“No, suh, dee ain’ forgit you,” she said, comfortingly.

“I know dee ain’,” he said, reassured.  “Dat’s what he tell me—­he ain’ nuver gwine forgit me.”  The reaction had set in, and his voice was so feeble now it was scarcely audible.  He was talking rather to himself than to them, and finally he sank into a doze.  A painful silence reigned in the little hut, in which the only sign was the breathing of the dying man.  A single shaft of light stole down under the edge of the slowly passing cloud and slipped up to the door.  Suddenly the sleeper waked with a start, and gazed around.

“Hit gittin’ mighty dark,” he whispered, faintly.  “You reckon dee’ll git heah ‘fo’ dark?”

The light was dying from his eyes.

“Ephum,” said the woman, softly, to her husband.

The effect was electrical.

“Heish! you heah dat!” exclaimed the dying man, eagerly.

“Ephum”—­she repeated.  The rest was drowned by Ole ’Stracted’s joyous exclamation.

“Gord!  I knowed it!” he cried, suddenly rising upright, and, with beaming face, stretching both arms toward the door.  “Dyah dee come!  Now watch ’em smile.  All y’all jes stand back.  Heah de one you lookin’ for.  Marster—­Mymy—­heah’s Little Ephum!” And with a smile on his face he sank back into his son’s arms.

The evening sun, dropping on the instant to his setting, flooded the room with light; but as Ephraim gently eased him down and drew his arm from around him, it was the light of the unending morning that was on his face.  His Master had at last come for him, and after his long waiting, Ole ’Stracted had indeed gone home.

OUR CONSUL AT CARLSRUHE
-----------------------
BY F. J. STIMSON

Frederic Jesup Stimson is a prominent lawyer of Boston.  He is a member of the New York and Boston bars and is a special lecturer at Harvard.  He has been more or less identified with State politics in Massachusetts for a great many years, was Assistant Attorney-General of the State in 1884-85, general counsel to the United States Industrial Commission, and Democratic candidate for Congress in 1902.  In addition to being the author of several novels, essays, etc., Mr. Stimson has written a number of law books.  His earlier novels were published under the pen-name of “J.  S. of Dale.”  Mr. Stimsorfs latest novel is entitled “In Cure of Her Soul”.  The hero of the story, Austin Pinckney, is a son of the “Consul at Carlsruhe."

OUR CONSUL AT CARLSRUHE
BY F. J. STIMSON ("J.  S. OF DALE”)
[Footnote:  By permission of the publishers, from “The Sentimental
Calendar,” by J. S. of Dale (F.  J. Stimson).  Copyright, 1886, by
Charles Scribner’s Sons.]

DIED.—­In Baden, Germany, the 22d instant, Charles Austin Pinckney, late U. S. Consul at Carlsruhe, aged sixty years.