time
+they had that afternoon and evening, because Ondrejko's mother slept
+together with Aunty Moravec in his hut. Bacha counted on that. He took
+counsel with Aunty and sent Stephen to the cottage to bring whatever
+was necessary for the lady, especially sheets, covers, etc. Thus
+Ondrejko sat beside his mother in the evening when Joe roasted the
+lamb over the fire, and Petrik helped Aunty to cook soup in the pot.
+
+Bacha told them about the life at the sheepcotes, and many interesting
+things from his experiences with the flocks. Then they had supper
+together, there in the open. Then they sang the evening song, prayed,
+and Palko read from his Book. At Filina's request he read the 15th
+chapter of the Gospel of Luke, about a good shepherd, about a woman
+who lost her coin, and about a prodigal son who had a good father, but
+nevertheless ran away from him, and how badly he fared in the world
+until he returned to his father. During the reading Palko made many
+beautiful remarks, as he usually did. They all loved to hear him. When
+he closed, only the fire crackled, and the stars in the heavens were
+sparkling like a multitude of eyes. The moon lit up the tops of the
+mountains and woods. Often one of the sheep rang its bell in the fold.
+
+Bacha suddenly lifted up his bowed head, and spoke with a voice such
+as they had never heard before: "That lost and found sheep am I, my
+children. The gracious Lord God forgave all my sins. The Lord Jesus
+sought and found me, and I have surrendered myself to Him altogether,
+including our huts. Let us pray."
+
+He took his hat off, folded his hands, and prayed thus, "Our Father,"
+in such a manner, that nobody had ever heard such a prayer before.
+Never will Ondrejko de Gemer forget that moment, but I think that none
+of the others present there will ever be able to forget it either.
+
+When in the huts everything quieted down--not even the dogs barked
+that night--Bacha, as his custom was, walked all around to see if
+there was any danger anywhere, before he betook himself to rest. He
+walked also around the wooden hut and suddenly stopped. There on
+Ondrejko's little bench, under the window, wrapped up in a shawl,
+Madame Slavkovsky sat in the moonlight. Her hands were twined around
+her knees, and she was thoughtfully looking into the beautiful starry
+night. He coughed, that she might not be startled. She turned her
+head, and with a motion indicated her wish that he should take a place
+beside her. He obeyed.
+
+"You said, Bacha Filina, that that lost and found sheep was you," she
+began in her sweet, sad voice. "That woman who lost that coin is also
+I. More than that even, I am the prodigal daughter."
+
+"What do you mean by that, lady?" asked Filina seriously.
+
+"When Palko explained how good that father was and how the naughty boy
+left him, I thought that I did just that to my good dear father; and
+therefore, from that time on, what sad experiences I have had!" She
+sighed deeply.
+
+"Tell me all about it. I am an old man and could be your father. I
+shall understand you."
+
+"Yes, I will tell you everything, because if you had not saved my poor
+child he would not have had anybody. Did you not care for him like a
+father?"
+
+"We lived on a beautiful farm in America," she went on. "My
+grandfather and grandmother came from Bohemia as a young couple. They
+bought a small farm and worked diligently, and God blessed them. They
+were good people, who trusted in God. They had one son and a daughter.
+Their son wanted to study, so they sent him to school. As he did not
+work on the farm they had to take a helper, and he also came from the
+old country. They took a liking for him at once because he fitted in
+so well in the family. Once when grandfather was so seriously ill that
+he thought he would die, he called his helper and asked him, since he
+was single and without relatives in the land, if he would marry his
+daughter. He would be more easy if he knew in whose hands he had left
+his daughter and wife. That the daughter liked the good-looking and
+good-hearted young man, they knew well. But the young man asked for
+some time to think it over, and then told their daughter his history
+from the old country. What it all was I don't know, and when she,
+in spite of it all, was willing to take him, he acceded to my
+grandfather's wish, and none of them were ever sorry for it. My father
+was very kind to my mother. She had no reason to be sorry that she had
+married him. Grandfather recovered from his illness. For many years
+after that he worked together with his son-in-law and everything went
+well, so that with his help the small farm became a large one. My
+recollections are only of the big farm. I was their only child. My
+uncle Vojta was at that time a professor in New York, was married, and
+advised my parents to send me to him there, that I might go to school
+and become a lady. Grandfather approved of this; thus I was at home
+only in the summer, and over the winter at Uncle's in school till I
+was really trained. My Uncle noticed that I had a talent for singing,
+and the teachers confirmed it. Without the knowledge of my home folks
+he sent me to learn to sing. I loved to sing, but loved still more the
+praise showered upon me by the audiences at the school-concerts.
+
+"In the meantime, so great a change transpired in my home that I
+hardly recognized it when they called me to grandfather's deathbed.
+Our farm was not far from the mountains. In those mountains was a
+mission conference for several weeks. Our whole family used to go to
+listen to those speakers who held religious lectures there--and all
+of them, as it was well-known about there, turned to Christ. I shall
+never forget how happy grandfather died, how he blessed us all, and
+with what fortitude grandmother bore her loss. For the first time I
+was really glad to be able to run away from my dear parents to my
+Uncle's. My beloved ones started a family altar at home. They sang
+songs to the honor of the Lamb who, they claimed, had delivered them
+from their sins. Well, I did not like to sing those songs. It seemed
+to me as if even the walls of our house would fall down on me.
+
+"My splendid, kind father let me go sadly. I had half-a-year more
+school to complete, and one more examination. My dear parents rejoiced
+that then I would be wholly their's, because they had only me, and for
+me they worked and saved. My Uncle agreed with me in everything. Like
+me, he did not want to enter the narrow path which leads to glory.
+With the conclusion of the school-year, my study of singing also
+ended, and I returned home with the intention of persuading my parents
+to permit me to enter the opera--that means, to become a singer. More
+than half-a-year I fought at home with pleas and tears, but in
+vain. My father was wonderfully patient and kind to me. Mother
+and grandmother were often not so patient, but, like these grand
+mountains, they would not move, nor could anyone move my father to
+break his word that he would never give me permission to go. Well,
+what he did not give me, I took myself."
+
+"What did you do?" compassionately asked Bacha. The lady broke out
+crying.
+
+"I left home, leaving a letter behind saying that I loved the world,
+in which and for which, I wanted to live, and I loved the glory of the
+world and did not want to bury myself on the farm. I ran away to my
+Uncle's. My dear father came at once for me. He begged and pled, but I
+didn't want to go back with him, and did not do so.
+
+"'When you find out that the world is as vain as soap-bubbles, and
+your heart is full of disillusionment, ready to despair, then remember
+that you have a father and a home to return to,' said father. 'Until
+that time you cannot count yourself one of us. We are standing on two
+different paths: the one we go on is narrow and leads high; the other,
+which you have chosen, is broad and will lead you from the heights to
+a deep abyss. Our prayers will surround you always like a fiery wall.
+I know that you will have to suffer much evil and much sorrow, but our
+prayers will prevent you from sinning as grievously as you will see
+others do around you.'
+
+"Those were his last words. Oh, Bacha Filina, I went over that broad
+path. In a short time I was a famous singer. The people carried me on
+their arms. Though I was a simple farmer's daughter, because of the
+courses of the good schools which I had attended, the doors of high
+society opened to me, and I, like the prodigal, very soon forgot my
+parents, and especially my good father. Then Lord Gemer came into my
+life, and I married him, being ready to leave everything for him, even
+my fame. He promised me that even when I was his wife, he would agree
+to my keeping on with my singing. He kept that promise while we were
+in America and Italy. But in his native country it was impossible.
+
+"And then everything began to turn out just as my dear father
+foretold. But I don't want to talk about that. I just wanted to say
+that I am that prodigal son."
