The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-05-08

father in the honorable position of town
clock-winder.
The children of Schlossburg soon
found the clock was terrible nuisance.
When they depended on the sun to tell
them when to come home from playing
in the fields, they had good time.
The mornings were long and the after
moons quite splendid. Some days didn't
seem to have any end at all, and they
really only stopped playing because it
was dark. The castle clock changed
all this. 1t struck every hour and cut
the time into little bits. Dinner-time
came before they were half ready for it,
and it was six o'clock and time to 90
home right in the middle of the first
games. They were sure it was not bed
time so soon after supper, and always
insisted it struck seven when it was
eight. The mornings were dreadful
They were sure it struck five in the mid
die of the night. Every boy and girl
fairly hated the sound of the castle clock.
One day they had an indignation
meeting in the woods on the hill, and
decided that the clock was very bad
thing for Schlossburg. Hans was there
and said he knew all about the clock,
and that it was not such a wonderful
thing, after all.
"You turn the crank, and the wheels
go round, and the pen-du-lum-''
ooh! what an awful lot he must
know!" cried Tina Deckels.
Pen-du-lum What terrific word |!
" The petroleum., - continued Hans,
proudly, regulates it and makes it 90
fast or slow. If it is short, the clock
goes fast; and if it's long, the clock
goes slow"
81 say, Hans" said one of the big
boys, "couldn't you hook up into the
tower, and just piece out that pen-du-
lump"
"You don't have to do that. You
screw down the bob"
"The bob! What was thatP"
"I know, but I'm not going to tell.
My father is an official, and I'm not
going to let out State secrets.''
"Well, you could fix it to go slow,
couldn't your"
"Yes," said Hans, doubtfully. "The
clock would 90 slow"
"Oh! how nice that would be-" said
Tina. eve wouldn't have to get up
so early.''
"Nor come home from play so soon,"
said Gretchen Tyler.
"Nor go to bed right after SUPPER"
said Lesa Salisbury.
EDO it, Hans! Do it," cried all the
boys and girls.
Hans thought it pretty bold plan;
but the advantages to be gained by all
the boys and Schlossburg were so great,
he would try it. Some day, while his
father was at dinner, he would steal up
in the castle-tower and lower the bob.
Just little; not enough to be noticed.
So the meeting broke up in great glee.
Hans promised to regulate the clock;
and they all crossed thumbs, and said
they would never, never tell any body.
This was Saturday afternoon; and on
the following Monday, as luck would
have it, Hans went up to the castle with
his fathers dinner, and found him sit
ting in the sun at the castle-gate.
"Hans, lad, thee must wind the clock
to-day. My rheumatism is bad, and
can't climb those steep stairs to the
tower. There is nothing to be done but
to put on the crank and turn it round
fourteen times, as thee has seen me do
it,
Hans climbed up the dark and wind
ing stairs of the tower. At every step
he heard the tick of the clock growing
louder and louder. He passed q narrow
wooden door, and shuddered. In that
room was the great pendulum swinging
in the dark. He went on up more
stairs, and came at last to the small
room in the belfry where the clock
works stood. How very loud they
tickedi His heart seemed to tick too.
He picked up the crank, put it on the
works, and turned it slowly round four
teen times for it was pretty hard work
for boy. Then he went to a narrow
and looked out on the beauti-
full Rhine, the woods, the vineyards
rising in stone terraces up the steep hill
sides, and the red roofs of little Schloss-
burg, so far below. 1t was lovely
sight; but he saw nothing. He was think
ing of that pendulum.
Fifteen minutes later Hans appeared
at the castle-porch, looking very red in
the face.
"Thee has been long time about it,
my son. I'll do it myself next time"
Hans was terribly frightened; but he
said not word and hoped that nothing
serious would come of it.
For a week nothing in particular
The Schlossburgers regu-
lated every thing by the castle clock;
and lion Saturday night the sun did
90 down trife early it was not no.
ticed. The next week the people began
to wonder why they slept SO late in the
They rose with the clock,
and yet the sun seemed to be ahead of
them. Every body begun to be hungry
before dinner was ready, and the sun
popped down behind the hills in the
most alarming manner. Next week it
grew worse. The week after still
worse. The sun rose whole hour be-
fore the time set for it by the clock. 1t
was noon at eleven o'clock and dark at
five. Perhaps the sun was getting out
of order. Some of the people who
we're out late at night said that even
the stars were behind time, and the
moon had plainly lost her way in the
sky.
The next week it was still worse
The sun rose in the night and set in the
middle of the afternoon. The maids
got up too late to milk the cows, and
the children sat up long after dark, be-