Very early next morning, when my hands scarcely pointed to five o'clock,
the little household was astir. There was a noise of hurried going and
coming, and of trunks being carried down stairs, and for the first time
I heard mingled with the sedate voices of my master and his wife,
another voice, cheery and musical, which I at once guessed to belong to
my future lord and master.
It was not till after this bustle had been going on for a good while
that I was taken out of the drawer and put back into the pocket in which
I had spent so many anxious hours the day before. But here I was
destined not to remain long, as will be seen.
Breakfast was a sad meal to that little family. Even the gay, high-
spirited boy was sobered in anticipation of the coming parting, and as
to his parents, they dared not open their lips for fear of breaking
down.
Then there was a rumbling of wheels in the street, and a banging about
of boxes at the hall door; then a last long embrace between mother and
son. She no longer resisted her grief, and he for the time forgot
everything but her he was leaving; then father and son stepped into the
cab and drove away.
I felt the father's heart beating quicker and his chest heaving deeper
as we proceeded. Presently his hand stole to the pocket where I lay
hid, and he said--
"Charlie, boy, I've said all I have to say to you. You will remember
our talk last night, I am sure, and I shall remember it too. I have no
greater wish than to see my boy brave and honest and true to himself.
Remember always I am your father, and never hesitate to tell me whenever
you are in trouble, or danger, or--and I hope this won't often be--in
disgrace. See here," said he, drawing me forth, "this is a watch which
your mother and I have got for you. Think of us when you use it; and
mind this, Charlie, make the best use of time, or time will become your
enemy."
The poor man faltered out these words with a half-broken heart, as he
handed me to his son.
The boy's eyes brightened and his face became radiant at the sight of
his unexpected treasure. What boy does not covet a watch of his own at
some time or other?
"Oh, father!" he cried, "how good and kind of you! What a beauty!"
The father smiled to see his son's delight, and helped to fasten the
chain to his button-hole.
"You and mother are bricks!" exclaimed Charlie, feasting his eyes upon
me, and half wild with delight. "How _did_ you know I was longing to
have one?"
"Were you?" inquired the father.
"Of course I was, and you knew it. What a swell I shall be! And it
will always be sure to remind me of home."
While this talk was going on I had leisure to examine my new owner.
Picture to yourselves a curly-haired, bright-eyed boy of thirteen with
honest, open face, good features, and winning smile. He is big for his
age, and strongly built. At present his form is arrayed in a brand-new
suit of grey; his collar is new and his tie is new, his boots are new
and his socks are new; everything is new about him, down to the very
guard of his hat, and he himself is the newest and purest of all. Was
ever such a radiant young hero turned loose into the world?
And now, over and above his other glories, he had me to crown all. The
graceful curve of my chain on his waistcoat gave that garment quite a
distinguished appearance, and the consciousness of a silver watch in his
pocket made him hold his head even higher than usual.
"He is a beauty!" again he broke out, "exactly the kind I like most.
I'll take ever such a lot of care of him." And so saying, he began to
swing me at the end of the chain, till I suddenly came sharply into
collision with the door of the cab.
"Hullo," exclaimed my young master, "that won't do. I'll put him away
now. It _was_ good of you, father."
With that we reached the railway station, and in the bustle that ensued
I was for the time forgotten.
Charlie's trunks were duly labelled for Randlebury, and then came the
hardest moment of all, when father and son must part.
"I wonder if you'll be altered, Charlie, when I see you again."
"Not for the worse I hope, anyhow," replied the boy, laughing.
"Tickets, please!" demanded the guard.
"There goes the bell," said Charlie, pulling me out of his pocket.
"They're very punctual. Hullo, we're off! Good-bye, father."
"Good-bye, boy, and God bless you."
And there was a close grasp of the hand, a last smile, a hasty wave from
the window; and then we were off.
