THE BLOSSOMING ROD

by

MARY STEWART CUTTING


A.L. Burt Company
Publishers New York
Doubleday, Page & Company







[Illustration: _He was out in the backyard ... flapping that rod in
circles_]




Mr. Langshaw had vaguely felt unusual preparations for a Christmas gift
to him this year; he was always being asked for "change" to pay the
children for services rendered.

It might have seemed a pity that calculation as to dollars and cents
entered so much into the Christmas festivities of the family, if it were
not that it entered so largely into the scheme of living that it was