ed that the
device he now had might be given practical trial."

Christopher hitched his stool a little nearer.

"Now governments, like elephants and mastodons, move slowly, and by the
time the coveted permission was granted poor Harrison was well-nigh
seventy years old and instead of setting out on an ocean voyage for
Jamaica he was forced to surrender his place to his son, William, whom
he had trained up as one of his apprentices."

"Poor old duffer! I'll bet he was disappointed," came sympathetically
from Christopher. "Think of his having to stay at home and miss the fun
of seeing how his invention was working!"

"It was pretty tough," agreed McPhearson. "William, in the meantime,
sailed out of Portsmouth harbor and after eighteen days of voyaging the
vessel, supposed by ordinary calculation to be 13 deg. 50' west of that
port, was by Harrison's watch 15 deg. 19', whereupon the captain of the ship
immediately cried that it was worthless. If William had not been a chip
of the old block and had inherited some of his father's courage, wisdom,
and persistence, he would have lost his nerve at this crisis and allowed
himself to come home beaten. But evidently he believed in the venture he
had in hand. Perhaps, too, the thought of how disappointed his poor old
dad would be were he to return spurred him to hold on with bulldog
tenacity. So instead of being cowed by this apparent failure he insisted
that if Madeira were correctly charted on the captain's map, it would be
sighted the next day. So convincing was his prediction that the
reluctant officer at length consented to continue on his course, and
sure enough the following morning there loomed Madeira just as William
had prophesied! Having won out on this forecast, William kept on
predicting just where the other islands would be and behold, one after
another they came into sight!"

"Hurray!" cried Christopher.

"Well, after a trip of sixty-one days the _Deptford_ reached Port Royal,
and the chronometer (for that is what this new sort of watch really was)
proved to be only about nine seconds slow. Then followed the voyage
home. William Harrison had been gone five months in all--five months
which to his poor, anxious old father must have seemed five years in
length. During that entire time the chronometer had varied only one
minute and five seconds."

"Pooh! That wasn't anything to get hot over," exploded Christopher.

"And yet a variation as great as that represent