He'll soon be back;" but before my master had got to the end of his sentence he too had broken down.
For a long time they talked about their boy, their fine boy who had never before left his parents' roof, and was about now to step out into the treacherous world.

How they trembled for him, yet how proudly and confidently they spoke of his prospects; how lovingly they recalled all their life together, from the days when he could first toddle about, down to the present.
Many tears were mingled with their talk, and many a smothered sob bespoke a desperate effort to subdue their common sorrow.

At last they became quieter, then I heard my master say,-- "I positively have never shown you the watch I got for him," and with that he opened the drawer and produced me.
"Oh, Charles," cried the mother, "how delighted he will be, and what a capital watch it is!" And she looked at me affectionately for a long time, for her son's sake, smiling through her tears, and then put me back.
Need I say that as these two knelt together that night, their only son was not forgotten in their prayers?
So ended the first day of my adventures..