+
+"That you are, my lady, but only half-way; because the son returned,
+and you haven't returned yet."
+
+"No, you are right. I haven't returned yet. When I had forsaken the
+man who betrayed me, I was ashamed, for I was forsaken, betrayed, and
+robbed of all means to return home. When I asked my uncle to help me,
+though he sent me some money, he also sharply admonished me either to
+return to my husband or to go back to my parents and do penance, but
+this I did not want to do. It seemed to me that all sinned against me,
+and I only was innocent. I had to live. And so I began to sing again,
+though with a broken heart. In a short time I had the world again
+lying at my feet, but, being so forsaken, I soon recognized its whole
+rottenness. How right my father was; I could not sin as I saw others
+around me doing. Therefore I had to suffer much till I could go on no
+longer. Since my health broke down, I cancelled my contract and betook
+myself to search for my son. I wanted to see him, at least once more,
+before I died. That is all."
+
+"That is not everything," said Filina kindly with a smile as he
+rose. "The end will be only when the daughter returns, first to her
+heavenly, and then also to her earthly father. He that received me,
+will surely receive you too. But now come and go to rest, and think
+how perhaps in a distant land your father is praying just now for you,
+and that the heavenly Father loved us so much that He gave His only
+Son for us. Goodnight!"
+
+In a little while the stars shone down upon a quiet place while the
+people slept.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT
+
+
+The doctor came the next day, just as Bacha Filina had expected him.
+He came in his coach as far as the sheepcotes, and before Ondrejko
+realized it, he carried away his mother, and also Bacha Filina. Before
+they went they arranged for Ondrejko to remain longer with Bacha, and
+he would go to his mother only for visits.
+
+"Palko, take the boys," commanded Bacha, "and go with them somewhere
+in the woods where nobody will interfere, and pray that the Lord God
+may help us to successfully arrange for what we have before us."
+
+So they prayed, and believed that the Lord Jesus heard them.
+
+Late in the evening, Bacha returned. The boys were already asleep. In
+the morning he told them that everything that could be done yesterday
+was carried out successfully, but that there was another matter which
+would take about a week before they could know how it would turn out,
+so they must keep on praying.
+
+And what a week it was! The boys never lived through another like it.
+Sometimes they were with Ondrejko at his mother's. Again she came to
+the sheepcotes, and when she remained till the evening she loved to
+spend the night in the wooden hut. Aunty used to return before the
+evening in the company of Petrik. He loved to do this, because he
+always got a very good supper there. Then Ondrejko slept with his
+mother. How beautiful that was! She sat on his bed, told him many good
+things, petted, and kissed him till he fell asleep. In the morning
+again, he woke her up early. He jumped from his bed, threw his arms
+around her neck and timidly kissed her beautiful lips. What beautiful
+moments these were! Ondrejko was allowed to accompany his mother even
+when Bacha Filina took her to show her all three sheepfolds. They
+walked together over the clearings, looked at the herds of sheep, and
+spoke with the herdsmen. She was so friendly and kind to them. On the
+other hand, this helped to improve her health. After such a walk
+she ate and slept very well. Ondrejko was glad that she liked Bacha
+Filina. He treated her very nicely, just like a lady, as if she were
+his own daughter. On Saturday Ondrejko went with his mother to the
+cottage. There he was to have dinner with her. Both of his comrades
+were invited for the afternoon, and with them, of course, came Dunaj
+and Fido, but the cat was not afraid of them, and when they saw this
+they let her alone.
+
+The boy ran joyfully into the room, but on the doorstep he halted,
+because his beautiful mother sat at a table. In her hand she held a
+long letter ready for the mail, and she cried. Oh, how bitterly she
+cried! She was cheered up when he ran to her and began to hug and kiss
+her; she returned his kisses but did not stop crying. "Why do you cry
+so much, my mother?" he said sadly. "What is it about?"
+
+"About myself, my loved one, because I am very bad."
+
+Ondrejko would not admit that. To him, a mother seemed like an angel,
+but Palko had read only yesterday the saying: "THEY ALL HAVE SINNED
+AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD," and added that so long as one
+does not realize this and thinks himself good enough, the Lord Jesus
+cannot save him, because only sick ones need a doctor; and Bacha
+Filina had added that only the Holy Spirit can bring a soul to such
+conviction. It must be then, that the Holy Spirit had begun to teach
+his mother also. Surely the Lord Jesus would soon find her!
+
+"Why do you think, mother, that you are bad?" the boy timidly asked.
+
+"Because I have a very good father, and have grieved him very much.
+Look, Ondrejko; I have written now for the first time in many years."
+
+"And surely you have asked his forgiveness? Have you not?"
+
+"Yes, I did; but is it possible to forgive such a sinner?"
+
+"The father forgave his prodigal son because he loved him," the boy
+said seriously. "Did your father love you also, my mother?"
+
+The lady sighed sadly, but did not cry any more.
+
+"He would surely receive you if you would return home."
+
+"I will see if he will answer me, and what he will say."
+
+"Mother, was not your father my grandfather?"
+
+"Yes, my darling; and if the good Lord grant that I may be able to
+count you all my own, and you will be only mine, then we will go
+together, and you will help me to ask him. He will surely not refuse
+you; you will understand one another better, because you both love the
+Lord Jesus and you are His sheep."
+
+The boy rejoiced. The grandfather loved the Lord Jesus! "How glad I
+am! Oh, then he will surely forgive you."
+
+They could not continue their talk because Aunty Moravec called them
+to dinner, which was very good. Joe came after dinner; he was carrying
+cheese to town and stopped to ask if there was anything to be mailed.
+The lady gave him her letter, and Aunty a slip and money to buy
+various things at the stores, with a big piece of cake to eat on the
+way. From the lady he received money to buy cherries for himself and
+the boys, if there were any good ones.
+
+That afternoon it was quite jolly in and about the cottage when the
+comrades came. Ondrejko was glad that his mother was so joyful. She
+taught them all kinds of nice games. She even went with them on the
+"Old Hag's Rock," and there Palko had to tell her also how he found
+his Sunshine Country. That interested her very much. He recalled
+twice, how he was lost as a small child and grew up with strange
+people, and how the Lord Jesus took care that he came again to his
+parents. A whole book could be written about how he fared in the
+world.[A] Madame Slavkovsky was very much interested in that. When
+they later walked to the sheepcotes, all along the way she asked about
+Palko's mother, who in her sorrow for the lost boy also lost her
+reason till she finally found him and the Lord Jesus returned her son
+to her. They did not realize how quickly they came to the huts.
+
+[Footnote A: See the first part of "The Sunshine Country."]
+
+It was a beautiful evening; the sunset covered the sky with its rosy
+curtains. The sun sank behind the mountains, and as if in parting
+kissed the valleys and the people, and especially seemed to kiss the
+beautiful lady who sat by the open fire in deep thought.
+
+"If you can sing so beautifully," begged Palko, "and many people went
+to hear you, we also would like you to do so. Sing for us, if you
+please."
+
+"Oh, Palko." The lady shook her head. "You wouldn't like my song.
+Besides you wouldn't understand me. I sang mostly in English, Italian,
+but also in Czech, but the text of these songs would not fit in with
+this sacred evening closing around us. But because I would like to
+reward you, Palko, for so beautifully relating your experiences, let
+me just think a moment."
+
+They waited; and it was so quiet around them that they could almost
+hear one another breathe; and in the distance the bells of the flocks
+tinkled.
+
+Finally, she lifted her head. "After all, I remember something, and it
+is in the Slovak language. Once I learned this song about the sea,
+and when I sang it, thousands of people wept. It is a ballad about a
+shipwrecked vessel. Would you like to have me sing it?"
