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?" blustered 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,"
asserted 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 hardship 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 shores by any such romantic method. The early clockmak