N'S NAME UPON HIS ROD.

Through the boy's mind there darted the flash of a thought, a sad
thought. He himself was a Rod on whom no man's name seemed to be
written, orphan that he was, with no knowledge of his parents!

Suddenly he hesitated, for he had caught sight of the name of Aaron in
the verse that he was about to read, and did not wish to pronounce it in
his aunt's hearing.

"This chapter is most too hard for me to read out loud, Aunt Boynton,"
he stammered. "Can I study it by myself and read it to Ivory first?" "Go
on, go on, you read very sweetly; I can not remember what comes and I
wish to hear it."

The boy continued, but without raising his eyes from the Bible.

3. AND THOU SHALT WRITE AARON'S NAME UPON THE ROD OF LEVI: FOR ONE ROD
SHALL BE FOR THE HEAD OF THE HOUSE OF THEIR FATHERS.

4. AND THOU SHALT LAY THEM UP IN THE TABERNACLE OF THE CONGREGATION
BEFORE THE TESTIMONY, WHERE I WILL MEET WITH YOU.

5. AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT THE MAN'S ROD, WHOM I SHALL CHOOSE,
SHALL BLOSSOM: AND I WILL MAKE TO CEASE FROM ME THE MURMURINGS OF THE
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, WHEREBY THEY MURMUR AGAINST YOU.

Rodman had read on, absorbed in the story and the picture it presented
to his imagination. He liked the idea of all the princes having a rod
according to the house of their fathers; he liked to think of the little
branches being laid on the altar in the tabernacle, and above all he
thought of the longing of each of the princes to have his own rod chosen
for the blossoming.

6. AND MOSES SPOKE UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR
PRINCES GAVE HIM A ROD A PIECE, FOR EACH PRINCE ONE, ACCORDING TO THEIR
FATHER'S HOUSES, EVEN TWELVE RODS; AND THE ROD OF AARON WAS AMONG THEIR
RODS.

Oh! how the boy hoped that Aaron's branch would be the one chosen to
blossom! He felt that his aunt would be pleased, too; but he read on
steadily, with eyes that glowed and breath that came and went in a very
palpitation of interest.

7. AND MOSES LAID UP THE RODS BEFORE THE LORD IN THE TABERNACLE OF
WITNESS.

8. AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT ON THE MORROW MOSES WENT INTO THE
TABERNACLE OF WITNESS; AND, BEHOLD, THE ROD OF AARON WAS BUDDED AND
BROUGHT FORTH BUDS, AND BLOOMED BLOSSOMS, AND YIELDED ALMONDS.

It was Aaron's rod, then, and was an almond branch! How beautiful,
for the blossoms would have been pink; and how the people must have
marvelled to see the lovely blooming thing on the dark altar; first
budding, then bl