Year: 1868

From the Atlantic for January.


Nm old clock, which stood in the corner
of Parson Whipples school room, sudden
ly began to tick twice as fast as usual 1t
did so for two or four hours, according as
you counted time by its beats or by an
hour-glass. Then it ticked for the re-
mainder of its life at apparently the same
rate as usual. This was never a discon-
tented pendulum; and on that day, Single
ton and |, who were the only boys in its
counsels, thought it was very good
natured


But do not pretend it was right. Have
| said it was right for the pendulum to
tick so? [ have not said it. / have only
said that it was good ratured in the pen
dulum to tick twice as fast as usual when
it simply knew that / wished it to d. so.
Although | was then responsible for what
the pendulum did, assert that am not
row responsible for it. l was then four
teen, and am now hard on fifty-six, Sd l
must have changed atOmically six times
since then. l reject responsibility for all
my acts at Parsol Whipple's l do not
justify the pendulum, do not justify
myself, far less do / justify Singleton.
l only say it was a good-natured pendu-
lum.


1t happened thus:


We were all to go after chestnuts, and
we had made immense preparation, the
old dominic not unwilling We had
sewed up into many bags some old bed
tick, dear, kind Miss Tryphosa had given
us; we had coaxed 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 eur spoils home We had
laid in with the Varnum boys to meet us
at the cross roads in the hollow; and, in
short, we were to give the trees such a
belaboring as chestnut-trees had not
known in many years. For all this we
had the grant of half-holiday; we had
by great luck a capital sharp frost on
Tuesday, we had everything but-time


Red Jacket would have told us we
had all the time there was, and, if Mr.
Emerson had come along, he might
have enforced the lesson. But he was
elsewhere just then, and the trouble with
us was, that, having all the time there was,
we..wanted more And no hard bestead
conductor on a single track road, eager to
make the time" which he must have to
reach the predestined switch in season,
ever questioned and entreated his epgi-
neer more volubly than we assailed each
other as to how we could make the short
afternoon answer for the gigantic purpos-
es of this expedition. You see there is a
compensation in all things If 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 Oc-
tOber; and If you don't get through
school till one, and then must all have din
ner, tell you it is very hard to start four
teen boys after dinner, and drive the wag-
on, and walk the boys down to the Hol-
low, and then meet the Varnums and drive
up that rough road to Clapp's grand
mothers, and then take down the bars
and lead the horse in through the pasture
to where we meant to tie him il the edge
of the hemlock second growth, aud then
TO carry the bags across the stream, and SO
work up on the hill where the best trees
are Il say it is very hard to do all that
and come out on the road again and on
the way home before dark. And if yon
think it is easy to do it in three hours and
half, 1 wish you would try. All is, l will
not give sixteen cents for all the
chestnuts you get in that way.


So, as l said, we wanted to make the
time. Well, dear Miss Tryphosa said that
she would put dinner at twelve, if we
liked, and if we could coax the dominic
10 let Us out Of school then. So we asked
Hackmatack TO ask him, and Hackmatach
did hot dare to, but he coaxed Sarah Cla
vers TO ask him. The old man loved Sarah
Clavers, as everybody did. Sne was q
sweet little thing, and she did her best
Old man, call himl That was the way
we talked. Let me see, he graduated ir
1Sf1,-I guess he vas in Eyerett's clas,
and Frothingham's The "old man." a.
we called him, must have been thirty
seven years old fhen.--ninetean year,