is
diminutive shoulders. Her eyes had grown very tender.

"Zip," she cried gently, "Zip, I think God has been very good to me.
He's been kinder to me than He has been to you. You deserve His
goodness; I don't. And yet He's given me a man with a heart of--of
gold. He's given me a man whose love I have trampled under-foot and
flung away. He's given me a man who, by his own simple honesty, his
goodness, has shown me the road to perfect happiness. He's given me
all this in return for a sin that can never be wiped out--"

But suddenly Scipio freed himself from the gentle grasp of her
restraining hands, and caught her in his arms.

"Don't you--don't you to say it, Jess," he cried, all his great love
shining in his eyes. His perplexity and regret were all gone now, and
only had he thought of his love. "Don't you to say nuthin' against
yourself. You're my wife--my Jessie. An' as long as I've got life I
don't want nothin' else--but my Jessie. Say, gal, I do love you."

"And--and--oh, if you can only believe me, Zip, I love you."

The man reached up and drew the woman's face down to his, and kissed
her on the lips.

"It don't matter 'bout not finding that gold now," he cried, and
kissed her again.

"No, it--"

"Say, momma, ain't it dinner yet?"

"Ess, me want din-din."

The man and woman sprang guiltily apart before the wondering eyes of
their children, and the next moment both of the small creatures were
caught up and hugged in loving arms.

"Why, sure, kiddies," cried Scipio, his face wreathed in happy smiles.
"Momma's got dinner all fixed--so come right along."

THE END

End of Project Gutenberg's The Twins of Suffering Creek, by Ridgwell Cullum

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TWINS OF SUFFERING CREEK ***

***** This file should be named 29638.txt or 29638.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/6/3/29638/

Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules,
set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, appl