The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1869-01-22
p ,o,"llauenns.
from the Atlantic hJnthly fr January.
THE GOOD-NATURED PENDULUM
by EDWARD EVERETT HALE.

Il
ner Of Parson Whipple's school-room
suddenly began to tick twice rs fast as
usual. Il did so for two or four hours. .ac-
cording as you counted time by its beats
or by an hOur-glass. Then II licked fol
the remainder of lis life at apparently the
same rate as usual. This was never q
discontcnted pendulum; and on that day,
| Singleton and |, who were the only boys
In its counsels, thought II was very good
natured.
But do not pretend Il was right for the
pendulum to tick so. have not said Ii.
have only said that II was gOod-natured In
the pendulum to tick twice as fast as usu-
nj, when Il simply knew that wished IL
to do SO. / am not holding up the pendu-
lum as an example for other pendulums,
or for readers of the Atlantic. / wish pcO-
pie would not be SO eager In their lookout
for morals. have not even said that the
pendulum Is the hero of this story. have
only said that Ii was goOd-natured, and
that, as before. IL licked as l then said.
Having simply said that, and hardly said
even that, / am attacked with this ques-
ton, whether my story Is moral or not,
whether the pendulum did right or not !;
and you tell me coolly that you do not
know whether you will take the maga-
zine another year, If the conduct Of such
pendulums Is approved I'm Ii. Once and
again, then. although was theis. respon.
sible for what the pendulum did, assert
that am not now responsible for II. i
was then fourteen, and am now hard on
fifly-six, so / must have changed atOml-
cally six times since then. l reject re-
sponsibilty for all my acts ut Parson
Whipplc's. l do not justify the pendu-
lum. [ do not justify myself, far less do
justify Singleton. only say 1t was q
goO,l-natured pendulum.
II happened thus:-
Wewcrc all to 20 after chcstnuts, and
we had made immense preparation, the
old dominic not unwilling. We had sew
ed up into many bags some old bed.tick,
dear, kind Miss Tryphosa had given us
we had coaxcd Clapp's cousin Perkins,
son Of Matthew Perkins third, OF the old
black Perkins blOOd,-we had coaxed him
into getting the black mare for us from
his father. Clapp was to harness him,
and we were to have the school wagon to
bring our spOils home. We had laid In
with the Varnum boys to meet us ut the
crossroads In the hollow; and, In short,
we were to give the trees such bclabor-
ing rs chestnut-trecs had not known In
many years. For all this we had the
grant of a half-hollay; we had by great
luck capital sharp frost OF Tuesday, we
had everything but-timc.
Red Jacket would have told us we had
all the time there was, and if Mr.. Emer-
son had come along. he might have en-
forced the lesson. But he was elsewhere
lust then, and the trouble with us was,
We wanted more. And 10 hard bestead
Cin IL ta
SNAKE the time" which he must have to
reach the predestincdIsw In season,
ever questioned and entreated his engi-
neer more volubly than we assailed each
other rs to how we could make the short
afternoon answer for the gigantic pur-
poccs of this expedition. You see there
Is a compensation in all things. IL you
have ever gone after chestnuts, you have
found out that the sun sets mighty near
five o'clock when you come to the 10th of
October; and IL you don't get through
school till one, and then must all have
dinner, tell you 1t Is very hard to start
fourteen boys after dinner, and drive the
wagon, and walk the boys down to the
Hollow, and then meet the Varnums and
drive up that rough road to Clapp's
grandmOther's. and then take down the
bars and lead the horse In through the
pasture to whers we meant to tie him In
the edge of the hemlock sccond-growth.
and then to carry the bags across the
stream, and so work upon the hill where
the best trees are; IL say Ii is very hard
to do all that and come out Oh the
road again and and on the way home
before dark. And If you think 1t Is
easy to do all that in three hours and a
half, wish you would try. All Is, | will
not give sixteen cents for all the chestnuts
you get In that way.
So, rs | said, we wanted to make the
time. Wei, dear Miss Tryphosa said that
she would put dinner ut twelve, II we
could coax the dominic to let us out Of
school then. So we asked Hackmatack to
ask him. and Ilackmatack did not dare
to, but hc coaxcd Sarah Clavers to ask
him. The old man loved Sarah Clavers,
rs everybody did. She was sweet little
thing. and she did her best! Old man, |
call him! That was the way we talked.
Let me see.hc graduated in lSll.-l guess
he was In Everett's class and FrOthing-
hams. The ''old man" rs we called him.
must have been thirty-seven years old
then,-nineteen years younger than l am
today. Old man indeed!
Well, little Sarah did her prettiest.
But the old man-there il Is again-kisscd
her, and strokcd her face, and said he had
given the school half.holiday, and he
thought his duties to the parents forbade
his giving any more. And when little
Sarah triedagain. all he would say was,
that, If we would get up early and be
dressed when the first bell rang, we might
s'go In" to school at eight instead of nine.
Then school could be done mt twelve. Miss
,ts.lN n. I,1lx nh
ner, bnt, If she chose, we might be of be-
fore one. This was something, and we
made the most Of IL.
Still we wished we could make a little
more time. And as Ii was ordercd-wise-
ly, I have no doubt,-though, rs said.
I do not pretend 10 justify the use we
made Of the or,ler,-as Il was ortlercd,-
that every Tuesday afternoon, when We
were all at work in the schoolrOom, Brerc-
tOn.-that Southern boy. YOU knOw-was
reciting In Scientific Dialogues" to the
Parson. think It must have been "Sci-
cntiiic Dialogues" but am not sure.
Queer, l was going to say Ii was Pyn-
chon, who has distinguished himself so
much abont all those things since. But
this Is trick memory plays you. Pyn-
chon must he ten years younger than
Brere,on; dare say he never saw him.
IL was Brcrcton-Bill Brereton-was re
citing. and he was recitlng about the pen
dulum. The old man told him about Cal
ilco's cliandelic., | remember.
Well, then and there saw the whole
thing In my mind as see 1t now. Sim
gleton saw II too. lie was hearing some
little boys in Liber Primus. but he turned
round gravely. and looked me full In the
face. looked at him and nodded. Nor
from that day TO this have ever had to
discuss the details Of the matter with
him. Only he and did three things In
consequence of that stare and that nod,--I
he did two, AMI did one.
What hc did was to 20 into the domi-
nie's bedroom, when he went up stairs
afler tea, take his watch.key nom the pin
IL hung on, and put Il into his second bo-
reau drawer under his woolcn socks.
Then he went acrpss into Miss TryDhOsa's