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Twain, Mark

"My Watch"

The watch had cost two hundred dollars originally, and I seemed to have paid out two or three thousand for repairs. While I waited and looked on I presently recognized in this watchmaker an old acquaintance -- a steamboat engineer of other days, and not a good engineer, either. He examined all the parts carefully, just as the other watchmakers had done, and then delivered his verdict with the same confidence of manner.


? ? ? ? He said:


? ? ? ? "She makes too much steam -- you want to hang the monkey-wrench on the safety-valve!"


? ? ? ? I brained him on the spot, and had him buried at my own expense.


? ? ? ? My uncle William (now deceased, alas!) used to say that a good horse was a good horse until it had run away once, and that a good watch was a good watch until the repairers got a chance at it. And he used to wonder what became of all the unsuccessful tinkers, and gunsmiths, and shoemakers, and engineers, and blacksmiths; but nobody could ever tell him.




Colophon



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