t Minds" and "Original Poems." Besides these, she wrote "Display,
a Tale," "Essays in Rhyme," and "Contributions of QQ." Her writings are
graceful, and often contain a useful moral.

1. An old dock that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen,
without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's
morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped. Upon this, the
dial plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm;
the hands made a vain effort to continue their course; the wheels remained
motionless with surprise; the weights hung speechless; and each member
felt disposed to lay the blame on the others. At length the dial
instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of the stagnation, when hands,
wheels, weights, with one voice, protested their innocence.

2. But now a faint tick was heard below from the pendulum, who spoke thus:
"I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and I am
willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons. The truth is,
that I am tired of ticking." Upon hearing this, the old clock became so
enraged that it was upon the very point of striking. "Lazy wire!"
exclaimed the dial plate, holding up its bands.

3. "Very good!" replied the pendulum; "it is vastly easy for you, Mistress
Dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up above me,--it
is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! you who
have had nothing to do all your life but to stare people in the face, and
to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the kitchen. Think, I
beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life in this dark
closet, and to wag backward and forward year after year, as I do."

4. "As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house on
purpose for you to look through?" "For all that," resumed the pendulum,
"it is very dark here; and, although there is a window, I dare not stop
even for an instant to look out at it. Besides, I am really tired of my
way of life; and, if you wish, I'll tell you how I took this disgust at my
employment. I happened, this morning, to be calculating how many times I
should have to tick in the course of only the next twenty-four hours;
perhaps some one of you above there can give me the exact sum."

5. The minute hand, being quick at figures, presently replied, "Eighty-six
thousand four hundred times." "Exactly so," replied the pendulum. "Well, I
appeal to