ering it a proof of my interest in you. I was sure you would
like it. Before I had reached your age the great object of my ambition
was a watch. I received one from my uncle, as a gift, on my seventeenth
birthday. I believe I looked at it once in five minutes on an average
during the first day."

"I dare say it will be so with me, sir," said Tom, who, at the moment,
had the watch in his hand, examining it.

"As you are to rough it, I thought it best to get you a hunting-case
watch, because it will be less liable to injury. When you become a man I
hope you will be prosperous enough to buy a gold watch and chain, if you
prefer them. While you are a boy silver will be good enough."

"Gold wouldn't correspond very well with my circumstances," said Tom. "I
didn't dream of even having a silver watch and chain for years to come.
I shall write home this evening, and tell mother of my good luck."

"Will you mention that you have already been under arrest?" asked Mr.
Waterbury, smiling.

Tom shook his head.

"I am not proud of that," he answered; "and it would only trouble them
at home to have an account of it. When I get home, I may mention it
sometime."

"Better put on your watch and chain, Tom, before we reach Mrs.
Watson's."

Tom needed no second invitation.

"It's lucky mother put a watch-pocket in my vest," he said. "We didn't
either of us suppose there would be any occasion for it; but I asked her
to do it."

In a nice-looking brick boarding-house--for brown-stone houses were not
then often to be found--Tom and his friend found Mrs. Watson and Jennie.

"I'm so glad to see you, Tom," said Jennie. "I've missed you awfully."

"Thank you," said Tom. "I've come to bid you good-by."

"Good-by! You don't mean that?"

"I expect to start for St. Joseph to-morrow. I am in a hurry to get to
California."

"That's real mean. I don't see why you can't stay in Cincinnati a week."

"I should like to."

"Then why don't you?" persisted the young girl.

"Jennie," said her mother, "we must remember that Thomas is not
traveling for pleasure. He is going to California to seek his fortune.
It won't do for him to linger on his way."

"A week won't make much difference; will it, Tom?"

"I am afraid it will, Jennie. Besides, a friend of Mr. Waterbury will
start to-morrow, and has agreed to take me with him."

"I suppose you've got to go, then," said Jennie regretfully. "Oh, where
did you get that watch, Tom?"

"A kind f