+
+"Yes, yes," they all cried. Bacha had just arrived and sat among them.
+What a beautiful thing it is when the Creator puts such a voice in the
+human throat that no bird or instrument can equal it! You can hear
+everything in such a voice: the ringing of gold and silver, the
+moaning in the tops of the pines when they move in the wind; the
+babbling of the brooks as well as the roar of a great cataract--yes,
+everything!
+
+  "Master, the tempest is raging!
+    The billows are tossing high!
+  The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness,
+    No shelter or help is nigh;
+
+  "Carest Thou not that we perish?
+    How canst Thou lie asleep,
+  When each moment so madly is threat'ning
+    A grave in the angry deep?"
+
+Sweetly, yet mysteriously and sadly, the notes of the song floated on
+the evening breeze down to the valley. Once, when the lady tried the
+song for the first time, thousands of people cried. Today only a small
+company of listeners cried, but I think that even the woods and the
+brooks and everything round wept also. Above all of them wept Bacha
+Filina. Palko who sat next to him laid his arm around his neck and
+cried with him. He understood him. Thus perished once the ship that
+carried Stephen. It sank in the terrible depths with him. In vain they
+waited, in vain they called. Uncle Filina would never see him again.
+
+The boys did not dream, nor the helpers of Bacha, that anything
+existed as beautiful as that which was hidden in the lady's throat.
+You could almost hear the crashings of the breaking ship, and feel the
+hopelessness of the situation. It ended like sad, soft wailings of the
+perishing ones. The lady noticed the weeping her song had awakened.
+She realized that it would not be easy to stop it. Then she did
+something which that very morning she would have been in doubt that
+she would be able to do. She sang a song hidden in her memory from her
+old home, and which she had hated with her whole heart, because she
+could not forget it.
+
+  "My faith looks up to Thee,
+  Thou Lamb of Calvary,
+    Saviour Divine!
+  Now hear me while I pray,
+  Take all my guilt away,
+  Oh, let me from this day
+    Be wholly Thine!
+
+  "May Thy rich grace impart
+  Strength to my fainting heart,
+    My zeal inspire!
+  As Thou hast died for me,
+  Oh, may my love to Thee,
+  Pure, warm, and changeless be,
+    A living fire!
+
+  "While life's dark maze I tread,
+  And griefs around me spread,
+    Be Thou my guide;
+  Bid darkness turn to day,
+  Wipe sorrow's tears away,
+  Nor let me ever stray
+    From Thee aside.
+
+  "When ends life's transient dream,
+  When death's cold, sullen stream
+    Shall o'er me roll;
+  Blest Saviour, then, in love,
+  Fear and distrust remove;
+  Oh, bear me safe above,
+    A ransomed soul!"
+
+Perhaps nowhere and never before, were those beautiful lines sung so
+impressively. When she stopped, Bacha Filina stood near her and very
+seriously said, "Thank you, Madame Slavkovsky, for that precious song.
+You have shown me great kindness thereby. Your beautiful ballad opened
+a deep wound in my heart which was not quite healed. It almost seemed
+that I must die because of it, but this holy song healed it again. God
+bless you for it! But one thing I must ask you: let us write this song
+down, and you must teach us the melody that we may cheer ourselves
+with it in life and death."
+
+The lady promised, but asked that they might now read the Word of God,
+as she felt tired. They did this very gladly, and in a little while a
+wonderful quietness reigned.
+
+"Listen, Steve," said Joe to his comrade; "In the castle they said
+that when the lady went home after singing in the theatre that
+gentlemen unhitched the horses from her carriage, and hitched
+themselves to it and thus drew her along. I am not surprised. Really,
+when she sings, she can do anything with a person."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE
+
+
+On Sunday morning the doctor brought some papers. They all had met
+at breakfast in the hut. When the lady read the letters, she folded
+Ondrejko in her arms, and half-crying and half-laughing said, "My dear
+son, now you may really say, 'our woods,' 'our sheep,' because I have
+bought it all for you, my Ondrejko, and all this ground. Only I don't
+know if I dare say: 'Our Bacha Filina.' I cannot, if it were not for
+you. He himself must decide if he will stay with us. Do tell him that
+he must stay."
+
+"Do not ask, Ondrejko," smiled Bacha. "If you are at all satisfied
+with me--yes, if you are satisfied with all of us--we all will be glad
+to stay; isn't it so, boys?"
+
+"Surely we will be very glad to stay," answered the herdsmen.
+
+Soon it was known at all three sheepfolds that Madame Slavkovsky had
+bought Lord Gemer's estate and that she would deed it to Ondrejko if
+Lord Gemer would give up her son to her. No one doubted that he would
+do this, and since the present manager gave notice to leave, because
+he had been called to manage a different estate, the lady hoped that
+she would find some other responsible man. She promised everyone a
+raise in wages as soon as the change of ownership of the estate was
+recorded and improvements made. Everybody rejoiced. It almost seemed
+that even the sheep knew that Ondrejko had become their master. It was
+lovely how they rang their bells.
+
+Over the sheepcotes every once in a while sounded the song which they
+called the lady's: "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary."
+The boys taught it to everybody who wanted to learn it, and what
+Slovak would not like to learn a new song? When Aunty Moravec noticed
+how they all liked it, she confided to Palko that she still had a
+whole book of such songs from America. Thereupon, Ondrejko begged his
+mother to sing one of them once in a while. She made no excuses. Every
+day she taught them a new one, each more beautiful than those before.
+They did not realize that she taught them the very songs from which
+she ran away in the home of her parents, and which she would neither
+hear nor sing there. Bacha permitted the herders from the other
+sheepcotes to come over to his hut. They loved to come for those
+songs. They had good voices, clear as the evening bells. The lady
+even taught them to sing one in four parts. When Sunday came, they
+practised the whole afternoon, and sang in the evening, so that it
+sounded over the mountains like a beautiful melody.
+
+That Sunday Palko read and explained how the Lord came from Nazareth
+to live in Capernaum, since they did not want Him in Nazareth, and
+that even today the Lord Jesus did not want to compel anybody, even as
+He had not compelled those in Nazareth, but went away and left them
+forever. Then he begged everybody not to send the Lord Jesus away, but
+permit Him to live with them. "It would be very sad if our sheepcotes
+would be like those of Nazareth, and if He had to forsake us and go
+farther on to Capernaum. Where He is, there is heaven and there is
+life. He heals every sickness. Just notice how many people He healed
+in Capernaum. But where He is not, there is darkness, just as in that
+song it says: 'Oh, there is no more salvation.'"
+
+With serious thoughts they all departed to their rest. Ondrejko slept
+very soundly, but in spite of that it seemed to him that he heard his
+mother crying. In the morning he saw from her eyes that she had not
+slept very much. He dared not wake her up. So he stole out on tiptoe
+with his suit and dressed outside.
+
+Once when Joe brought things from the city and Aunty Moravec gave him
+a good meal, he began to praise his new lady and asked sincerely, "But
+why did Lord de Gemer part with her? He will not find another like her
+in the world."
+
+"He did not part with her, but she parted with him," said the old
+nurse with clouded face. "He is a bad, unfaithful man. The poor woman
+loved him so much and believed everything. When she took him, she had
+much money; and he just lived on her money and wasted it. He played
+cards and did all kinds of evil things. By the time we came to
+Budapest she was robbed of everything. He wanted her to continue to
+sing there. She had beautiful jewels; he told her he would deposit
+them in a bank, but he pawned them, because at the horse-races he had
+lost a big bet and needed much money. When he said that I warned her
+not to let everything go out of her power, through false accusation he
+separated me from her, accusing me of causing trouble between them.
