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.
"That's so," he said; "that's so, Mary-'Gusta. You can keep it all your life, and when you get to be an old woman and married and have grandchildren then you can give it to them."
Captain Shadrach, who had taken up his napkin preparatory to tucking it under his chin, turned in his chair and glared at the unconscious steward.
"Well, by the jumpin' fire!" he exclaimed, with conviction. "The feller is sartinly possessed. He's lovesick, that's what's the matter with him. All he can talk about is somebody's gettin' married. Are YOU cal'latin' to get married, Isaiah?"
"Me? What kind of fool talk is that?"
"Who's the lucky woman?"
"There ain't no lucky woman. Don't talk so ridic'lous! All I said was that when Mary-'Gusta was old and married and had--"
"There you go again! Married and children! Say, did it ever run acrost your mind that you was a little mite previous?"
"I never said children. What I said was when she was old and had grandchildren."
"Grandchildren! Well, that's a dum sight MORE previous. Let's have breakfast, all hands, for the land sakes! Isaiah'll have us cruisin' along with the third and fourth generation in a few minutes. I'M satisfied with this one!"
That evening, at bedtime, as the partners separated in the upper hall to go to their respective rooms, Zoeth said:
"Shadrach, this has been a mighty nice Christmas for us all, ain't it?"
Captain Shad nodded emphatically. "You bet!" he declared. "Don't seem to me I ever remember a nicer one."
"Nor I, neither. I--I wonder--"
"Well, heave ahead. What are you waitin' for? What do you wonder?"
"I was just wonderin' if 'twas right for us to be so happy."
"Right?"
"Yes. Have we been--well, good enough this past year to deserve happiness like this?"
Shadrach grinned.
"I ain't puttin' in any testimony on my own hook," he said, dryly, "but I don't seem to remember your bein' desperately wicked, Zoeth.
Course you MAY have got drunk and disorderly that time when Mary-
'Gusta and I left you and went to Boston, but I kind of doubt it."
"Hush, hush, Shadrach! Don't joke about serious things. What I mean is have you and I walked the Lord's way as straight as we'd ought to? We've tried--that is, seems 's if we had--but I don't know. Anyhow, all this afternoon I've had a funny feelin' that you and me and Mary-'Gusta was--well was as if the tide had been comin' in for us all these years since she's been livin' with us, and as if now 'twould begin to go out again."
The Captain laughed. "And that's what you call a FUNNY feelin'!" he exclaimed. "Zoeth, I've got a funny feelin', too, but I know what's the reason for it--the reason is turkey and plum puddin' and mince pie and the land knows what. When a couple of old hulks like you and me h'ist in a cargo of that kind it's no wonder we have feelin's. Good night, shipmate."
