Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1904-09-22
DISARRANCED HER CLOCKS
grandmother Had Them All Set
Wrong and Couldn't Tell Time
with Them Right.

had come within whistling distance of
the Summerville. station Uncle Charles
declared he could hear the bells of
grandmother's clocks, relates a writer
in Youths Companion. Haven't heard
'em since l was a boy" he said, "but I
know how they'll sound-all going to-
gether and every one of 'em right.
tell you, Lettie, you ought to have
mothers sense of time. You can't ever
keep our mantel clock straight. Why,
mother has a hall clock seven feet high
and over a century old. Then there's
the banjo clock in the dining-room,
and the sun in the k~itchen-we call it
the sun because of a round hole in the
door-picture to see the pendulum
through. There are three or four
others besides, and the way mother
keeps them straight is a marvel. 1t
must be the old wooden wheels. Moth
ing like them made nowadays"
Half an hour later grandmother
greeted her homecoming flock at the
door of the neat white farmhouse, and
sent them to their rooms to prepare
for a waiting dinner.
"Hello!" said Uncle Charles, as he
followed Aunt Lettie into the east
chamber. There's Uncle Hiram Doty's
old 'bullfrog' clock. Has a voice like a
frog when it's getting ready to strike"
Mechanically he pulled out his watch
and consulted it, then glanced again at
the clock. He hesitated, then without
comment stepped forward and set the
clock half an hour ahead. Aunt Lettie
smiled, but said nothing.
A little later, entering the kitchen,
he beheld the "sun" ticking merrilly in
it's accustomed place. Uncle Charles
compared it with his watch. Grand
mother was out of the S~tealthily
he opened the clock door and moved
the hands back 20 minutes.
Dinner had hardly begun when from
east chamber and kitchen anne stimuli
taneously wheeling and banging of
bells. The sun counted six and
stopped. The "bullfrog" did better and
made it IS. Grandmother looked up in
alarm and gazed at the "banjo-clock"
before her. 1t was, so Uncle Charles
discovered, an hour and a half fast.
That alarmed her still more.
Charles" said grandmother, Sc
verely, "have you been settin' my
clocks?"
why, yes, mother. I fixed the sun
and the 'bullfrog.' They seemed a lit
tie Off"
/ "Well, mercy sakes! How ever shall
l tell the time now?"
by them, of course. They're right
! now"
Eyes, but they won't be tomorrow.
You see, Lettie" (this apologetically to
her daughter-in-law), they're all
clocks that just won't go right. I
know about how much each gains or
loses in a day, so when I hear one
strike | can tell about what time it is.
For instance, this morning when the
big hall clock struck three, l knew the
hands said quarter to eight. The
banjo Is an hour slower, so it said
quarter to seven, and would strike ten
in Is minutes. When that struck ten
the sun would say ten minutes to six,
and would be almost ready to strike IL.
The sun is SO minutes ahead Of the
'bullfrog,' which said quarter to five,
and in 20 minutes would strike three,
and that is 25 minutes behind Sarah
Pettit's alarm-clock with the brass
works that she set by the town clock
last week, and isn't more than five
minutes out; so 1t was about quarter
after five and time to get up"
She looked at Uncle Charles re.
proachfully. II do declare, Charles"
she said, you've gone and mixed me
up so now I d'know's I ever shall gel
ic figured out again"