How many grown-up men are there who cannot recall at some time or other
this crisis in their lives, this first good-bye from the home of their
childhood, this stepping forth into the world with all that is familiar
and dear at their backs, and all that is strange and unknown and
wonderful stretching away like a vast landscape before them? How many
are there who would not give much to be back once more at that threshold
of their career; and to have the chance of living over again the life
they began there with such bright hopes and such careless confidence?
Ah, if some of them could have seen whither that flower-strewn path was
to lead them, would they not rather have chosen even to die on the
threshold, than take so much as the first step forth from the innocent
home of childhood!
But I am wandering from my story. For half an hour after that last
good-bye Charlie leaned back in the corner of his carriage and gave
himself up to his loneliness, and I could feel his chest heaving to keep
down the tears that would every now and then rise unbidden to his eyes.
But what boy of thirteen can be in the dumps for long? Especially if he
has a new watch in his pocket. Charlie was himself again before we had
well got clear of London, and his reviving spirits gradually recalled to
his memory his father's parting gift, which had for a while been half
forgotten amid other cares.
Now again I was produced, I was turned over and over, was listened to,
was peeped into, was flourished about, was taken off my chain, and put
on again with the supremest satisfaction. At every station we came to,
out I came from his pocket, to be compared with the railway time. By
the clock at Batfield I was a minute slow--a discrepancy which was no
sooner discovered than I felt my glass face opened, and a fat finger and
thumb putting forward my hand to the required time. At Norbely I was
two minutes fast by the clock, and then (oh, horrors!) I found myself
put back in the same rough-and-ready way. At Maltby I was full half a
minute behind the great clock, and on I went again. At the next station
the clock and I both gave the same time to a second, and then what must
he do but begin to regulate me! After a minute calculation he made the
astounding discovery that I had lost a minute and a quarter in four
hours, and that in order to compensate for this shortcoming it would be
necessary for him to move my regulator forward the two hundred and
fortieth part of an inch. This feat he set himself to accomplish with
the point of his scarf-pin while the train was jolting forward at the
rate of thirty miles an hour!
I began to grow nervous. If this was a sample of what I was to expect,
I had indeed need be the healthy, hardy watch I was represented to be by
my maker.
And yet I could not be angry with my brave, honest little tormentor.
It was a sight to see him during that long journey, in all the glory of
a new suit, with a high hat on his head for the first time, and a watch
in his pocket. _In_ his pocket, did I say? I was hardly ever so lucky.
Every five minutes he whipped me out to see how the time was going. If
he polished me up once with his handkerchief, he did it twenty times,
and each time with such vigour that I was nearly red-hot under the
operation. And no sooner was he tired of polishing me, than he took to
paying his hat the same attention, till that wretched article of
decoration must have trembled for its nap. Then he would take to
whistling and singing (what boy can help doing one or the other in a
train?) and as I heard all his little artless songs and gay chirping, I
thought it the pleasantest music one could possibly listen to. And, not
to let his hands be less busy than his throat, he would bring out the
wonderful six-bladed knife his uncle had given him, and exploring all
its wonders, and opening all its blades at the same time, together with
the corkscrew, the gimlet, the pincers, and the button-hook, at
different angles, would terrify the lives out of his fellow-passengers
by twirling the awful bristling weapon in his fingers within a foot or
so of their faces.
"Mind, dear," said an old lady on the seat opposite, "you'll cut your
fingers off, I'm certain."
"Oh, no, I won't," exclaimed he, taking out his handkerchief, and
beginning to polish the blades one after another.
The old lady trembled as she watched him, and sighed with relief when
the operation was over.
Presently, having nothing particular to do, he stared at her. "Would
you like to know the time, ma'am?" he inquired.
"If you please," replied the good old soul.
"Well, it's just seventeen minutes and nineteen seconds past three by my
watch. Would you like to see for yourself, ma'am?"
And, pleased to have a confidant of his possessions, he loosed my chain,
and flourished me bodily before the eyes of his new friend.