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.”