The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1908-05-28
JUST ABOUT CLOCKS
MRS. BILLToPs GIVES HER HUB
BY A LESSON.
Discoveries Previously Made Are Ex
planned by Her TO the Head Of
the Household, Who Ia Duly
Impressed.


my goodnessl" said Mr.. Billtops
II can't wind the clockl"
Whats the trouble, Ezra?" sale
Mrs. B.
why, the pointer is right over the
keyhole," Mr.. Billtops said.
Mrs. Billtops looked up at Mr. B.
and the clock he had set out to wind,
and glance was sufficient.
"Of course It is," she said 'It's
eight o'clock and the pointer is al.
ways over the keyhole at eight o'clock.
Now, you will have to wait till the
pointer gets past, then you can wind
It,"
And then Mr.. Billtops, who, with all
his years. is in many ways most unso-
phisticated, sat down to read the pa.
per to wait for the hour hand of the
clock to get past the eight o'clock key.
hole so that he could wind 1t. But be.
fore beginning to read he laid the pa.
per on his knee for a moment and,
looking over at Mrs. b., said
why, | never knew that before
about the pointer and the keyhole."
We'll Ezra" said Mrs. Billtops,
who in the course of her multifarious
household duties has set balky clocks
going and oiled clocks with a broom
splint, who knows more about clocks
than Mr.. Billtops would in thousand
years and who could beat him at
mending anything seven times around
the globe, its always been so, only
| guess you never happened to notice
1t. And it's just the same at four
o'clock, only you never noticed that
because You are not home to wind the
clocks at that hour; and you generally
wind them before eight, so you never
noticed that.
Il don't pretend to be a clockmaker
Ezra" Mrs. Billtops continued, "but
guess It comes about something like
this:
In a clock that winds with key
you have to have two keyholes,
one for the running part and one for
the striking part; and now these key.
holes might have been put in the up.
per part of the clock face-by the
two on one side and the ten on the
other-but / guess the original clock.
makers didn't put them there because
the old-time clocks were all big clocks,
and that might have brought them up
too high to be reached conveniently;
so they put them down in the lower
part of the face where they would be
handler, where you now always find
them-one on one side by the four
and the other on the other side by the
eight.
And so, twice day, when the hour
hand Is at four or at eight, it covers
the keyhole there, and then you have
to walt for 1t to get by before you
can wind the clock And then, of
course, you know the minute hand
goes round the clock face every hour
and so, though in it's travels It doesn't
stay there long, It covers each key.
hole every hour. SO you see, Ezra,
there are really altogether a good
many times in the course OF a day
when you can't wind clock, though
there is really nothing in this to be
surprised over when you once re.
alize IT,"
And at the end of this little dis.
course Mr.. Billtops looked up at the
clock that had surprised him, and
seeing the hour hand now sufficiently
clear OF the keyhole so that he could
get the key into 1t, he wound the clock
to make sure that he would not for
get that, and then, as he sat down
again, he cast one more admiring
glance at Mrs. Billtops, thinking to
himself as he did so, before taking up
his paper, that while she might not be
a clockmaker she certainly was a most
wonderful woman.