t together again. Meantime, one had
to house and feed him.

The worst of it was that if Agrippa once got his hands on a clock
it would never run as well as before, and afterward one had to let
him tinker it at least once a year, or it would stop going
altogether. The old man tried to do honest and conscientious work,
but just the name he ruined all the clocks he touched.

Therefore it was best never to let him fool with one's clock. That
Glory Goldie knew, of course, but she saw no way of saving the
Dalecarlian timepiece, which was ticking away inside the hut.

Agrippa knew of the clock being there and had long watched for an
opportunity to get at it, but at other times when he was seen
thereabout, Katrina had been at home to keep him at a safe distance.

When the old man came up he stopped right in front of the little
girl, struck the ground with his stick, and rattled off:

"Here comes Johan Utter Agrippa Praestberg, drummer-boy to His Royal
Highness and the Crown! I have faced shot and shell and fear
neither angels nor devils. Anybody home?"

Glory Goldie did not have to reply, for he strode past her into the
house and went straight over to the big Dalecarlian clock.

The girl ran in after him and tried to tell him what a good clock
it was, that it ran neither too fast nor too slow and needed no
mending.

"How can a clock run well that has not been regulated by Johan
Utter Agrippa Praestberg!" the old man roared.

He was so tall he could open the clock-case without having to stand
on a chair. In a twinkling he removed the face and the works and
placed them on the table. Glory Goldie clenched the hand under her
apron, and tears came to her eyes; but what could she do to stop
him?

Agrippa was in a fever of a hurry to find out what ailed the clock,
before Jan or Katrina could get back and tell him it needed no
repairing. He had brought with him a small bundle, containing
work-tools and grease jars, which he tore open with such haste that
half its contents fell to the floor.

Glory Goldie was told to pick up everything that had dropped. And
any one who has seen Agrippa Praestberg must know she would not have
dared do anything but obey him. She got down on all fours and
handed him a tiny saw and a mallet.

"Anything more!" he bellowed. "Be glad you're allowed to serve His
Majesty's and the Kingdom's drummer-boy, you confounded crofter-brat!"

"No, not that I see," replied the little girl meekly. Never ha