s a little fellow, but heard and swallowed every word those wise men
said, but I did not relish it at all, for I meant some day to make
clocks myself, if I lived.

What would those good old men have thought when they were laughing at
and ridiculing Mr. Terry, if they had known that the little urchin who
was so eagerly listening to their conversation would live to make _Two
Hundred Thousand_ metal clocks in one year, and _many millions_
in his life. They have probably been dead for years, that little boy is
now an old man, and during his life has seen these great changes. The
clock business has grown to be one of the largest in the country, and
almost every kind of American manufactures have improved in much the
same ratio, and I cannot now believe that there will ever be in the same
space of future time so many improvements and inventions as those of the
past half century--one of the most important in the history of the
world. Everyday things with us now would have appeared to our
forefathers as incredible. But returning to my story--having got myself
tolerably well posted about clocks at Waterbury, I hired myself to two
men to go into the state of New Jersey, to make the old fashioned seven
foot standing clock-case. Messrs. Hotchkiss and Pierpont, of Plymouth,
had been selling that kind of a clock without the cases, in the northern
part of that State, for about twenty dollars, apiece. The purchasers,
had complained to them however, that there was no one in that region
that could make the case for them, which prevented many others from
buying. These two men whom I went with, told them that they would get
some one to go out from Connecticut, to make the case, and thought they
could be made for about eighteen or twenty dollars apiece, which would
then make the whole clock cost about forty dollars--not so very costly
after all; for a clock was then considered the most useful of anything
that could be had in a family, for what it cost. I entered into an
agreement with these men at once, and a few days after, we three started
on the 14th Dec., 1812, in an old lumber wagon, with provisions for the
journey, to the far off Jersey. This same trip can now be made in a few
hours. We were _many_ days. We passed through Watertown, and other
villages, and stopped the first night at Bethel. This is the very place
where P.T. Barnum was born, and at about this time, of whom I shall
speak more particularly hereafter. The next morning we s