y are nothing like so comfortable as yours were."

"Now I wonder," said my father to me, "whether this was true, or whether
it was only that dear fellow's pretty invention; but true or false I was
as delighted as he meant me to be."

I asked George about this when I saw him, and he confessed with an
ingenuous blush that my father's boots had hurt him, and that he had
never thought of making a keepsake of them, till my father's words
stimulated his invention.

As for the watch, which was only a silver one, but of the best make,
George protested for a time, but when he had yielded, my father could see
that he was overjoyed at getting it; for watches, though now permitted,
were expensive and not in common use.

Having thus bribed him, my father broached the possibility of his meeting
him at the statues on that day twelvemonth, but of course saying nothing
about why he was so anxious that he should come.

"I will come," said my father, "not a yard farther than the statues, and
if I cannot come I will send your brother. And I will come at noon; but
it is possible that the river down below may be in fresh, and I may not
be able to hit off the day, though I will move heaven and earth to do so.
Therefore if I do not meet you on the day appointed, do your best to come
also at noon on the following day. I know how inconvenient this will be
for you, and will come true to the day if it is possible."

To my father's surprise, George did not raise so many difficulties as he
had expected. He said it might be done, if neither he nor my father were
to go beyond the statues. "And difficult as it will be for you," said
George, "you had better come a second day if necessary, as I will, for
who can tell what might happen to make the first day impossible?"

"Then," said my father, "we shall be spared that horrible feeling that we
are parting without hope of seeing each other again. I find it hard
enough to say good-bye even now, but I do not know how I could have faced
it if you had not agreed to our meeting again."

"The day fixed upon will be our XXI. i. 3, and the hour noon as near as
may be?"

"So. Let me write it down: 'XXI. i. 3, _i.e_. our December 9, 1891, I am
to meet George at the statues, at twelve o'clock, and if he does not
come, I am to be there again on the following day.'

In like manner, George wrote down what he was to do: "XXI. i. 3, or
failing this XXI. i. 4. Statues. Noon."

"This," he said, "is a sol