"I'm sure it cost a great deal more than you should have spent," she
said.

"But you like it, don't you?" queried Zoeth, hopefully.

"Like it! Oh, Uncle Zoeth, don't you KNOW I like it! Who could help
liking such a beautiful thing?"

"How's it show up alongside the watches the other girls have up to that
Boston school?" asked Shadrach, with ill-concealed anxiety. "We wouldn't
want our girl's watch to be any cheaper'n theirs, you know."

The answer was enthusiastic enough to satisfy even the Captain and Mr.
Hamilton.

"I'm sure there isn't another girl in the school whose watch means to
her what this will mean to me," declared Mary. "I shall keep it and love
it all my life."

The partners heaved a sigh of relief. Whether or not the watch was fine
enough for their Mary-'Gusta had been a source of worriment and much
discussion. And then Isaiah, with his customary knack of saying the
wrong thing, tossed a brickbat into the puddle of general satisfaction.

"That's so," he said; "that's so, Mary-'Gusta. You can keep it all
your life, and when you get to be an old woman and married and have
grandchildren then you can give it to them."

Captain Shadrach, who had taken up his napkin preparatory to tucking
it under his chin, turned in his chair and glared at the unconscious