"Well, just before jumping from the boat, he says, handing me the watch, 'I'm flying from my country as I never thought I could. I'll trust you because you look honest. Will you take this to my father--not to-day but in a week, and tell him his unhappy boy sent it; and tell him if ever the time comes that he wants me to come back to him, I'll brave everything and come. Tell him to send a letter to--to'--there, the rest is all gone from me. I _can't_ remember where the letter was to go. Poor lad! poor lad," resumed Raff, sorrowfully taking the watch from his vrouw's lap, as he spoke--"and it's never been sent to his father to this day." "I'll take it, Raff, never fear--the moment Gretel gets back. She will be in soon. What was the father's name did you say? Where were you to find him?" "Alack!" answered Raff, speaking very slowly, "it's all slipped me. I can see the lad's face, and his great eyes, just as plain--and I remember his opening the watch, and snatching something from it and kissing it--but no more. All the rest whirls past me; there's a kind of sound like rushing waters comes over me when I try to think." "Aye. That's plain to see, Raff; but I've had the same feeling after a fever. You're tired now--I must get ye straight on the bed again. Where _is_ the child, I wonder?" Dame Brinker opened the door, and called, "Gretel! Gretel!" "Stand aside, vrouw," said Raff, feebly, as he leaned forward, and endeavored to look out upon the bare landscape; "I've half a mind to stand beyond the door just once." "Nay, nay," she laughed, "I'll tell the meester how ye tease, and fidget and bother, to be let out in the air; and, if he says it, I'll bundle ye warm to-morrow, and give ye a turn on your feet. But I'm freezing you with this door open. I declare if there isn't Gretel with her apron full, skating on the canal, like wild. Why, man," she continued almost in a scream, as she slammed the door, "thou'rt walking to the bed without my touching thee! Thou'lt fall!" The dame's "thee" proved her mingled fear and delight, even more than the rush which she made toward her husband. Soon he was comfortably settled under the new cover, declaring as his vrouw tucked him in snug and warm, that it was the last daylight that should see him abed. "Aye! I can hope it myself," laughed Dame Brinker, "now you have been frisking about at that rate." As Raff closed his eyes, the dame hastened to revive her fire, or rather to dull it, for Dutch peat is like a Dutchman, slow to kindle, but very good at a blaze when once started. Then putting her neglected spinning-wheel away, she drew forth her knitting from some invisible pocket and seated herself by the bedside. "If you could remember that man's name, Raff," she began cautiously, "I might take the watch to him, while you're sleeping; Gretel can't but be in soon." Raff tried to think; but in vain.