and had a second breakfast, and finally
wandered back to the station to wait for the train. It came, bearing the
expected two, and much friendliness. "Get our letter? There, Jack! He said
you wouldn't, but I said you would. I made him send it {~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} four miles to
walk? What fun!"

It was fun, indeed, and all went well until after dinner, when
Jack--saying, "Well, maybe we'd better be starting back for that
train"--drew out his watch. He opened it, muttered something, put it to his
ear, then began to wind it rapidly. He wound and wound. We all laughed.

"Looks as if you hadn't remembered to wind it last night," said Jonathan,
glancing at me.

"I haven't done that in months, hang it! Give me the time, will you,
Jonathan?" said Jack.

"Sorry!" Jonathan was smiling genially. "Mine's run down too. It stopped
at twenty-two minutes before five--A. M., I think."

"What luck! And Molly didn't bring hers."

"You told me not to," Molly flicked in.

"So here we are," said Jonathan, "entirely without the time of day."

"But plenty of real time all round us," I said. "Let's use it, and start."
I avoided Jonathan's eye.

We reached the station with an hour and ten minutes to spare--bought more
ginger-cookies and more milk. As we sat eating them in the midst of the
preternatural calm that marks a country railroad station outside of train
times, Molly remarked brightly,--

"Well, I don't see but we got on just as well without a watch, didn't we,
Jack? Why do we need watches, anyway? Do _you_ see?" she turned to us.
"Jack does everything by his watch--eats and breathes and sleeps by it--"

Jack returned, watch in hand--he had been getting railroad time from the
telegraph operator. "Want to set yours while you think of it?" he asked
Jonathan.

"Sorry--thank you--didn't bring it," said Jonathan.

"By George, man, what'll you do?" Real consternation sounded in Jack's
tones.

"Oh, we'll get along somehow," said Jonathan. "You see, we don't have many
engagements, except with the bass, and they never meet theirs, anyhow."

When the train had gone, I said, "Jonathan, why didn't you tell them it
was my whim?"

"Oh, I just didn't," said Jonathan.

As Jonathan had predicted, we did get along somehow--got along rather well,
on the whole. There are, of course, some drawbacks to an unwatched life.
You never want to start the next meal till you are hungry, and after that
it takes one or two or three hours, as the