+When there was no one else to defend her and she was robbed of
+everything, they began to look down upon her--his mother, his sisters,
+and he himself. She was born in America; there they treat women
+differently. In spite of it she suffered a whole year because she
+loved him very much. Once she saw her jewelry on another lady, and
+asked where she had bought them. Thus she found out that they were
+pawned and had been sold for the charges on them. There were many
+evil-minded people around her; they opened her eyes after that to what
+kind of a husband she had, how he fooled and robbed her, that he loved
+only her money. That was most insulting to her. Not an hour more would
+she stay with him under the same roof. She got together the last
+things she had--above all her little son--and went to Vienna. There
+I found her dangerously sick. She asked her husband to send her her
+things, for she was sick. He again asked for the boy but she would not
+give him up. In order that they might not take him away, I, myself,
+took him to northern Bohemia, to my own family, where it was well with
+him. In the meantime the lawsuit ended, and they took him away from
+her because he was assigned to his father. Because she did not give
+the boy up at once, he sent her, from her clothing and laundry, only
+what was old and shabby. His relatives divided her beautiful, valuable
+garments among themselves. Thus they dealt with her because nobody
+would protect her. In those hard days, her uncle from America, who had
+arranged for her training in singing, helped her. Thus she could pay
+for the upkeep of the boy, and we went first to Berlin, then to Rome
+and Paris. She sang to make her living, but also that she might regain
+the honor of which Lord Gemer wanted to rob her, when he had parted
+with her and had told all kinds of evil about her, which he could not
+prove. Later we went to England, and finally to Russia. There she
+fared the best. There she might have become a rich princess, but she
+would not look at any man again. How glad the gentlemen there would
+have been if she would have spoken to them as kindly as she speaks
+here with you. But the purer the life she led, the more they bothered
+her, and the more she did not want to live. She said she wanted to see
+her boy once more before she died. For a long time we could not find
+out where the boy was. Finally, she got sick on the railroad, and by
+God's direction Dr. H. helped her. From him she learned all the truth,
+and after that he brought her here. And now you know why she left the
+Lord de Gemer."
+
+"That robber, that gypsy, that deceiver, how he fooled and robbed her!
+If one of us steals a chicken or the like he is put at once behind the
+bars. Such a gentleman can do everything, but if she would just go to
+law he would have to return her everything," said Joe angrily.
+
+"Yes, he would have to, but she doesn't want to. She is not concerned
+about mammon. All she wants is to have peace from him forever. But
+that he should not make any trouble about the child, I wrote to our
+lawyer who was to make the arrangements for her, to threaten him with
+a lawsuit for the jewelry and money if he would not give up the boy
+willingly. My lady will never know what I did. Our lawyer is a good
+friend, and a decent and honest man, not such an one as we had
+before."
+
+That Joe did not keep this news to himself is true. Thus Filina's
+helpers found out what kind of a master they had only after he ceased
+to be their lord. To the last one all took the lady's part. All were
+sorry for her and wished her to have the record very soon in black and
+white, that the boy was hers only, and the father had no more claims
+on him. Everyone greeted her very respectfully wherever they met her.
+She walked sadly and in deep contemplation. Only among the boys was
+she cheerful.
+
+In the sheepcotes also they were once in a while in sad contemplation.
+They counted the days before Lesina would come for Palko and take
+him away. When Ondrejko with tears in his eyes confided this to his
+mother, her cheeks turned pale with fright. It had never occurred
+to her that Palko would leave, and she could not even imagine those
+surroundings without him. One day he accompanied her to the cottage.
+She had promised him a nice song; he had come in to get it.
+
+"Palko, do you want to go away from us?" she began suddenly, and took
+the boy by the hand.
+
+"Verily, even next week my father is coming," he said seriously. "Then
+we will have about five days' more work with the timber, and then we
+shall leave."
+
+"But you will be glad to go home; will you not?"
+
+"Really very glad," he confessed sincerely. "Since I have not seen my
+mother for weeks, nor grandfather nor grandmother and all, nor have
+they seen me. They will be glad when I come, and I more than they all,
+because we all will be together again."
+
+"And will you not be sorry for your comrades? They will miss you
+sadly."
+
+"Yes, indeed; I will be very lonesome without them and Uncle Filina.
+I love him very much, like my old pastor Malina. I am thankful to the
+Lord Jesus that Uncle is healthy and will not yet die, but will tell
+his helpers about the Lord Jesus, and everybody else. Only one thing
+worries me; it is that when I go away, I shall not find out what you,
+lady, will do with the Lord Jesus. You taught us such beautiful songs;
+till my death I shall be thankful to you for them. You have sung so
+beautifully for us, like an angel from heaven; but you do not believe
+what you have been singing. I am sorry for that, and the Lord Jesus is
+sorry also. Yesterday you taught us the song:
+
+  "Safe in the arms of Jesus,
+    Safe on His gentle breast,
+  There by His love o'ershadowed,
+    Safely my soul shall rest."
+
+"It would fit you so beautifully if you would give yourself in His
+hands just as the shepherd carries the lost sheep. It would be so good
+for you in His arms; I know that best of all. While here among you,
+more than once homesickness for my mother threatened to overcome me;
+but when I considered that He is with me, it was well with me at once,
+and I was right at home. You have met already much evil in the world
+and more than once you were sad, were you not? But He would console
+you. However, if you would let Him go away like the people of
+Nazareth, He will go on, but you would remain alone. Ondrejko told me
+that you have a very good father, that your father already belongs to
+the Lord Jesus. Ondrejko belongs to Him also; sometime they both will
+go to Him, and you will be left alone," and Palko broke out crying.
+
+"Do not cry," said the lady in a peculiar voice. "I don't want to be
+like the people at Nazareth. I would like to go on that narrow path,
+but I cannot find it. I am too full of sin for God to receive me. So
+long as my earthly father does not forgive me, I cannot seek the face
+of God."
+
+Their talk was broken off when they came to the bench, because Aunty
+Moravec came to meet them, all pale, "A special messenger brought a
+telegram. Please sign here."
+
+The lady's knees began to tremble. She sat on the bench, signed the
+paper, and handed it to Aunty, then quickly she opened the telegram
+and read. Dark spots formed before her eyes. Unable to see, she handed
+the telegram to the boy. "Palko, read me that," and Palko read:
+
+"New York. I am embarking. Coming to see you. Your loving father."
+
+"Is it really so, Palko?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Oh, my father, my father! He is coming to us. He still loves and
+forgives. Palko, pray for me, for something will happen to me,"
+bitterly crying, the lady fell on her knees.
+
+Palko prayed, "Thank Thee, Lord Jesus, that her father is coming, that
+he has forgiven her, though he is still far away, yet Thou art here.
+If she will just ask Thee, Thou wilt forgive her, because Thou dost
+love her so much, I know. Amen."
+
+Life and death is in the power of the tongue. In the words of Palko
+there was life. The lady believed that the Good Shepherd was really
+there, that He came to meet her. Once she had run away from Him; today
+she did not want to run away. Today she confessed her transgressions
+to Him. She knew well that it was against Him she had sinned most,
+that she had gone from Him, to her own destruction. She had despised
+Him when He had stretched out His pierced hands to her, though they
+had been nailed on the cross for her sake. She had not wanted to sing
+to His honor and glory; and had hated the songs of the Lamb. She had
+wanted to sing for the people and had--but they had repaid her by
+breaking her heart. But He, whom she despised, had followed her here.
