Year: 1876

al Ny Watch.


aiiM beautiful new watch had run
lolgbjeen months without losing or gain


Ag, Ind without breaking any OF its


lachinery or stopping. 1 had come to
eseiieve it, infallible in its judgments
obout the time Of day. and to consider
IDS constitution and its anatomy imper-
shable. But at last, one night, l let 1t
nun down. I grieyed about it as IT 1t
,were recognized messenger and fore
runner of calamity. But by and by l
,cheered up, set the watch by guess
and commanded my bodings and super
stitions to depart. Next day 1 stepped
bsnto the chief jewelers. to set 1t by ex-
!, net time, and the head Of the establish
: ment took it cut of my hands, and pro-
! wants to be Be- pushed II ihnE mf. ap, lnen n' ~
1 tried to stop him-to make him un-


derstand that the watch kept perfect


time. But no; all this human cabbage


could see was that the watch was foul


minutes slow, and the regulator must


be pushed up little; and so, while ]


danced round him in anguish and be-


seeched him to let it alone, he calmly


and cruelty did the shameful deed


My watch began to gain. It gained


faster day by day. Within the week it


sickened to raging fever, and its pulse


went up to a hundred and fifty in the


shade. At the end of. two months it had


left all the timepieces of the town far


in the rear and was fraction over thir-


teen days ahead of the almanac. 1t


was way in November enjoying the
snow, while the October leaves were
still turning. 1t hurried up house rent,


bills payable, and such things. in such
a ruinous way that could not abide by
it. took it to the watch maker to be
regulated. He asked me if I had ever
had it repaired. He looked look of
vicious happiness and eagerly pried the
watch open, then put small dice box
into his eye aud peered in its machinery.
He said it wanted cleaning and oiling,
besides regulating-come in a week.


After being cleaned and oiled and
regulated, my watch slowed down to
that degree that it ticked like tolling
bell. began to be left by trains, 1
failed of all my appointments, I got
to missing my dinner, my watch strung
out three days grace to four, and let me
go to protest; I gradually drifted back
into yesterday, then the day before,
then into last week, and by and by the
comprehension came upon me that all
solitary and alone l was lingering along
into week before last, and the world
was out of sight. seemed to detect
in myself sort of sneaking fellow
feeling for the mummy IN the museum,
and desire to swap news with him.
s<--'s.sss a-.--=s----y ywaici.nnal,.r agaih' ne
took the watch all to pieces while |
waited, and then he said the barrel was
"swelled He said he could reduce it
in three days. After this the watch
averaged well. but nothing more. For
half day it would so like the very
mischief, and keep such barking, and
wheeling and whooping, and sneezing
and,snorting, that could not hear myself
think for the disturbance; and as long
as it held out there was not a watch in
the land that stood any chance against
it. But the rest of the day it would
keep on slowing down and fooling along
until all the clocks it had left behind
caught up again.


SO at last, at the end of twenty-four
hours, it would trot up to the judges
stand all right and just on time. 1t
would show fair and square average,
and no man could say it had done more
or less than its duty. But correct av-
erage is only mild virtue in watch,
and took the instrument to another
matchmaker. He said the kingbolt was
broken. ] said was glad it was moth
ing more serious. To tell the plain
truth, I had no idea what the kingbolt
was, but did not choose to appear ig>
norant to stranger. He repaired the
kingbolt, but what the watch gained in
one way it lost in another. 1t would
run awhile, and then run awhile again,
and so on, using its own discretion
about the intervals. And every time it
kicked back like a musket.


I padded my breast for few days.
but finally took the watch to an
other matchmaker. He picked it all
over to pieces and turned the
ruins over and over under his
glass; and then said there seemed
to be something the matter with the
hair trigger. He fixed it and gave it
fresh start. It did we'll now, except
that always at ten minutes to ten the
hands would shut together in a pair of
scissors, and from that time forth they
would travel together. The oldest man
in the world could not make head or
tail to the time of day by such watch,
and so went again to have the thing
repaired. This person said that the
crystal had got bent. and the mains
spring was not straight. He also re-
marked that part of the works needed
half-soling.


He made these things all right and
then my time~piece performed excep-
tionably, save that now and then, after
working along quietly for nearly eight
houls, everything inside would let go
all of sudden, and the hands begin to
spin round and round so fast that their
individuality was lost completely, and
they simply seemed a delicate spiders
web over the face of the watch: She
would reel off the next twenty -four hours
in six or seven minutes, then stop with