Mrs. Dunlee was stooping and looking around carefully.  There was not a tuft of grass or a clump of weeds behind which even a small article could be hidden, much less a large bright object like a gold watch.  She took a wooden pencil from her pocket and scraped the earth with it; but only disturbed a few ants and beetles.  If the watch had ever been dropped here, it certainly was not here now.  She and Jimmy turned and walked home in the twilight,—­or as Mrs. McQuilken called it, “the dimmets,” and poor Jimmy drew a cloud of gloom about him like a cloak.

They looked on the ground at every step of the way.

“There’s a piece of chaparral over there.  Did you go through that?” asked Mrs. Dunlee.

“No, I never, I’m sure I never.  I walked in the road right straight along.  Oh, mamma, if I’ve lost that watch ’twill break my heart.  But I’ll pay papa for it, you see if I don’t!  I’ll save every penny I get and put it together and pay papa!”

Mrs. Dunlee did not reply for a moment; she took time to reflect.  Jimmy was a dear boy, but very heedless.  He had done wrong in the first place to take the watch from Lucy without his father’s permission.  He must be taught to respect other people’s property and other people’s rights.  He must learn to think, and learn to be careful.  Here was a chance for a lesson.

“Jamie,” said she at last, “I am glad you wish to atone for the wrong you have done; it shows a proper spirit.  I agree with you that if the watch isn’t found you ought to give papa what you can toward paying for it.  That is no more than fair.”

“I want to, mamma, I just want to!” burst forth Jimmy.  “I wish I was little like Eddo, before ’twas wrong for me to be naughty.”

His mother took him in her arms and kissed him, for he was so tired and miserable that he could not keep the tears back another moment.

Friday night passed and most of Saturday; and though diligent search was made, the watch was not found.

“Poor papa!” said Kyzie.  “He doesn’t say much; but how sober he looks!  Grandma Dunlee gave him that watch, Jimmy, when he was a young man; and he did love it so!”

“I know it.  Oh, dear, how can he stand it?” responded jimmy, who had been deeply touched from the first by his father’s forbearance.  “Mr, Pollard punished Nate dreadfully, you know; but here’s Papa Dunlee, why, he hasn’t even scolded!”

Papa Dunlee was a wise man.  He saw that his little son was suffering enough already; he was learning a hard lesson, and perhaps would learn it all the better for being left alone with his own conscience.

On Sunday afternoon the boy was very disconsolate, and Mr. Dunlee patted him on the head, saying:—­

“Maybe we’ll find the watch yet, my son.  And anyway, I know Jimmum didn’t mean to lose it.”

Then he sat down to read, and Jimmy gazed at him reverently.  The sunshine about his head seemed almost like a halo, and the boy thought of the angels, and wondered if they could possibly be any better than papa!