Tárogató, 1938-1939 (1. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
1939-04-01 / 10. szám
TÁROGATÓ 13 THE DONKEY-BOY A Story for Palm Sunday The donkey and her colt were tied up beside the Jerusalem road, just beyond the village. Reuben had chosen the place because there were many thistles there, and he knew that donkeys liked thistles. Reuben was seven, and very proud to be old enough to pasture the donkeys. He sat on a big stone and sang to himself while he peeled the stem of a palm branch which he had broken off on his way out from home that morning. While he peeled his branch and sang, Reuben watched the people on their way up to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. There was a crowd. The road was filled with donkeys and camels and people walking. Reuben wished that he could go too. He wished that someone would stop and say: “Boy! Bring your donkeys and come with us.” Or perhaps a camel rider might lean down from his high seat and say: “Would you like to ride with me?” It was not a camel rider, though, who stopped and spoke to Reuben. It was not even a man on a donkey. It was just two poor men who were trudging along in the dust. Fishermen, Reuben thought they must be, by their brown faces and the fish stains on their coats. They pointed to the donkeys and smiled at Reuben. He jumped up at once. “Do you want the donkeys?” he asked. “The Lord hath need of them,” answered the men. They were untying the donkeys just as if they were their own. A Lord! But that was someone very great indeed — a King perhaps! Could a King be coming up to Jerusalem, wondered Reuben. Had his camel gone lame, or sat down and refused to get up again, like they did sometimes, and would the King ride into Jerusalem on the big donkey and let Reuben and the little donkey run beside him? The fishermen drove the donkeys down the road. Reuben was too excited to wonder what his father would say about it all. He hurried along with his hand on the donkey colt’s neck. They were going to Jerusalem. They were going with a King. The men stopped at a well beside the road. Reuben was disappointed. He had always thought that Kings wore grand clothes; but the Man who was sitting on the grass by the well was a great deal shabbier than Reuben’s father would have been to go up to Jerusalem for the Passover. The Man looked up, and when He saw Reuben and the donkey, He smiled! Reuben forgot all about His shabby clothes then; he forgot to wonder if He could be a King. He knew He was a King. The kindest, most wonderful, strongest Person in all the world. Reuben pulled off his coat and put it on the big donkey’s back. His father had a rug to sit on when he rode up to Jerusalem. Reuben had no rug for the wonderful Man, so he gave Him his coat instead. Other men who were with the King spread their coats on the donkey too. Reuben would have liked his coat to be the only one, but it was so small that he was glad that the King had the others as well. He heard the fishermen call the wonderful Man “Jesus, Master!” Jesus! It was a splendid name, a good name for a King. The King was riding on Reuben’s donkey! He was riding on her into Jerusalem. Reuben began to shout — he shouted loudly — he waved his palm branch. “Hosanna, Hosanna!” shouted Reuben, and the fishermen shouted too. There were several boys and girls on the road travelling up to Jerusalem with their parents. When the children saw Reuben’s waving branch they broke off bits from the trees beside the way and waved them. “Hosanna, Hosanna!” shouted the children, and the road was quite full of their waving branches. “Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” answered the grown-up people. Then they all shouted “Hosanna!” together, again and again. It was lovely! Reuben felt he could never be tired or ordinary again. Side by side with the little donkey he ran, and he shouted “Hosanna!” Down the long white road, through the cloudst of dust, through the narrow gateway into OUR ENGLISH SECTION.
