autiful present, but he forced it into my
closed hands.

"Oh, I don't need to know the time," he said sadly; "the hours pass
slowly enough. I should die counting them. Good-by, little Remi; always
remember to be a good boy."

I was very unhappy. How good he had been to me! I lingered round the
prison doors for a long time after I had left him. I might have stayed
there perhaps until night if I had not suddenly touched a hard round
object in my pocket. My watch!

All my grief was forgotten for the moment. My watch! My very own watch
by which I could tell the time. I pulled it out to see the hour. Midday!
It was a matter of small importance whether it was midday, ten o'clock
or two o'clock. Yet, I was very pleased that it was midday. It would
have been hard to say why, but such was the case. I knew that it was
midday; my watch told me so. What an affair! It seemed to me that a
watch was a sort of confidential friend of whom one could ask advice and
to whom one could talk.

"Friend watch, what's the time?"

"Just twelve o'clock, my dear Remi."

"Really! Then it's time for me to do this or that. A good thing you
reminded me; if you had not, I should have forgotten."

In my joy I had not noticed that Capi was almost as pleased as myself.
He pulled me by the leg of my trousers and barked several times. As he
continued to bark, I was forced to bestow some attention upon him.

"What do you want, Capi?" I asked.

He looked at me, but I failed to understand him. He waited some moments,
then came and stood up against me, putting his paws on the pocket where
I had placed my watch. He wanted to know the time to tell the
"distinguished audience," like in the days when he had worked with
Vitalis.

I showed the watch to him. He looked at it for some time, as though
trying to remember, then, wagging his tail, he barked twelve times. He
had not forgotten! We could earn money with my watch! That was something
I had not counted upon.

Forward march, children!

I took one last look at the prison, behind the walls of which little
Lise's father was shut, then went on my way.

The thing I needed most of all was a map of France. Knowing that in the
book stalls on the quays I could procure one, I wended my way towards
the river. At last I found one that was so yellow that the man let me
have it for fifteen sous.

I was able to leave Paris now, and I decided to do so at once. I had a
choice between two roads. I chose the road t