“Indeed he is a lovely child,” Mr. Manly said earnestly.

“A very fine child,” Mr. Pelby remarked, mechanically.

“We’ll match him with the town!” broke in Mrs. Little, unable to keep down the upswelling, delighted affection of her heart.

By this time, Tommy’s bewildered senses were restored, and he began to look about him with lively interest.  His keen eyes soon detected Mr. Pelby’s bright gold chain and swivel, and well knowing that it betokened a watch, he slid quickly down from his father’s lap, and stood beside the knee of the nice bachelor visitor.

“He’s not afraid of strangers,” said Mrs. Little, her eyes sparkling with pleasure, as they followed every movement of her child.

“Tee watch,” said Tommy.

“It’ll bite” said Mr. Pelby.

“Tee watch!” reiterated the child, grasping the chain.

With not the best grace in the world, Mr. Pelby drew out his beautiful gold lever, and submitted it to the rude grasp, as he thought, of Tommy.

“Oh, ma! ma!  Tee watch! tee watch!” cried the child, almost wild with delight—­at the same time advancing towards her as far as the chain would permit, and then tugging at it as hard as he could, to the no small discomfort of the visitor, who, seeing no movement of relief on the part of either parent, was forced to slip the chain over his head, and trust Tommy to carry his favourite time-keeper to his mother.

“Tommy’ll be a watch-maker, I expect.  Nothing pleases him so much as a watch,” remarked the father.

Mr. Pelby did not reply.  He dared not, for he felt that, were he to trust himself to speak, he should betray feelings that politeness required him to conceal.

“There!” suddenly exclaimed the mother, catching eagerly at the watch, which Tommy had dropped, and recovering it just in time to save it from injury.

“Gim me! gim me! gim me!” cried Tommy, seizing her hands, and endeavouring to get possession again of the valuable timepiece, which had escaped so narrowly.

“There, now,” said Mrs. Little, yielding to the child’s eager importunity, and permitting him again to take possession of the watch.  “But you must hold it tighter.”

Mr. Pelby was on nettles; but he dared not interfere.

“Open it,” said Tommy, endeavouring to loose the hinge of the case with his tiny thumb-nail.

“Oh, no; you mustn’t open it, Tommy.”

“Open it!” resumed Tommy, in a higher and more positive tone.

“I can’t open it,” said the mother, pretending to make an earnest effort to loose the case.

“O-pen—­it!” screamed the child, in a loud angry tone.

“Here, take it to Mr. Pelby, he will open it for you.”  And the watch was again intrusted to Tommy’s care, who bore it, and, as fortune would have it, safely too, to its owner.