+She had not wanted to hear famous preachers; but He had sent a
+child along her path that he might lead her to the feet of the Good
+Shepherd. The Good Shepherd did not despise her; at last He had
+received her. Palko did not understand what the lady prayed, for she
+prayed in English, but he understood the tone. The Lord Jesus was
+with her and she knew it and talked with Him. Palko rose silently and
+respectfully, and left the place which now belonged to the lady and
+the Good Shepherd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN
+
+
+"Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what the day may
+bring forth," says the Word of God, and that truly. Even at the
+sheepfolds they did not dream what the next day would bring to them,
+the serious illness of Ondrejko's mother. The doctor, very much
+worried, said that the unexpected message about the arrival of her
+beloved father, whom she had not seen for years, shocked her so much,
+that she fell into a nervous illness, which he had wanted to prevent
+by bringing her here to the mountains. Only Palko and Bacha Filina
+knew that there was something more which overcame her. They spoke
+about it only between themselves and prayed for the lady very much.
+She seemed to recognize no one. She lay in her bed like a beautiful
+flower broken from its stem. In vain did Ondrejko whisper to her, and
+stroke and kiss her. She looked at him but did not answer. Only one
+thing consoled her poor child, that she had an expression, whether
+she slept or not, as though she were very happy. At times she sang
+beautiful songs to the honor of the Lamb; other times again, a sea
+ballad, and after that always the song, "My faith looks up to Thee."
+Thus two weeks passed by without any change.
+
+In the meantime Lesina came; he finished what was necessary and
+went away, but did not take Palko with him. He could not do that to
+Ondrejko, who nestled to his comrade like a little bird driven out of
+its nest. The doctor said Ondrejko would surely be sick if his comrade
+left him just at this time. Bacha promised Lesina that he himself
+would take Palko home when the lady got better, because he believed
+that the lady would get well, although the doctor gave no hope that
+she would not die or that she would not lose her mind. For this reason
+also, Lesina could not take Palko away, for it seemed that the sick
+lady knew him. When he read in his Book she looked at him as if she
+listened, and though she did not say anything, she was always so quiet
+and happy.
+
+In the meantime the answer came from Paris, and the unfortunate lady
+did not know that the boy who sat beside her bed so pale, now belonged
+only to her, and that no one else had any right to him. Neither did
+she know about another message--yes, even two; one coming from Hamburg
+in which her father announced that he had arrived safely; the other
+announcing his coming on Saturday evening to the nearest railway
+station. The Bacha very sadly stood at the foot of the lady's bed with
+both messages in his hands, and Aunty Moravec cried bitterly.
+
+"What shall we do, Bacha Filina? He is coming from such a distance and
+knows nothing. How will he take it, when he finds her thus, and
+will hear that because of his telegram this sickness overcame her?
+Previously, in Russia, the doctors had told her that some day her
+nerves might give way. Oh, what will the poor father say? He wanted to
+give her joy, and it has turned out like this."
+
+"What God does and permits, is always good," Filina said, nodding his
+head. "Do not worry; I am going for her father, and on the way will
+prepare him for what he will find here."
+
+"Bacha Filina, take me along to meet Grandfather," begged Ondrejko,
+when Bacha was getting ready in the afternoon.
+
+"I am going on foot; that would be too far for you, my boy," said
+Bacha, stroking the boy's head. "You just remain with your mother
+and wait for your grandfather here. At the station I shall take a
+carriage; I think that in the evening, about eight o'clock, we shall
+be here."
+
+Bacha kissed the boy, though he usually did not do so, and in a moment
+his giant-like figure disappeared in the thicket by the clearing. He
+picked the shortest way over paths well-known to him, but still it
+took about two hours before he reached the main road leading to J----.
+There he suddenly stopped. He turned to the east, where on a steep
+rock stood an old, recently repaired cross. Oh, human memory, how
+strange thou art! Bacha needed only to look at the cross, and at once,
+as if the years flew back, it seemed to him as if he was standing
+there like a nineteen-year-old youth. A desire overtook him to go up
+to the cross, bend over its side and look again on the path on which,
+on that summer morning, his brother, Stephen, had left, never to
+return again. He went on that "breaking" ship to a "cold grave." Bacha
+Filina could not resist that desire. For about a quarter of an hour
+he kneeled at the cross, and rested his forehead on the stone step.
+Inexpressible sorrow shook him. It wanted to rob him of his assurance
+of forgiveness, but in and around him it was suddenly as if somebody
+sang:
+
+  "My faith looks up to Thee,
+  Thou Lamb of Calvary,
+    Saviour Divine!
+  Now hear me while I pray,
+  Take all my guilt away;
+  Oh, let me from this day,
+    Be wholly Thine!"
+
+His heavy load of sin had been cleansed by that precious blood! The
+Lord Jesus took his guilt with Him on the cross and the Holy God had
+forgiven him! But what was he doing here now? What had he come here
+for? What did he waste the time here for? Yonder in the cottage,
+Ondrejko's mother was half-alive and half-dead, and from afar her
+father from beyond the ocean was coming to his child. If he, Filina,
+would delay here, they might miss each other at the station.
+
+Bacha stood up, dusted off his Sunday clothes, put his firm arm around
+the cross and bent over, as once many years ago! It was good that the
+cross was firm and also the arm that clung to it. Bacha saw on the
+sloping path a man of slim figure, in a gentleman's suit, drawing
+near. Just then he stopped. He turned round; he took his hat from his
+head and looked in the direction where once stood Filina's hut. All
+that marked the place were a few half-burned timbers, now overgrown
+with weeds. Oh, that face! There was only one like it, never
+forgotten, younger--but nevertheless!
+
+Bacha closed his eagle eyes that they might not fool him. He opened
+them only when the steps drew nearer to him from below. He let go the
+cross and crossed his arms on his chest. Looking up he stood face to
+face with the stranger.
+
+"Good evening," said he.
+
+"Oh, Stephen!" It came out of the chest of Bacha. Half cry, half
+terror.
+
+"Peter! Is it you!" Two arms twined around Filina's neck.
+
+"Stephen! You live? Really? It is not possible!"
+
+"I live, Peter, and at last, I am coming. It is rather late, it's
+true, but I did not know before that the loved one who once separated
+us, had passed away long ago, and that you and I would not have any
+more heartaches. I am coming to you for my treasures, which are in
+your care."
+
+"Your treasures?" Bacha was surprised still, not knowing whether it
+was a beautiful, but impossible dream. He could not get enough of the
+voice that was speaking to him. The face was older, changed, but the
+voice was the same. It always sounded to Peter Filina like music. And
+so it was today.
+
+"We are expecting the father of Madame Slavkovsky today, and I am
+going to meet him."
+
+"I am that father."
+
+"You, Stephen?" Bacha released the stranger. "I do not understand
+that."
+
+"I believe you, my Peter. Well, how you have changed, how strong you
+have gotten, how giantlike, like the beautiful mountains all around!
+I would not have recognized you, if it were not for the voice--no one
+has called me thus since--and by your eagle eyes under those heavy
+eyebrows."
+
+"Stephen, tell me, how is it possible that you live? Was not that ship
+wrecked?"
+
+"Yes, Peter, she went to the bottom of the sea; but I was among the
+few immigrants which another ship saved. God does not want the death
+of a sinner, but rather that he be converted and live; so He saved me.
+The first steady work that I had in America was on the farm of Mr.
+Slavkovsky. My daughter wrote me that she told you everything about
+us. Thus you know what Slavkovsky asked of me and that I agreed to do
+as he wished. When he heard from me that I did not want you to know
+that I still lived, he advised me to adopt his name and thus disappear
+forever from this world. His wife and son, and even my good wife,
+agreed with it. Thus Stephen Pribylinsky died and only Stephen
+Slavkovsky remained. I could not return home and live with you, as our
+father planned. Eva was your wife and I loved her. I did not really
+know God and the Lord Jesus then, nor understood His Holy Law; but
+this much I knew, that it would have been a constant and a great
+temptation for us all. Thus, I chose to die to you."
