kable that the fact they did not keep good time
was entirely lost sight of. But just you let _our_ clocks or watches
vary a minute or two a week, and we are quite out of humor with them,
never taking into consideration how we jolt them about and subject them
to heat, cold, and irregular winding. Where can you find any other piece
of machinery that will run as long or as faithfully with so little care?

"A drop or two of oil, a cleaning now and then, and on they go without
whimper or complaint, always ticking cheerfully. And the only thanks
they ever receive is to be scolded at when they fail to any small
degree." Mr. Rhinehart paused, then added drily, "Did any of us human
machines do our work as well, we should have earned the right to
belabor them. As it is I consider we stand on rather delicate ground
when we berate either a clock or a watch--especially an old one."

"Mr. McPhearson is fixing now a bracket clock made about 1720."

"He is? That means it has ticked and ticked over two hundred years,
doesn't it! Neither your machinery nor mine will last that long. Think
of the changes a veteran like that has outlived. It would be
interesting, wouldn't it, if it could recount its history and tell us
where it has been all that long time? A clock that survives for such a
stretch of years is lucky, for it must have changed hands many times and
traveled far from its birthplace. Moreover, fashion is fickle and owners
are seldom loyal enough to respect what is shabby and old. In
consequence many a clock has been sentenced to the attic or cellar,
there to lie idle and rust out its life. That is the reason a genuine
antique clock made by one of the fine makers is so valuable, and why so
many of them have disappeared. There are types that are scarce as hen's
teeth. Their owners, carried away by more modern designs, could not get
them to the junkman fast enough."

Christopher would have laughed at Mr. Rhinehart's indignation had it not
been so genuine.

"Oh, I won't pretend some of the more recent products may not be better
than some of those of the past. Nevertheless an old clock, every part of
which was carefully fashioned by the hand of an intelligent maker in
deliberate, painstaking manner, is a far finer product than most of
those turned out by poor machinery. For you know--or will learn--that
there are clocks _and clocks_. Many firms make them but all do not
excel. Therefore I would counsel those who own the old aristocr