Juriga did not anticipate that life in the hut with Lesina’s poor wife would be exactly pleasant, but he was ready to help, and put up with whatever discomfort might be necessary to relieve Lesina’s already heavy burden. He had not the faintest idea that the result might be quite the opposite.
Lesina and his wife arrived late at night, tired out and quite content to drink the hot soup Palko had prepared. After arranging the bed with its clean sheets and blankets and downy pillows, which they had brought with them, they were soon safely tucked away for the night.
It was not, therefore, until the following day that Juriga could begin to study Lesina’s wife. “Poor thing,” said the old man to himself, full of pity. “So young, too, not more than twenty-seven years old at the most, and so beautiful and gentle in her ways.” Soon, little by little, her very presence in the hut, instead of being a burden, became a joy and blessing.
From that first morning the meals of the small household were changed. By noon the little lady had prepared a delicious soup which was taken with great enjoyment by everybody, including Dunaj, who welcomed most noisily and joyously his master and mistress. Then came a delicious cake with some nuts, which the new arrivals had brought with them. When Lesina produced the suit and the promised new hat and shoes his wife helped to get Palko into his new clothes. From the first, the woman and the child seemed mutually attracted to one another. She remained almost silent in the presence of older people, but as soon as she found herself alone with Palko she chatted with perfect ease, her beautiful voice soft and melancholy, like a summer breeze blowing through the birches of the forest.
When Liska appeared there was another cake for him to carry home, and his young hostess replied kindly to any question he asked. In fact, Liska had surreptitiously to wipe his eyes several times that afternoon, for he became quite overcome by emotion each time he looked at her.
“You have done right in bringing your wife, my son,” said Juriga to Lesina, by the end of the week. “You were not mistaken in thinking that she would be pleased with Palko’s company.”
“Who could resist the attraction that the boy holds?” said Lesina, as he balanced his chair against the wall of the hut and gazed contentedly across the valley.
So it was that both Juriga and Lesina could spend the whole day at work, secure in the knowledge that in such delightful company the poor little woman would not find the time hanging heavily on her hands. In fact, she herself found the time altogether too short for all the things she now seemed to find to do with Palko. In addition, she found many things in the little hut that required a thorough cleaning, including Palko’s and Juriga’s clothing and bedding. She cooked the meals, washed up the dishes, hulled and cleaned the strawberries, and prepared the other good things that she and Palko found in their long walks through the woods. When she had no other task to keep her busy, she would seat herself in the sunlit doorway to mend everybody’s clothes and darn their socks. She even made a new shirt for Liska, who had no one to look after him.
Meantime, Palko surrounded her with every form of loving care. He told her the story of the Sunshine Valley, to which he took her on the very next day after her arrival. He showed her his Book, and explained to her something of its wonderful contents. She listened with great interest, even though at times she seemed to be somewhat lost in her own sad thoughts. Palko knew that at such times she was thinking of her own little one. He began to love her very much, a love that grew day by day.
One day when his new auntie (as he began to call her fondly) was busy with some sewing, and lost in her own thoughts, Palko rested his curly head on her shoulder, saying: “It is so sad about your lost child, isn’t it, Auntie? But don’t worry about it. We are going to find him, you and I together. I have asked the Lord Jesus, and He is going to do it for me.”
The woman suddenly jumped to her feet, looked at Palko fixedly for a minute, and then gathered him in her arms. Her cloak had fallen to the ground, and a ray of sunshine suddenly lit up both those fresh young faces, each framed in its locks of burnished gold and showing a most striking resemblance to the other.
“Do you believe that we shall find him, Palko?” she said finally, with an eager look on her face that Palko never forgot.
“I am sure of it,” Palko said, “for Jesus gives me what I ask of him. Tell me, what was he like?”
“He was quite like you, Palko, only, of course, he was quite small.”
“Could he walk?” the boy asked, as he put an arm round his auntie.
“Indeed he could! When I took him by the hand he was able to walk quite a way with me, and he could take steps alone by himself.”
“What was his name?”
“Mischko.”
