The Blossoming Rod | Page 6

or three of the family were gathered together there were secret whisperings, more scurryings, and frenzied warnings for the father not to come into the room. In spite of himself, Langshaw began to get a little curious as to the tobacco jar or the fire shovel, or whatever should be his portion. He not only felt resigned to not having the trout-rod, but a sort of wonder also rose in him that he had been bewitched--even momentarily--into thinking he could have it. What did it matter anyway?
"It's worth it, old girl, isn't it?" he said cryptically as he and Clytie met once unexpectedly in the hall, and he put his arm round her.
"Yes!" answered his wife, her dark eyes lustrous. Sometimes she didn't look much older than little Mary. "One thing, though, I must say: I do hope, dear, that--the children have been thinking so much of our present to you and saving up so for it--I do hope, Joe, that if you are pleased you'll show it. So far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter; but sometimes--when, of course, I know how pleased you really are--you don't show it at once to others. That's why I hope you'll show it to-morrow if--"
"Great Scott! Clytie, let up on it! What do you want me to do--jump up and down and make a fool of myself?" asked her husband scornfully. "You leave me alone!"
It was Langshaw's firm rule, vainly protested even by his wife, that the household should have breakfast on Christmas Day before tackling the stockings--a hurried mockery of a meal, to be sure, yet to his masculine idea a re?nforcement of food for the infant stomach before the long, hurtling joy of the day. The stockings and the piles under them were taken in order, according to age--the youngest first and the others waiting in rapt interest and admiration until their turn arrived--a pretty ceremony.
In the delicious revelry of Baby's joy, as her trembling, fat little fingers pulled forth dolls and their like, all else was forgotten until it was Mary's turn, and then George's, and then the mother's. And then, when he had forgotten all about it: "Now father!" There was seemingly a breathless moment while all eyes turned to him.
"It's father's turn now; father's going to have his presents. Father, sit down here on the sofa--it's your turn now."
There were only a blue cornucopia and an orange and a bottle of olives in his stocking, a Christmas card from his sister Ella, a necktie from grandmamma, and nothing, as his quick eye had noted, under it on the floor; but now George importantly stooped down, drew a narrow package from under the sofa and laid it beside his father, pulling off the paper. Inside was a slim, longish, gray linen bag. Langshaw studied it for a moment before opening it.
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he breathed, with a strange glance round at the waiting group and an odd, crooked smile. "I'll be jiggered!"
There in its neatly grooved sections lay the rod, ready to be put together--not a rod, but, as his eye almost unbelievingly reassured him, the rod--the ticket of the shop adorning it--in all its beauty of golden shellac and delicate tip. His fingers touched the pieces reverently.
"Well, will you look at that! How did you ever think of getting it?"
"How did I think of it? Because you talked about it all the time," said his wife scornfully, with her arms round his neck from behind, while the children flung themselves upon him. "Oh, I know you thought you didn't; but you did just the same. George heard you, too. We got Mr. Wickersham to pick it out. He said it was the one you wanted. And the reel--you haven't noticed that box there--the reel is the right kind, he says; and the line is silk--the best. There's the book of flies too--six. Baby's crazy over them! Mr. Wickersham said it was all just what you ought to have. We've been saving up for the longest time; but we had to wait, you see, for George's deportment before the things could be bought. If it isn't right--"
"Right? Say, this is the finest present I ever had!" said Langshaw with glittering eyes and that little crooked smile. "It just beats everything!"
He rose, scattering his adoring family, and, walking to the window, threw it open to the frosty December air and called across to a neighbour standing on the walk.
"Want to come over here, Hendon? Got something to show you. Will you look at this! Present from my wife and the kids--been saving up for it. It's a peach, I'll tell you that! I'm going to take George off fishing this spring--What? Well, come over later, when you've got time to take a good look at it."
"Do you like