A True Friend

By Lars Sanders

Before there were power saws, Ole and Thorval were partners in the woods, falling timber. But one day they decided that there must be an easier way to make a living. So they pooled their money and bought a little ranch. Things were fine for a while, but there wasn’t always enough money. So one morning Ole took his six-gun, jumped on his horse and rode to town and robbed the bank.

However, someone saw him and shortly after he got back to the ranch, the sheriff and posse showed up and took him to jail. When the sheriff asked him where he hid the money Ole couldn’t tell him because he only spoke Swedish. Someone said, “Go get Thorval, he understands.”

So the sheriff told Thorval to tell Ole that if he don’t tell where the money is, we are going to hang him at sundown. Well, it scared Ole, and he “sang like a bird.” He said to Thorval, “You know where the three rocks are by the southwest corner of our pasture fence, well the money is $10,000 under the white rock.”

The sheriff asked, “what did Ole say?” and Thorval, with a slight smile on his face answered, “Ole says that he is not afraid to die.”