{"product_id":"2940012101747","title":"AARON'S ROD","description":"CHAPTER I. THE BLUE BALL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere was a large, brilliant evening star in the early twilight, and\u003cbr\u003eunderfoot the earth was half frozen. It was Christmas Eve. Also the War\u003cbr\u003ewas over, and there was a sense of relief that was almost a new menace.\u003cbr\u003eA man felt the violence of the nightmare released now into the general\u003cbr\u003eair. Also there had been another wrangle among the men on the pit-bank\u003cbr\u003ethat evening.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAaron Sisson was the last man on the little black railway-line climbing\u003cbr\u003ethe hill home from work. He was late because he had attended a meeting\u003cbr\u003eof the men on the bank. He was secretary to the Miners Union for his\u003cbr\u003ecolliery, and had heard a good deal of silly wrangling that left him\u003cbr\u003enettled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe strode over a stile, crossed two fields, strode another stile, and\u003cbr\u003ewas in the long road of colliers' dwellings. Just across was his own\u003cbr\u003ehouse: he had built it himself. He went through the little gate, up past\u003cbr\u003ethe side of the house to the back. There he hung a moment, glancing down\u003cbr\u003ethe dark, wintry garden.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"My father--my father's come!\" cried a child's excited voice, and two\u003cbr\u003elittle girls in white pinafores ran out in front of his legs.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Father, shall you set the Christmas Tree?\" they cried. \"We've got one!\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Afore I have my dinner?\" he answered amiably.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Set it now. Set it now.--We got it through Fred Alton.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Where is it?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe little girls were dragging a rough, dark object out of a corner of\u003cbr\u003ethe passage into the light of the kitchen door.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"It's a beauty!\" exclaimed Millicent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Yes, it is,\" said Marjory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I should think so,\" he replied, striding over the dark bough. He went\u003cbr\u003eto the back kitchen to take off his coat.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Set it now, Father. Set it now,\" clamoured the girls.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You might as well. You've left your dinner so long, you might as well\u003cbr\u003edo it now before you have it,\" came a woman's plangent voice, out of the\u003cbr\u003ebrilliant light of the middle room.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAaron Sisson had taken off his coat and waistcoat and his cap. He stood\u003cbr\u003ebare-headed in his shirt and braces, contemplating the tree.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What am I to put it in?\" he queried. He picked up the tree, and held\u003cbr\u003eit erect by the topmost twig. He felt the cold as he stood in the yard\u003cbr\u003ecoatless, and he twitched his shoulders.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Isn't it a beauty!\" repeated Millicent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ay!--lop-sided though.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Put something on, you two!\" came the woman's high imperative voice,\u003cbr\u003efrom the kitchen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"We aren't cold,\" protested the girls from the yard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Come and put something on,\" insisted the voice. The man started off\u003cbr\u003edown the path, the little girls ran grumbling indoors. The sky was\u003cbr\u003eclear, there was still a crystalline, non-luminous light in the under\u003cbr\u003eair.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAaron rummaged in his shed at the bottom of the garden, and found a\u003cbr\u003espade and a box that was suitable. Then he came out to his neat, bare,\u003cbr\u003ewintry garden. The girls flew towards him, putting the elastic of their\u003cbr\u003ehats under their chins as they ran. The tree and the box lay on the\u003cbr\u003efrozen earth. The air breathed dark, frosty, electric.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Hold it up straight,\" he said to Millicent, as he arranged the tree in\u003cbr\u003ethe box. She stood silent and held the top bough, he filled in round the\u003cbr\u003eroots.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen it was done, and pressed in, he went for the wheelbarrow. The girls\u003cbr\u003ewere hovering excited round the tree. He dropped the barrow and stooped\u003cbr\u003eto the box. The girls watched him hold back his face--the boughs pricked\u003cbr\u003ehim.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Is it very heavy?\" asked Millicent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Ay!\" he replied, with a little grunt. Then the procession set off--the\u003cbr\u003etrundling wheel-barrow, the swinging hissing tree, the two excited\u003cbr\u003elittle girls. They arrived at the door. Down went the legs of the\u003cbr\u003ewheel-barrow on the yard. The man looked at the box.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Where are you going to have it?\" he called.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Put it in the back kitchen,\" cried his wife.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You'd better have it where it's going to stop. I don't want to hawk it\u003cbr\u003eabout.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Put it on the floor against the dresser, Father. Put it there,\" urged\u003cbr\u003eMillicent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"You come and put some paper down, then,\" called the mother hastily.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe two children ran indoors, the man stood contemplative in the cold,\u003cbr\u003eshrugging his uncovered shoulders slightly. The open inner door showed a\u003cbr\u003ebright linoleum on the floor, and the end of a brown side-board on which\u003cbr\u003estood an aspidistra.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgain with a wrench Aaron Sisson lifted the box. The tree pricked and\u003cbr\u003estung. His wife watched him as he entered staggering, with his face\u003cbr\u003eaverted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Mind where you make a lot of dirt,\" she said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe lowered the box with a little jerk on to the spread-out newspaper on\u003cbr\u003ethe floor. Soil scattered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Sweep it up,\" he said to Millicent.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis e","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47183933505776,"sku":"2940012101747","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012101747_p0.jpg?v=1763552710","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012101747","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}