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