ers
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, Massachusetts, 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 Yorkshire, 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,
Massachusetts, 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."

"That sounds like the old days in England," exclaimed Christopher.

"It was a turn backward," conceded McPhearson. "For a time our American
clock history repeats in part the history of the race. We did not, to be
sure, revert to water clocks; but our forefathers did not scorn to
resort to sundials, sand glasses, and noon marks. And even after clocks
made the