The Three Comrades | Page 7

"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