The Three Comrades | Page 4

"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