+
+Slavkovsky finished, and out of Bacha's breast came a deep sigh. "You
+died for us, and until recently I worried very much about it, that I
+had become a murderer and was like Cain."
+
+"You? And why?"
+
+"Did I not drown you the second time in that swamp, by driving you to
+America? Eva loved you more. Had it not been for me, you could have
+lived as happily as in Paradise. You would have been mated much
+better. At my side, she perished of sorrow. My father did not live
+long; I took care of mother, but could not replace her son to her. See
+yonder the burnt remains of our hut, where we once lived so happily.
+Years ago, when I took up this service which I have held ever since, I
+rented it to a neighbor. He did not take good care and it burned down.
+I could, but would not rebuild it. What would it have been good for to
+me? I was forsaken in the world, like a stick."
+
+Sudden quietness prevailed on the step at the foot of the cross, where
+both men sat. It seemed that the popular song could be applied to
+them:
+
+  "Mountain, green mountain, Ahoy!
+    My heart is hurting, sadly I cry!
+  Painful, so painful is my woe,
+    My heart is fainting, my joy is gone."
+
+"Forgive me, Peter," suddenly said Stephen Slavkovsky. "It was not
+right that I hid myself from you. I have caused you much sorrow. While
+I imagined that you were living with Eva in our mountains, which I
+never could forget, perhaps surrounded with children, and our parents
+were happy with you--you have lived alone for years. It was not good
+that I did not let you know about myself. Once some one from this
+neighborhood came to America but did not know me and told me that
+father died. I had already written a letter to mother, to send her my
+love, but I did not send it. I thought how good I was to you, but that
+heart of ours is deceitful and perverse, full of self-righteousness
+and pride. I have done wrong both to mother and to you, but I was
+repaid when my only child forsook me, and after ten years I must come
+as far as here to find her."
+
+Bacha roused himself, "Come, Stephen, let us delay no longer; but if
+we go on foot we shall arrive very late."
+
+They both arose. "I am on foot. I have a coach; however, I told the
+driver to feed the horses a bit. Now I hear them; they will be ready.
+Let us go; on the way we can tell one another more."
+
+Thus among the Slovak mountains rode two brothers, who had grown up
+among them, and were so closely united to them, that one of them in
+a distant land almost died of home-sickness, and the other could not
+have lived without them at all. Now they did not think about the
+beauty around them, because Stephen Slavkovsky found out his child
+was waiting for him, and that only the Heavenly Doctor could save His
+sheep which had returned to Him.
+
+The proverb says that bad luck does not wander among the mountains but
+among the people. Now it was among the mountains. Who can describe the
+moment when the father stopped at the bed of his only child and saw
+her so broken and read on her beautiful face the confirmation of all
+of which he had once warned her. The setting sun shone upon the broken
+flower and on the man who was kneeling at her bed, his head laid on
+his crossed arms. No one dared to disturb him in his sadness and
+prayer. Suddenly the lady opened her eyes; she turned them to the
+window and began to sing softly the song which she had recently taught
+the boys:
+
+  "Jesus, Lover of my soul,
+    Let me to Thy bosom fly,
+  While the billows o'er me roll,
+    While the tempest still is high;
+  Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,
+    Till the storm of life be past;
+  Safe into the haven guide;
+    Oh, receive my soul at last."
+
+Her father cried silently and the others with him. But she sang on,
+and as Joe said sometime ago, "She could do anything with them when
+she sang." The weeping stopped, and the small room seemed to be full
+of the presence of Him who is the King of Glory, the Prince of Peace,
+and the only Healer.
+
+  "Other refuge have I none,
+    Hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
+  Leave, oh, leave me not alone,
+    Still support and comfort me:
+  All my trust on Thee is stayed,
+    All my help from Thee I bring;
+  Cover my defenceless head
+    With the shadow of Thy wing."
+
+Palko believed and felt that his Lord was there, and the lady sang on:
+
+  "Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
+    More than all in Thee I find;
+  Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
+    Heal the sick and lead the blind:
+  Just and holy is Thy name,
+    I am all unrighteousness;
+  Vile and full of sin I am,
+    Thou art full of truth and grace.
+
+  "Plenteous grace with Thee is found--
+    Grace to cover all my sin;
+  Let the healing streams abound,
+    Make and keep me pure within;
+  Thou of life the fountain art,
+    Freely let me take of Thee;
+  Spring Thou up within my heart,
+    Rise to all eternity."
+
+The song concluded. A silence followed during which the lady turned
+her look away from the window and fastened it upon the face of the man
+who bent over her.
+
+"Mary, dear, my golden darling, do you not recognize me?" asked the
+trembling lips of the man, so tenderly, as only a good father can
+speak to his only child. For a moment the beautiful eyes of the lady
+fastened themselves on the man's eyes. The doctor entering the room at
+that moment, with a quick movement of his hand tried to hinder this
+critical situation, but it was too late. The lady's pale face glowed
+suddenly, as after the dark night the day breaks over the mountains.
+
+"My father! Oh, my father!"
+
+She sat up, stretched out her arms and would have sunk back, had not
+her father's arms clasped her; her head was resting on his breast, her
+arms twined around his neck, and the lady clung closely to him like
+a little chick pursued by the hawk, when the hen spreads over it her
+protecting wings.
+
+"Did you come? Did you forgive? Do you love? Oh, at home, home! No
+more in a strange land. I am not fleeing any more--the Lord Jesus was
+merciful, He received me.... Now I can die!" Thus whispered the lady,
+crying softly, returning her father's kisses.
+
+"Indeed not! Who would die now?" the doctor interrupted at this tender
+moment. "You haven't even shown Ondrejko to your father, and the poor
+boy can hardly wait any longer." It was as if a new life had been
+poured into her.
+
+"My Ondrejko!" She stretched out her hand to the boy, still crouching
+beside her. "Just look! Grandfather has come, and you don't have to
+beg him any more. Just welcome him!"
+
+Ondrejko found himself in the arms of his grandfather and was very
+surprised. He had expected to see an old man with a gray beard, but
+grandfather was without beard and still quite young and handsome.
+The boy felt, what he had never known before, what a joy it is to be
+kissed and hugged by a father. His saddened heart rejoiced, and he was
+filled with a feeling of protection and safety.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN
+
+
+Some things happen in this world at which we cannot wonder enough.
+Thus it was at the sheepfolds of the Gemer estate. There still lived
+people in that neighborhood who had known old Filina, the father of
+Bacha, very well. They remembered how he had told them that one of his
+boys had prepared to go to America, and the other one had married at
+home, and when Stephen had made some money across the sea, he would
+return home and they would all live together. They also remembered how
+the message came that the ship was wrecked, and that Stephen would
+never see his homeland again. But that did not happen! Thirty years
+passed and Stephen Pribylinsky came home after all. He appeared to
+them as if he had been raised from the dead, and the resurrection had
+come when the sea had given up her dead and returned him. They spoke
+about his coming for his daughter and grandchild. But when the
+fragrance of his beloved Slovak mountains filled him, would he be able
+to go again far across the sea? Will he not fear that he was like a
+stranger, for years in a foreign land? He fared there very well, but
+he was not at home. Only in the homeland on that black ground was
+there sweet sleep.
