you are! Any one would think you
had never seen a watch before. You see this is one of the best class of
watches, and you open the glass by pressing your nail in there. That's
it, you see; and then you stick your nail on that little steel thing,
and then it comes open--so. Here, keep back, some of you. Breathing on
the works spoils a watch."

"Oh, what a beauty!" rose in chorus, and I saw Mercer press forward with
his eyes dilated, and an intense look of longing in his countenance, as
he gazed at the bright yellow works, and the tiny wheel swinging to and
fro upon its hair-spring.

"Yes, it's a good watch," said Burr major, in a voice full of careless
indifference. "Not the same make as my father's. His is gold, of
course, and when you open it, there's a cap fits right over the top--
just over there. His is a repeater, and when you touch a spring, it
strikes the quarters and the hours."

Mercer looked on as if fascinated.

"Like a clock," said Hodson.

"Of course it does like a clock," said Burr major contemptuously. "It's
jewelled, too, in ever so many holes. It cost a hundred guineas, I
think, without the chain."

"Oh!" rose in chorus.

"Is that jewelled in lots of holes?" said one of the boys.

"Of course it is. My father wouldn't send me a watch without it was."

"I can't see any holes," said one.

"And I don't see any jewels," said another.

"Where are they, then?" said Hodson.

"The other side, of course."

"Then what's the good of them?"

"Makes a watch more valuable," said Burr major haughtily. "There, don't
crowd in so. I'm going to put it away now."

"What jewels are they?" said a boy. "Pearls?"

"Diamonds," said Mercer, with his eyes fixed on the watch, "to make hard
points for the wheels to swing upon, because diamonds won't wear."

"Oh, hark at him!" cried Burr major. "Old Senna knows all about it.
Hardly ever saw a watch before in his life."

"Haven't I?" cried Mercer. "Why, my father has a beauty, with second
hands--a stop watch."

"Ha, ha, ha!" cried Burr major, closing his new present with a loud
snap. "A stop watch! that's an old one that won't go, boys. Poor old
Mercer!--poor old Senna Tea! Did your father buy it cheap?"

There was a roar of laughter at this, for the boys always laughed at
Burr major's jokes.

"No; I know," said Hodson. "One of old Senna's patients that he killed,
left it him in his will."

I saw Mercer turn scarlet.

"Did you ever t