222 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



sign that comes at dawn, the look which is 

 seen but once on the face of the living. One 

 of the watchers, a man who had carried his 

 life in his hands many times, saw this great 

 change, and with tears running down his 

 cheeks, and a lump in his throat, he moved 

 away ; the others followed, and the husband 

 and wife were left alone. 



Then the dying man spoke. " I have asked 

 my God to pardon me for all my sins. Once 

 I spoke in my anger to you, wrongly. I asked 

 your pardon, it was freely given, I ask it once 

 again. For I am going away away 

 Home." The day broke for Ephraim on 

 another world than this. 



Daybreak on the foreshore, a leaden -grey 

 waste of waters, and the beach of the same hue, 

 only brighter in tone, streaked with huge out- 

 lines, black and indistinct, of piles driven in years 

 ago a more dreary look-out it would be difficult 

 to imagine. The shores are lifeless ; the fowl 

 oh the water are not yet ready to come in, and 

 those which have been feeding by night inshore 

 are not yet coming out. 



It is fairly dark ; then out on the eastern 

 horizon a line of cold light shows. It is soon 



