THE CLOSE OF “ZEPH.”

They were to settle down on a ranch in one of the beautiful cañons in South California, opening out seaward, yet not so near the water as to be too cold for fruits. I had the precise spot in my memory,—an ideal nook, apricots and vineyards, cherry-trees in bloom there in March, tomatoes ripe on the hillsides in January; a glimmer of sea to be seen from the mouth of the cañon fourteen miles away,—endless charm to Miss Sophy, half-sad spell to Zeph. At the end of two years, one night as she is watching the sunset light on the water from one of the hills at the mouth of their cañon, she looks down and sees Zeph coming up the road with his arm around a boy’s waist. It is Zephie. His mother is dead,—had saved enough money for him to come to South California and join his father. She had learned of the marriage, and as soon as Gammer returned there was a stormy scene; but she soon grew reconciled, and finally glad. As Gammer had predicted, she never recovered her strength, but pined away in a mysterious nervous break-down. Zephie’s story is pathetic. The stepfather was never “bad” to her, but never “real good;” the boy was her only comfort. Whenever she could save a dollar, she sent it by Zephie to Gammer to keep, and made Gammer promise to see him safe started for California. A letter from Gammer sent by Zephie told the details of the last hours, when the poor woman said she died easier, thinking how forgiving Zeph had been to her; that she thought if a man could forgive her like that, perhaps Christ would forgive her too! “She allaowed,” said Gammer, “thet she couldn’t never hev got no faith to die trustin’, ef it hedn’t ben fur ther way Zeph ’d allers kep’ on er furgivin’ her, time an’ agen; ’n’ she jest trusted God ’d be ez good ter her ez Zeph wuz!”

“Now,” said Miss Sophy in her heart, “at last, Zeph’ll have real peace and comfort. He’s never felt settled in his mind yet, and he never would ’s long ’s he hadn’t got the boy; ’n’ I don’t know ’s he would ’s long ’s she was above ground! But there won’t be a happier man in all California than he’ll be now!” And a flush born of a secret known only to Miss Sophy’s own heart was red on her cheek as she went to the door and called her husband and his boy in to supper.