The first possession of a watch by young persons of either sex is perhaps one of the most vividly retained of all their early memories. The sense of responsibility, of importance, which such a wonderful little piece of mechanism gives to them, the alacrity with which they thenceforth note the flight of time and compare the working of all other time-pieces, is remarkable. One of the first things usually done by the juvenile with his or her watch is, curiously enough, to challenge thereby the performance of the old-established time-pieces in the house,—even the infallible old Hall Clock, a very Nestor among clocks, does not escape scrutiny. Woe be to his ancient reputation if, when 'weighed by the new balances'—compensation or otherwise,—he be 'found wanting.' The yet unfledged urchin will, upon the evidence of his own newly-acquired chronometer, unhesitatingly[ 73] expose and denounce the slightest delinquency of the antique time-piece, and pride and plume himself accordingly. At this time of day, when watches of a sound and durable kind may be had for a comparatively small sum, and when education commences so early, it may be supposed that youths attain earlier to years of discretion, and so rise to the dignity of watch-wearers sooner than their predecessors did.

Anyhow, the value of time can scarcely be inculcated at too juvenile an age, nor can it be brought home to the mind of the pupil without providing him with the means of studying the operations of his own personal time-keeper. From the hour when such a gift comes into his possession until the latest day of his life a watch remains his indispensable mentor, and, literally, his bosom-friend. There are few, perhaps none, who can look upon the face of an old watch, their day and night companion for many years, without associating it with the bygone times when it reckoned off for them their moments of pain or anxiety, their joys and sorrows. There is perhaps scarcely any memento of a friend or relative so suggestive as that semi-living object which has been his constant friend for so long, the chief valuable of all his 'portable property.'

Our Old English popular rhymes and songs have frequently been pointed with witticisms directed at the care with which watches have been guarded, or[ 74] the dexterity with which they have been filched away. Who can overlook the evergreen old dramatic joke, of which the point consisted in connecting the time-teller with the name of the ancient street-guardian