"So there we were." To Jack O'Brien, Nicolas St. Denis continued the story. "'It was a rainy late afternoon in San Francisco, My Mother-in-Law, Merry Lafitte, had just arrived from the Vermont Canadian border. As a gift, she brought a bottle of Yukon Jack. In return, from my liquor cabinet, I unearthed a bottle of Calvados reserve.

"We were comparing the taste of these spirits. A visit from my Mother-in-Law is always welcome.

"On the table that evening was the music box. Inside it now lay the Book of Hours that my Father-in Law won in a card game years ago on a World War II front, and every time we lifted a glass, we wound up the music box, and it replayed a French children's song about boats sailing around the world and returning.