“Mischko!” the boy repeated. “Well, then, when we go to look for him, we shall call, ‘Mischko! Mischko!’ Or you had better do the calling, for my voice would, perhaps, frighten him, Auntie,” and the boy’s arm stole about her neck. “How long is it since you lost your Mischko?”
“How long?” she repeated, and her lovely eyes began to wander a bit. “Oh, I don’t know, Palko! My head feels so strange. At times I can’t remember anything at all, but I seem so much better since I came here to the mountain; somehow the weight seems to have been lifted from my heart.”
“Do you know what you should do?” asked Palko. “Just live here with us always. In the winter we shall go down to the village, where we have such a big house and there would be plenty of room. There is a large living room and a kitchen, and a little bedroom for you and Uncle Lesina, and we shall all be so happy together!”
“I?” cried his poor auntie. “Nothing would please me better than to live with you always, Palko dear!” and the tears welled up into Palko’s eyes at these tender words.
“I do love you so much, I do indeed, Auntie, although to tell you the truth, at first I did not wish to see you come here, because it meant I should have to leave the service of Father Malina, whom I love, too, with all my heart. You see, he has taught me so many things, and I would so like to be with him. But he said it was my duty to come here because I was in the service of the Lord Jesus, and now I am so happy, too, to be here with you. But we were talking about your boy, weren’t we?”
“Yes, and the people over in our part of the country are sure that a wild boar devoured him. But I am not able to believe that,” declared the unhappy mother, shaking her head. “I am certain that he is living, and we ought to find him. No, I don’t believe he can be dead.”
“Nor do I believe it, Auntie,” said Palko. “All that the people say is just foolish talk. The Lord Jesus, whom I have asked to let us find him, would not have allowed the wild beasts to devour him. Perhaps, Auntie, somebody found your boy, Mischko, and has kept him safe all this time. In that case what would be the use of looking for him on the mountain? Who knows where he might be?”
Suddenly standing up and pressing her hands to her forehead, and with a fixed stare, the unhappy woman repeated, in a low voice: “Yes, who knows where he might be?”
“Never mind, dear Auntie,” Palko said in a consoling tone. “Just remember one thing; the Lord Jesus knows. We will ask Him to show us where he is. There are many women who come to the mountain, and we will ask each one of them if they have found a boy. Perhaps the Saviour will send us the one who has him safe in her home.”
From that moment, whenever they were alone together, Lesina’s wife would talk to Palko about her little Mischko. He in turn taught her to ask the Lord to show them where her son was, and she became comforted. Indeed, her pale cheeks became quite tanned, and she even seemed to lose some of her timidity in the presence of older people. She became a favorite with nearly everybody on the mountainside, and many tried to do what they could to give her pleasure.
Lesina’s joy knew no bounds. Before his wife had behaved in a strained and unnatural way in his presence, and endeavored to avoid her husband whenever she could. Now all was changed. In the evening, when he sat down by the door of the hut, she would bring her knitting and sit by his side on the steps, with a look of the old tenderness in her eyes that he had known before Mischko disappeared. When they read aloud from the New Testament, which custom was resumed now that Lesina had returned, she would sit close beside him and listen attentively.
Lesina learned to believe in God’s free and unbounded love for sinners, and at the same time to ask with faith in the Lord Jesus that He would heal his dear wife. Palko had repeated to them some of the clear explanations of the priest, and told how he had said that at last he had found the way to the true Sunshine Country through his reading of the Book. Now Lesina desired to find it also. He wanted with all his heart to have his poor wife find it too, but in her present mental state could she, by any chance, come to believe in the Lord Jesus also?
They read in the Book day after day, not only line after line, but also began again at the beginning, in order to pick up the forgotten threads. Every day they came to understand things better and better, and the way to the Sunshine Country seemed to open up before them all. Then there came a long spell of rain, and that precious time was taken advantage of, and they progressed rapidly in their reading.
Liska also was found constantly with them, and did not return to his own house until after nightfall, making many an excuse to be with Palko that they might talk together over what had been read.