Part 28 (1/2)

”That,” replied he, ”is, as Kipling says, another story, and a long one too. I don't know that I myself could follow every step of it. But you will find McPhearson can. So seriously has he taken his profession that he is not to be floored by anything in time-keeping history. Ask him to tell you what you wish to know.”

”He does seem to be mighty well up in his trade, doesn't he?”

acknowledged the boy, pleased to hear this tribute to his friend. ”He has collected quite a few interesting things related to it, too. The night I was there he showed me a lot of old watch papers he has been years picking up. He told me that long ago, when watches were thicker than they are now, there was a s.p.a.ce left between the covers and inside it people put all sorts of things--pictures, small designs embroidered or painted on satin, mottoes, figures p.r.i.c.ked on paper until they made raised patterns, poems, and portraits.”

”So McPhearson has some of those, has he? Well, well! Sometime I must ask him about them,” Mr. Burton said. ”The custom of carrying such souvenirs was quite common in England at the time. If a man owned a fine s.h.i.+p or was interested in one, he had a small picture of her painted to put inside the cover of his watch; or he carried a likeness of his wife or sweetheart there. Sometimes, on the other hand, he was patriotically inclined and chose to devote this cherished s.p.a.ce to a picture of the king or some national idol. Or maybe he was of literary bent and gave over the shrine to a religious text, a love poem, a maxim, or a moral admonition that he wished to keep daily before him. Even we ourselves often paste pictures in our watches. We have never, however, gone into the craze as the English of this particular era did. With them it was a fas.h.i.+onable fad that resulted in all manner of curious conceits. They had no kodaks, you see, and small pictures were rarer possessions then than now.” Mr. Burton paused a moment to puff little rings of smoke thoughtfully into the air. ”So McPhearson has made a collection of those old watch-papers, has he!” mused he. ”Maybe he would loan them to us and let us exhibit them here at the store sometime. They are quite rare now and would be interesting.”

”I think he would be tremendously pleased to do so, Dad,” responded Christopher. ”He is far too modest ever to suggest doing it himself.”

”Oh, we should never know it if McPhearson had the Kohinoor right in his pocket. He would be the last person in the world to tell of it,” laughed Mr. Burton. ”I know what he is. I am also well aware that he has been very kind to you during these past few months. When the time comes right, I mean to let him know that I have not been blind to his interest and generosity.”

”I'd like above everything else to give him a--well, some sort of present when my eyes--_if_ my eyes ever get well again,” faltered Christopher a trifle uncertainly.

”Come, come, son! You mustn't talk in that strain,” objected Mr. Burton, noticing the depression in the boy's tone. ”Of course your eyes are coming out all right. Aren't they worlds better already?”

The lad sighed.

”The doctor says they are,” replied he wearily.

”Then what are you fussing about?” bl.u.s.tered Burton, Senior. ”You've no cause to be downhearted, my son. Why, when you get back to school you will bound ahead like a trooper. You will find that in a few months you will make up all you've lost--see if you don't; and I believe you will enjoy studying, too, after being so long deprived of books.”

”I know I shall see more sense in doing it than I ever did before,”

a.s.serted Christopher with earnestness. ”Somehow, since I've talked so much with Mr. McPhearson, learning things seems more worthwhile.”

”You like the old Scotchman, don't you?”

”He's a brick!”

”Then you wouldn't consider it a hards.h.i.+p to be in his company for a while?”

”How--_in his company_?” asked the boy, glancing up quickly in puzzled surprise.

”Oh, I don't know,” was the vague retort.

Nevertheless, as Mr. Burton turned his eyes away, Christopher noticed his father was smiling the meditative, enigmatic smile that he smiled once in a blue moon. It was usually when some particularly delightful reverie occupied his mind that his face took on that especial expression. The lad wondered what he was thinking about this time.

CHAPTER XV

CLOCKS IN AMERICA

”Say, Mr. McPhearson, I wish you would tell me how clocks got to America,” demanded Christopher when he and the old Scotchman were next together. ”Of course the Pilgrim Fathers couldn't have brought them all.”

The watchmaker chuckled.

”To hear folks boast about their ancestral possessions you would think the _Mayflower_ might also have brought a few hundred clocks in addition to all the bales of china, tables, chairs, and beds she is credited with transporting,” replied he. ”In point of fact, however, clocks did not reach these sh.o.r.es by any such romantic method. The early clockmakers came over here from England and Holland precisely as did other adventurous craftsmen. Often they were by trade gold or silversmiths who combined with other arts that of making clocks. As a result, while some of them were skilled horologers others merely turned out clocks as a side issue.”

”Most likely the people over here were thankful to get any clocks at all,” the boy ventured.

”Evidently there were clockmakers who worked on that theory,” was McPhearson's dry answer. ”Do not imagine, however, that I am condemning wholesale all the early clockmakers. On the contrary there were among them many really good workmen and every now and then a clock crops up that testifies to the skill of its dead-and-gone creator. Number Seventeen, for example, that you saw at Mr. Hawley's, was such a one. It was made, you remember, by John Bailey of Hanover, Ma.s.sachusetts, and ever since the close of the eighteenth century it has ticked faithfully on, keeping excellent time. What more can you ask of a clock than that?

And that is only one of many. Had we a complete list of all those early American makers, how interesting it would be! But, alas, they landed and scattered over the country, settling here and settling there, and with a few exceptions we can trace them only through town records. Two that have been successfully tracked down are William Davis, recorded as being in Boston in 1683; and Everardus Bogardus, who was located in New York in 1698. Also in 1707 there is mention of a James Patterson arriving from London and opening a Boston shop. Probably John Bailey, who was no doubt one of the clockmaking Baileys of Yorks.h.i.+re, was a pioneer of a little later period. We can only list these men as we stumble upon their handiwork. Unfortunately, there are early clocks whose makers it is impossible to trace. A good many such timepieces were made for the interiors of churches or for their steeples. The church at Ipswich, Ma.s.sachusetts, built in 1699, which at first had only a bell to mark the hours, arrived five years later at the dignity of a clock having both face and hands.”