“And do you know, we hardly saw a thing of him all day!” Clytie proudly recounted afterward to her sister.  “My dear, he would hardly take time to eat his dinner or speak to any one; he was out in the back yard with Henry Wickersham and Mr. Hendon until dark, flapping that rod in circles—­the silliest thing!  He nearly sent a hook into George’s eye once.  George acted as bewitched as he did.  Joe kept telling every single person who came along that it was ’a present from his wife and the kids.’  He certainly showed that he was pleased.”

“It’s been a pretty nice day, hasn’t it?” Langshaw said to his wife that Christmas night when the children were at last in bed.  “Best Christmas I ever had!  To think of you and the kids doing all this for me.”

His hand rested lovingly on the rod, now once again swathed in the gray linen bag.  He would have been the last to realize that, in his humble way, he typified a diviner Fatherhood to the little family who trusted in his care for them—­for all things came of him, and of his own had they given him.

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