+
+Who can describe the surprise of all three boys when they learned who
+it was that came with Bacha Filina--that it was his Stephen. Palko,
+when he heard it, could not stay with the others. He ran away to the
+woods and cried there for joy. He thanked the Lord Jesus that He had
+comforted Bacha Filina forever. There was still salvation possible,
+even though the ship was wrecked. After all, he had lived to see his
+brother, Stephen. The Lord Jesus had given him back to Bacha.
+
+There was something more, very good for Palko. It was not necessary
+for him to read to the people out of his Book. He could himself sit
+down at the feet of Uncle Stephen, whom he loved greatly, and listen
+to the truth of God from his lips. That was a joy for the boy.
+
+Ondrejko rejoiced again that Bacha Filina belonged to his family and
+Petrik also. The boys hugged each other for joy that they would not
+now have to part any more till death. And who can describe the joy of
+Madame Slavkovsky when they took her again for the first time to the
+sheepfold. "It seemed to me at once that I was among my own, that I
+had come home," she said to Bacha, "and you, Bacha Filina, I loved at
+once like a daughter."
+
+Then she found out all about the small and big Stephen. Bacha,
+himself, told her, and her father even said, "I am sorry about it, my
+daughter, after considering it all, that I did not let those at home
+know where I was, but now I see it all. The Lord Jesus in His love
+turned all this evil for our good. For me there in America and for
+Peter here at home, it is a true saying, 'He brings them to the
+desired haven.'"
+
+Then Bacha Filina showed Ondrejko's estate to his brother. Since the
+lady had already had the deed recorded, they all rode to the castle.
+Petrik and Palko had to go with them also. The boys played there in
+the park with the rubber balls which grandfather had brought from
+America. The servants brought a folding-chair for the lady, since the
+doctor ordered her to rest in the shadow of the horse-chestnuts. She
+watched the play of the boys and took pleasure in their joy. Ondrejko
+left his comrades once in a while, ran to her, laid his curly head
+beside hers, kissed his mother, and on receiving her kiss, ran again
+with a loud "hallo" after his ball. Who could understand how much joy
+now filled the once-forsaken heart?
+
+In the meantime the assistant manager showed the lady's father all the
+buildings and those cattle which were not in the pasture. He noticed
+that Mr. Slavkovsky understood the affairs of the estate, and when he
+pointed out one thing and another that should have been different, Mr.
+Slavkovsky said seriously, "I see it." Finally he spoke up, "There
+will have to be a different management from the bottom up, in order
+that everything may prosper."
+
+In the meantime the cook prepared a splendid repast for the new
+owners. She set it outside under the horse-chestnuts, so the lady
+would not have to enter the house. The castle had been bought with all
+its furnishings. If the proud Lady de Gemer, the grandmother of
+the last lord, could have awakened from the dead and seen how her
+porcelain dishes and table-covers were spread before the despised
+Slovaks, she would have turned over in her beautiful casket. But now
+that could not be helped. Bacha Filina arranged his matters with the
+housekeeper. At the repast he ate very little because he could not
+take his eyes from the boys, how they ate, and how Ondrejko urged his
+comrades to eat. The lady also rejoiced very much over them. Even the
+doctor laughed heartily about it, but at the same time took care that
+his patient did not forget to eat. He did not urge her to take the
+various sweets served, but he did the fruit. Only Mr. Slavkovsky
+was somewhat buried in thought. They almost had to force him into
+conversation.
+
+After their meal the boys again began to play, and asked the two boys
+of the assistant manager to help them. Mr. Slavkovsky walked along the
+lane till, from a turn in it, he could overlook the beautiful, but now
+neglected garden. Suddenly he took off his hat and prayed. By the time
+he ended, Bacha stood beside him.
+
+"Is there something which does not suit you, my brother?" he asked
+thoughtfully. "Do you think we have paid too much for the estate,
+since everything is so neglected?"
+
+"I do not think so, Peter. It is really cheaply bought in spite of all
+its neglect." He smiled kindly on his brother.
+
+"Nevertheless you seem to be troubled by something."
+
+"Certain cares trouble me. Just now I laid them all at the feet of our
+heavenly Father. Now I do not worry more about anything. He surely
+will arrange everything. I will tell you, my brother, what it was.
+But for the time, keep it to yourself. I cannot take my daughter to
+America now, since she is so weak. Here in our homeland she will get
+well sooner. My beloved grandchild I need not take there, since he has
+enough here to live on. Now when my daughter takes this estate over,
+she needs a manager. It is hard to find one that would not cheat her.
+Then I thought, why does she need a manager, if she still has a father
+young enough, and who knows how to run a farm in Europe?"
+
+"Oh, Stephen!" Filina was astonished.
+
+"But, you know, there is a great hindrance. My farm is deeded to me.
+My brother-in-law I can settle with, and thus that would not hinder
+me. But my beloved wife was born in America. Will she want to leave
+her home and go to a foreign land? I would not like to constrain her
+in anything. I will first have to write to her about all that has
+happened, and if I see from her answer that it would not be too great
+a sacrifice for her, I will go for her. I will then sell the farm and
+deposit the money, because I would not want to add to this estate. It
+is big enough for us to make a living, and I could earn, as a manager,
+bread for myself and my wife, and she could rest; she has worked
+enough."
+
+"Day and night will I ask the Lord Jesus about it," said Filina,
+"that He will lead your wife to agree, because round about us is only
+darkness. No one cares for these souls. They do not know the Lord
+Jesus. I have not been able to imagine how we could live here when the
+boy would leave us. But you could take his place."
+
+"That hardly, Peter. The Lord Jesus has in Palko a faithful servant.
+That measure of the Holy Spirit that this child has, I do not have.
+But instead I have experiences with my Lord. The last ten years
+of suffering united me very closely to Him who saves. I know your
+sorrows. Considering the situation, I long to be the witness of God's
+grace here in my homeland, where there is no one else. That also draws
+me here to my beautiful homeland. Therefore I hope that my Agnes will
+agree that we shall come, and it will happen after all as your father
+used to say to the people; 'When Stephen shall have made some money
+beyond the sea and comes back again, we shall live together.' Now
+there is no more all of us, only we two. And if the Lord grants me to
+come again, do you know what is the first thing that I will do?"
+
+"I do not."
+
+"I will rebuild our hut. It shall lay waste no longer. I will prepare
+it for Petrik. You shall raise him and give him the ground and the
+fields. So if he lives, we can take care of him together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE
+
+
+Sometimes the days pass as quickly as a thought, and the weeks like a
+dream. In the following weeks which just flew by, Bacha Filina took
+Palko to his home. He became acquainted with his family. Just then
+Juriga's son and daughter-in-law came from America, and Lesina had to
+find a place to move to. They all rejoiced in Palko. His mother and
+grandmother could hardly stop caressing him. Old Juriga had a good cry
+when the boy hugged him.
+
+Lesina complained to Bacha that he was worrying about his wife
+living with the wife of Juriga's son. Juriga's daughter-in-law was
+a gossiping, noisy person, and had two small children who were
+disobedient cry-babies. It was because of those two little ones that
+Juriga's son had returned to the home country. His older children had
+been dying one after the other. Here was Filina's opportunity to give
+Lesina good advice, namely, to take his wife, her mother, and Palko,
+and move before the winter to his cottage in the Gemer mountains. He
+told him also that Madame Slavkovsky meant to give him some trees from
+a piece of land that needed to be replanted. In the meantime he could
+find some other place where he would like to stay. All they would
+have to take with them would be their clothing and small belongings,
+because any other things needed they would find in the castle:
+bedsteads, tables, chairs, and all that was necessary for the kitchen.
+They were all very thankful for this good advice.
