Mrs. Flint will never let Mrs.
Steel have the refusal--nor will the deacon learn until I call for
the clock, that having once indulged in the use of a superfluity, how
difficult it is to give it up. We can do without any article of
luxury we have never had, but when once obtained, it is not in 'HUMAN
NATUR'' to surrender it voluntarily. Of fifteen thousand sold by
myself and partners in this Province, twelve thousand were left in
this manner, and only ten clocks were ever returned; when we called
for them they invariably bought them. We trust to 'SOFT SAWDER' to
get them into the house, and to 'HUMAN NATUR'' that they never come
out of it."
No. III
The Silent Girls.
"Do you see them 'ere swallows," said the Clockmaker, "how low they
fly? Well I presume we shall have rain right away; and them noisy
critters, them gulls how close they keep to the water, down there in
the Shubenacadie; well that's a sure sign. If we study natur', we
don't want no thermometer. But I guess we shall be in time to get
under cover in a shingle-maker's shed about three miles ahead on us.
We had just reached the deserted hovel when the rain fell in torrents.
"I reckon," said the Clockmaker, as he sat himself down on a bundle
of shingles, "I reckon they are bad off for inns in this country.
When a feller is too lazy to work here, he paints his name over his
door, and calls it a tavern, and as like as not he makes the whole
neighbourhood as lazy as himself--it is about as easy to find a good
inn in Halifax, as it is to find wool on a goat's back.
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