ir appearance in this country they were at first very sparsely
distributed. Many an amusing incident concerning them is found in the
annals of various towns.

"New Haven as early as 1727 put up a modest little church and in 1740
decided to dignify it with a clock and bell. Accordingly Ebenezer
Parmilee constructed for the parish a clock with brass works which the
committee agreed to _try_. Fancy his amazement when the trial of his
handiwork dragged on for two long years! The people had been keen to get
the clock but having once secured it they were not, I fear, equally keen
about paying for it. History relates that two of the congregation who
had previously pledged themselves to shoulder a portion of the expense
backed out when the final settlement was imminent, on the plea that they
lived too far away either to see the clock or hear it strike."

"They were squealers all right!" derided his listener.

McPhearson turned on him with twinkling eyes.

"Listen to the sequel," continued he. "In 1825 it was decided to have a
second clock put up--one that would do better under the varying weather
conditions--and a bargain was struck with Barzillai Davidson to take
over the old clock, allowing forty dollars for its brass works; and set
up in its place one with wooden works costing about three hundred
dollars. This Mr. Davidson agreed to do. He therefore made the new
clock, put it up, and then departed, carrying with him all the brass
wheels, pivots and things the thrifty Ipswich fathers had discarded.
Imagine if you can the chagrin of these worthies when later they heard
that the canny clockmaker had reassembled the brass works they had
bartered off and converted them into a timepiece which he forthwith sold
in New York for six hundred dollars!"

"That certainly was one on the town fathers," replied the lad, greeting
the story with ringing laughter.

"The saying goes that one has to get up in the morning to beat a Yankee
or a Scotchman at a bargain," was McPhearson's quiet observation. "I
could add to this tale many another one of the early clockmakers. They
were ingenious old fellows. Indeed, they had to be. Some of them, to be
sure, brought tools with them from England; but at best there were only
a few such articles to be purchased even on the other side of the water
where every type of machinery was scarce and still in its infancy.
Therefore the majority of workmen had to fashion their own implements
and make their clo