Christopher and the Clockmakers

of a corner fronting two busy city streets and before its gem

ostly frivolities of every description while on other cushions ticked watches vary

n this flashing outlay, and before it envious spectators flattened their n

it a peach? Gee, but I'd like a thing like that on my

hundred,

o

they cost like the dickens. I ain't sure you wou

see myself

do

nyhow, even if I had the price,

other; come on. What's the good of standin' here lettin' your mouth water over t

ther pair would sa

nd necklace! Isn't it wonderf

putting fake diamonds in their window. Come along, for heaven's sake; I'

look, c

entertainment. You're silly to do it th

led the

it swirled and surged an eddy of shoppers, all hurrying this way and that and jostling one another so mercilessly that he who did not make one of the current and move with the stream was all but exterminated. Like a tidal wave, the ruthless conc

him a stormy sea and now come into quiet waters, he stood amid its hush, conscious of his every footfall and the very intonations of his voice. Instincti

place. You would no more have ambled aimlessly along its center aisle, frankly proclaiming to all the world your opinion of what it had to sell, than you would casually have invaded the Court of St. James or Windsor Castle. Ambling was not done there. Nobody ambled. Even Mr. Burton himself didn't. Although he was the senior partner and

l day. Almost any day, so new in the adventure of setting forth for a peep into the business world, would have seemed beautiful. And yet the

es in a pair of skates or in luncheon; and on a very red-letter day, such as

to the men who presided over them. Everybody knew him by sight-doormen, salesmen, elevator boys, watch

own. To be regarded as the future heir to all this splendor kept those he met in the establishment pa

king it out of sight into his pocket, how much pleasanter it would have been! Then, too, the men all insisted on calling him sir, which embarrassed him an

p. But in the background loomed his father of whom every employee stood in awe, and whose imposing presence they never forgot

shop with less joy and abandon than he would have done had conditions been other

ter Tim had bowed them in the front door and called the elevator. "You

urned Christopher brightly. "Don't have me

e to go anywhere you like. Everybody knows you by sight and understands you are to be around here for a

ount on me

wager

ton opened the door of h

general atmosphere of business of which he became instantly aware made him feel like an intruder. The men greeted him, it

they took this matter of rings and necklaces. One would have thought t

as if he were speeding to save a burning ship or warn the king he was about to be blown up than did some of the others;

called the salesman, approaching a little old man who with a microsco

hout, however, looking up. "She's a queer pie

hape, can't you?" came a

e Scotchman's lips and for the first

, Bailey,"

the woman who owns that clock won't sle

her," was all M

good o

f Number 15 Goswell Street, London, somewhere about 1720-at least he is down as a member of the Clockmakers' Company right along then.

!" gasped Christop

eped up over

n's son, McPhearso

he could toddle. Good morning, youngster. So you've

ightful to Christopher, and immediately

. "I didn't know I was going

rhaps. Make yourself at ho

stand and

anging over my shoulder and maybe jogging my elbow. If you're

ments remained immovable, watching the workman's busy fingers. How

nd," the clockmaker presently remarked, with a twinkle. "W

Mr. Bailey was asking ab

go back to her in a minute, however. You can't just tinker he

eated Christopher,

n gravely. "She isn't the sort that was turned out in a factory, you see, along with

it-she-was

el and riv

of all clocks were alik

u can easily get another to replace it. But years ago in the days of the clockmakers' guilds, clocks were made by h

O

and engraved on the works is his address. The jealous old clockmakers kept their eye on those who were manufacturing clocks, I can tell you. They weren't going to have a lot of cheap, poorly made articles shunted off on the public to ruin

n't a b

lled in their organization. Moreover, they got from the king a right of search which enabled them to go in and seize any goods which they suspected fell

racticing their craft within their domains. Fortunately the petition was denied and at length these skilled workmen were enrolled in the company and togeth

er and proceeded to fasten the back

d. You yourself had to make everything with the scant supply of tools at your command, usually a file, drill, and hammer. With these you hammered out your brass wheels to the required thickness, notched the teeth in their edges with the f

hristopher exclaim

still accurately performing its task. If anything I made was in existence at the end of a like stre

ng I make ever stays to

aughed at the b

ime and methods have changed greatly since then. Therefore in order to repair such a product, I shall have to think myself back into the year 1700

thought

f precisely the same pattern as every other, the work I do would be monotonous enough. But it is because clocks are as d

ould have to be alike,"

n minutes fast. Still another balks at an incline in the mantelpiece, so slight that nobody can see it, and will not tick even. So it goes. And it is not always the most expensive clocks and watches, either, that keep the best time, for sometimes a cheap affair will, for r

s were like that,"

see, for fifty years and know their tricks and their manners. But this clock of Richard Parsons has no such caprices. It is a fine, sensible clock that goes fa

it ch

0 loved music and so did the clockmakers. Therefore clocks like this, that would play a different tune every

d." Christopher

so it shouldn't be a temptation to me. Otherwise I'd be fuss

to return a few moments later carrying

low like this, eh?" inquired

k with a brass handle on top to c

to set on a table you see, or before the mirror that hung above the fireplace, in either of which spots the back of it would

beauty,

an old fellow like

er fashions; besides, antique clocks are not always cared for and kept running. Then, too, it isn't always possible to find people who understand repairing such old fellows," McPhearson explained modestly. "As I said, they have to be ta

put his burden

rated with garlands of red roses. It had beautifully pierced hands, small brass cherub's heads at the corners, and at the top

All you have to do is to shift the indicator round to what your want to hear. It chimes every three hours-at

could hear

ns are pretty, too-old-fashioned airs that were familiar to the people of that day and are now curious and interesting. I want you to not

spandrel is," Christopher anno

roughly cast in brass and afterward more carefully lacquered and finished by the clockmaker himself. Sometimes, however, we find them crudely executed as if they had been taken direct from the mold. Clockmakers of that time were not so inventive as we; neither had they had training in design, and as a result we see little variety in these brass ornamentations. At one period all these spandrels took the form of cherub's heads

ition Richard Parsons' name listed among the London Clockmakers' Company together

n clockmakers kept?" questio

re did not belong to this guild. Those who were members were, you may be moderately certain, fine workmen. For that matter you may

rd Parsons was really

was apprenticed; also the dates when he was admitted to the most worshipful Clockmakers'

n you know who he was, doesn't i

in 1700 men had the leisure for careful handiwork. Nobody was in a hurry in those days. Richard Parsons, in his shop at Number 15 Goswell Street, had all the time in the world

arson shrugged

as he would be prancing in here every half-hour to find out when it would be finished. They would expect it to be made, wound up, and t

Christopher could see its old-fashioned

to-day. Still we must get it down finer than that. Besides, I'd rather it gained than lost time; losi

ave the

ce!" McPhearson

d then, after a short pause, Christopher heard the tinkle of bells, thin, clear, and sweet, beginning to play a quaint snatch of melody. It was not at all the sort of

"I wish it would play right over again. If I had a clock l

ghed McPhearson. "They all threw down their t

ody buy one of

ch an article at a very modest price; but values increase with time, and to-day the work of Richard Parsons and those like him is at a

do is to listen to this

ider I had a fortune could I own a treasure like this. But at least if I cannot own

here'd be a lot!"