“Look at that!” crowed Isaiah, exhibiting the knife, bristling like a porcupine, on his open palm.  “Look at it!  By time, there ain’t nothin’ I can’t do with that knife!  Every time I look at it I find somethin’ new.  Now, I wonder what that is,” pointing to a particularly large and ferocious-looking implement which projected from the steel tangle.  “I cal’late I’ve sized up about everything else, but I can’t seem to make out what that’s for.  What do you cal’late ’tis, Cap’n Shad?”

Shadrach looked.

“Why, that’s simple,” he said, gravely.  “That’s a crust crowbar.”

“A what?”

“A crust crowbar.  For openin’ one of them cast-iron pies same as you made for us last week.  You drill a hole in the crust nigh the edge of the plate and then put that thing in and pry the upper deck loose.  Good idea, Isaiah!  I—­”

“Aw, go to grass!” interrupted the indignant Mr. Chase.  “I notice you always eat enough of my pies, decks—­yes, and hull and riggin’, too.”

Then there was the great surprise, that which the partners had prepared for their idolized niece.  Mary found beside her plate a small, oblong package, wrapped in tissue paper and labeled, “To Mary-’Gusta, from Uncle Shadrach and Uncle Zoeth, with a Merry Christmas.”  Inside the paper was a pasteboard box, inside that a leather case, and inside that a handsome gold watch and chain.  Then there was much excited exclaiming and delighted thanks on Mary’s part, and explanations and broad grins on that of the givers.

“But you shouldn’t have done it!  Of course you shouldn’t!” protested Mary.  “It’s perfectly lovely and I wanted a watch more than anything; but I know this must have cost a great deal.”

“Never, neither,” protested the Captain.  “We got it wholesale.  Edgar Emery’s nephew is in the business up to Providence and he picked it out for us.  Didn’t begin to cost what we cal’lated ’twould, did it, Zoeth?  When you buy things wholesale that way you can ’most always cal’late to get ’em lower than you cal’late to.”

Mary smiled at this somewhat involved statement, but she shook her head.

“I’m sure it cost a great deal more than you should have spent,” she said.

“But you like it, don’t you?” queried Zoeth, hopefully.

“Like it!  Oh, Uncle Zoeth, don’t you know I like it!  Who could help liking such a beautiful thing?”

“How’s it show up alongside the watches the other girls have up to that Boston school?” asked Shadrach, with ill-concealed anxiety.  “We wouldn’t want our girl’s watch to be any cheaper’n theirs, you know.”

The answer was enthusiastic enough to satisfy even the Captain and Mr. Hamilton.

“I’m sure there isn’t another girl in the school whose watch means to her what this will mean to me,” declared Mary.  “I shall keep it and love it all my life.”

The partners heaved a sigh of relief.  Whether or not the watch was fine enough for their Mary-’Gusta had been a source of worriment and much discussion.  And then Isaiah, with his customary knack of saying the wrong thing, tossed a brickbat into the puddle of general satisfaction.