"It simply proves that a determined man will find a way," McPhearson
declared. "Simon Willard was not a person who allowed circumstances to
master him. Lack of tools, limitations of space, the utter absence of
all those aids we should now deem indispensable--none of these obstacles
deterred him from making clocks that have seldom been outranked."

"A bully good sport, wasn't he!" exclaimed Christopher.

"A sport in the best sense," agreed McPhearson. "As a humble member of
his craft I take off my hat to him. It was in 1801 that he made his
first banjo clock--a clock that, as he asserted, could be hung on the
wall and stood no risk of being knocked off or moved about as a shelf
clock did. The patent for this article bore the autographs of President
Jefferson and James Madison, who was at the time Secretary of State. The
same year Willard made a clock for the United States Senate Chamber and
went to Washington to assure himself that it was properly put up and
also explain how it should be cared for. This clock, unfortunately, was
ruined when the British burned the Capitol; nevertheless, Willard's
journey hither was not in vain, for while in the city he made the
personal acquaintance of President Jefferson and the two men, both of
them interested in mechanics, formed a lifelong friendship. In fact, it
was through Jefferson that Willard received the order to make a large
clock for the University of Virginia."

"And did he have to go down there, too?"

"He did go down. During Jefferson's lifetime he was more than once a
guest at Monticello. The clock, however, was not completed until after
the President died, and when Willard finally went to put it in place he
stayed with Madison who had a home no great distance away."

"He seemed to make friends wherever his business took him," remarked
Christopher thoughtfully.

"Not only that, but his work made friends for him," was McPhearson's
answer. "It was so well done that people appreciated its worth and gave
him more orders. For fifty years he had charge of the clocks at Harvard
University and in 1829 the Corporation awarded him a vote of thanks for
his faithful services. It is something of a record to have performed
work so satisfactorily for half a century."

"I'll say it is!"

"In 1837 the United States Government engaged Mr. Willard to make two
clocks for the new Capitol at Washington, one of them to take the place
of the Senate clock that was burned and the other