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