+
+In those weeks that had passed so quickly, Madame Slavkovsky moved
+with her father and Aunty Moravec to the castle. Every morning she
+rode to the sheepcotes and remained till the evening. Once in a while
+she also stayed overnight in Ondrejko's hut. At other times, she took
+the boys along. In the castle under the supervision of Mr. Slavkovsky,
+many changes were made, and when the gardener had the means at his
+disposal and the advice of his master, he went joyfully to work. In
+two weeks you would not have recognized the garden nor the castle. The
+masons repaired broken places, the painters painted everything, the
+joiners repaired doors, window-frames, and hardwood floors. In the
+course of the repairs, chairs, bedsteads, and tables, and more that
+was necessary in the cottage of Palko, was set aside, in order that
+when the Lesinas came they might have plenty on hand to settle and
+feel at home. Even for Dunaj they fixed a nice dog-kennel, so he
+wouldn't have to suffer in rainy weather.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was again a beautiful summer evening. In front of the sheepcotes
+everything was ready for a big bonfire. Bacha Filina called all his
+helpers and told them they would have a celebration such as none
+of them had seen before. Through the woods in the direction of the
+cottage wandered Petrik, Ondrejko, and between them, Palko. Ahead of
+them, chasing one another, ran Dunaj and Fido. They also rejoiced to
+see each other. The boys returned from a visit at Lesina's and carried
+with them all kinds of gifts. A water-gun, by which you could squirt
+the water to the top of the highest trees; singing tops which could
+spin almost a quarter of an hour. From Palko's mother they got a whole
+box full of prunes filled with nuts, which Ondrejko thought were
+better than figs and dates.
+
+"My mother is very glad today!" Ondrejko told Palko, "because a letter
+came at last from my grandmother in America. They gave me a letter
+written especially for me, in which grandmother writes very nicely. I
+will show it to you afterwards, Petrik."
+
+"They even sent greetings for me," said the comrade.
+
+"What they wrote to mother, I don't know, but mother ran to
+grandfather, threw herself into his arms and cried and laughed. I am
+sure they did not want me to understand, because they spoke English,
+but they will tell us all about it. Bacha Filina said we shall have a
+celebration."
+
+"We also have a song, such a beautiful one, and that will be sung
+tonight, and I am sure your parents will like it," said Petrik.
+
+It really was a beautiful celebration. First of all, on two spits they
+roasted two lambs. Bacha Filina portioned out large pieces of the best
+kind of cheese to everybody. Madame Slavkovsky handed out pears and
+large plums. Stephen brought two large crocks of mineral water to wash
+down the roasted mutton. Aunty Moravec divided rolls and cookies among
+all. They all served Palko's quiet, lovely mother, and his good old
+grandmother, and his father as well. Then they sat around the bonfire.
+Mr. Slavkovsky prayed, opened the Holy Writ, read Psalm 103, and spoke
+very nicely about the great forgiving love of God. Then they sang the
+beautiful songs which the lady had brought. But Palko also had to
+read in his Book. He read about Cornelius who, with his whole house,
+received the Lord Jesus. Palko spoke so beautifully about how sad it
+was that in the house of the great man, though he often prayed and did
+much good, he did not know the way to the true Sunshine Country, since
+he did not know the Lord Jesus. How happy he was afterwards, when he
+and his devout knights and his obedient soldiers welcomed the Apostle
+Peter there, and with him also, the Lord Jesus, whom they forever
+received in their house and heart. Then on a sign from the lady they
+started a beautiful song which Palko had not heard before, but which
+was very fitting to his story.
+
+  "I heard the voice of Jesus say,
+    'Come unto Me and rest;
+  Lay down, thou weary one, lay down
+    Thy head upon My breast,'
+  I came to Jesus as I was,
+    Weary and worn and sad,
+  I found in Him a resting-place,
+    And He has made me glad."
+
+As that song sounded over the woods, it was noticeable from the faces
+of the hearers around the camp fire, that they all had experienced it,
+but especially from the serious face of Filina. Then it was so silent
+that you could hear the distant bells of the sheep. Though the sky was
+covered with storm-clouds, and the lightning was to be seen in the
+west once in a while, and in the distance the rolling of the thunder
+was heard, the storm was nevertheless very far away, and would not yet
+come there.
+
+Suddenly Bacha Filina arose, and after he had first thanked the Lord
+Jesus in an audible prayer that He came and also sought and saved that
+which was lost, he began to explain what they were celebrating, and
+which pleased him most--not only Madame Slavkovsky, but her father
+also was remaining in the Gemer mountains. He said, "Tomorrow Mr.
+Slavkovsky will leave for America to bring his wife here. When he has
+sold his farm there, he will at once return to his birthplace to leave
+it no more." Bacha's eyes were full of tears when he gave the message,
+but added, "Is not that very joyful news?"
+
+Who can describe the joy that prevailed after that? Ondrejko hugged
+his mother and grandfather and nestled next to Bacha Filina. "We shall
+all stay at home, at home with Bacha Filina. We shall not go into the
+distant foreign world. Oh, we remain in our mountains. Even Palko will
+be here with us," he said.
+
+"Yes, my son." The grandfather drew the boy close to him. "We shall
+remain at home. We shall live here together with the Lord Jesus and He
+with us."
+
+After a while the campfire began to die down. The voices subsided.
+Only in the distance the thunder rolled, the lightning flashed, but
+above the sheepcotes shone the clear stars. Around the buildings Bacha
+Filina made his rounds, watching that no danger threatened anywhere,
+and again at the bench--as once long ago--he stopped. This time, the
+father and daughter sat there together; no longer a prodigal, she had
+returned first to the heavenly, and then to the earthly father. She
+had come home and was accepted. He wanted to step aside, but they had
+been waiting for him.
+
+"We knew that you would pass by," said Slavkovsky, and made room for
+his brother beside himself. "Mary has a request to make of you."
+
+"Me?" Bacha was surprised.
+
+"Yes, you, my dear Uncle. Cease to be 'Bacha.' Come among us. You
+shall have the supervision of things; be one family with us," the lady
+begged with her whole heart, but Bacha shook his head.
+
+"I thank you, my daughter," he spoke, deeply moved, "I would love to
+make one family with you because you are all very dear to me; but do
+not take me away from my calling. Once I started as an unhappy man,
+and this occupation cheered me in my sorrow. I grew up with the sheep,
+with the work and with nature about me. Now when the heavens have
+opened above me, leave me at this heaven's gate. Do not let it vex you
+that you have a rich estate and I am but a poor 'Bacha.' All that I
+need for my living, I shall earn honestly. I have somewhere to live,
+and you love me; I am no more alone. You will come to visit me and
+I will visit you, especially when you, my brother, return. Only one
+thing I ask of you, if you have more than you need for your living,
+send Palko to school. His father grieves that he is not able to do it
+for him. God has given him what no school can supply, but if people
+with such faith could stand in the pulpits there would be a real
+awakening in our nation."
+
+"Oh, Bacha Filina, I thank you. I have been thinking about the same
+thing, only did not dare to speak with Lesina about it." The lady
+grasped Bacha's hard hand in hers. "Believe me, we will gladly do
+anything for Palko. He brought us life and salvation; let him in the
+future carry it to thousands."
+
+The quiet mysterious night settled upon the world, its silence broken
+only by the soft sound of the shepherd's flute. Stephen had the night
+watch and thus he played to himself:
+
+  "If I but knew where she abides,
+  Where to the night so quickly glides,
+  I would like an arrow run,
+  And thus compel it to return."
+
+But the night was passing, never more to return; but what about it?
+After it a new morning will arise, and with it the fresh grace of God
+for those who receive the Lord Jesus, and to whom He gives the right
+to be the sons and daughters of God.
+
+Would that all souls would receive Him!
+
+
+--THE END--
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Three Comrades, by Kristina Roy
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