CHAPTER ELEVEN

Some things happen in this world at which we cannot wonder enough.  Thus it was at the sheepfolds of the Gemer estate.  There still lived people in that neighborhood who had known old Filina, the father of Bacha, very well.  They remembered how he had told them that one of his boys had prepared to go to America, and the other one had married at home, and when Stephen had made some money across the sea, he would return home and they would all live together.  They also remembered how the message came that the ship was wrecked, and that Stephen would never see his homeland again.  But that did not happen!  Thirty years passed and Stephen Pribylinsky came home after all.  He appeared to them as if he had been raised from the dead, and the resurrection had come when the sea had given up her dead and returned him.  They spoke about his coming for his daughter and grandchild.  But when the fragrance of his beloved Slovak mountains filled him, would he be able to go again far across the sea?  Will he not fear that he was like a stranger, for years in a foreign land?  He fared there very well, but he was not at home.  Only in the homeland on that black ground was there sweet sleep.

Who can describe the surprise of all three boys when they learned who it was that came with Bacha Filina—­that it was his Stephen.  Palko, when he heard it, could not stay with the others.  He ran away to the woods and cried there for joy.  He thanked the Lord Jesus that He had comforted Bacha Filina forever.  There was still salvation possible, even though the ship was wrecked.  After all, he had lived to see his brother, Stephen.  The Lord Jesus had given him back to Bacha.

There was something more, very good for Palko.  It was not necessary for him to read to the people out of his Book.  He could himself sit down at the feet of Uncle Stephen, whom he loved greatly, and listen to the truth of God from his lips.  That was a joy for the boy.

Ondrejko rejoiced again that Bacha Filina belonged to his family and Petrik also.  The boys hugged each other for joy that they would not now have to part any more till death.  And who can describe the joy of Madame Slavkovsky when they took her again for the first time to the sheepfold.  “It seemed to me at once that I was among my own, that I had come home,” she said to Bacha, “and you, Bacha Filina, I loved at once like a daughter.”

Then she found out all about the small and big Stephen.  Bacha, himself, told her, and her father even said, “I am sorry about it, my daughter, after considering it all, that I did not let those at home know where I was, but now I see it all.  The Lord Jesus in His love turned all this evil for our good.  For me there in America and for Peter here at home, it is a true saying, ’He brings them to the desired haven.’”