half-sleeping I didn't realize at once what had happened the day
before. I ran to the hall and opened the door.

"The rays of the rising sun struck our bedroom first--the same that
day. It lit up the bed of my father, and ..." Bacha stopped and tears
ran down his cheek.

"And what, Bacha? Oh, what, Bacha?" with bitter cries both boys
exclaimed. The tears were already running down Ondrejko's pale face.

"There on the bed in the rays of the sun like a holy picture, rested
our Stephen, sleeping. Mother sat beside the bed. There was a humming
in my ears and blackness before my eyes, and if father had not jumped
and caught me I would have fallen over. It was long before they
brought me back to consciousness."

"So he didn't drown?" both boys were astonished and rejoicing.

"Didn't he fall into that swamp?"

"He fell in it, children. Oh, he fell in, and there was no man who
could have saved him. But we had a large dog called Whitie who went
around always with us, as Fido with you. When we left home we left him
behind, but he followed us, and the Lord God Himself sent him in that
moment when the stone under Stephen gave way, and he lost his balance
and fell. Whitie caught him by the hair and dragged him to the shore,
and whined and barked till the forester came.

"He carried Stephen to the brook, washed off the mud, and revived him,
for he was almost dead, and then carried him home. I expected father