"For your son?" asked Tom innocently.
Mr. Waterbury smiled.
"I thought of asking your acceptance of it," he said.
"You don't mean that you are going to give it to me, sir?" said Tom eagerly.
"If you will accept it."
"How kind you are, Mr. Waterbury!" exclaimed Tom gratefully. "There is nothing in the world that I should like so much. How can I thank you?"
"By considering it a proof of my interest in you. I was sure you would like it. Before I had reached your age the great object of my ambition was a watch. I received one from my uncle, as a gift, on my seventeenth birthday. I believe I looked at it once in five minutes on an average during the first day."
"I dare say it will be so with me, sir," said Tom, who, at the moment, had the watch in his hand, examining it.
"As you are to rough it, I thought it best to get you a hunting-case watch, because it will be less liable to injury. When you become a man I hope you will be prosperous enough to buy a gold watch and chain, if you prefer them. While you are a boy silver will be good enough."
"Gold wouldn't correspond very well with my circumstances," said Tom. "I didn't dream of even having a silver watch and chain for years to come. I shall write home this evening, and tell mother of my good luck."