Sara Ware Bassett
Christopher and the Clockmakers
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066223984
Table of Contents
CHRISTOPHER AND THE CLOCKMAKERS
CHAPTER I A CLOUD WITH A SILVER LINING
CHAPTER II CHRISTOPHER MAKES AN ACQUAINTANCE
CHAPTER III CHRISTOPHER ESCAPES BEING A HERO
CHAPTER IV AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE POLICE
CHAPTER V CHRISTOPHER ASTONISHES HIMSELF
CHAPTER VI CLOCKS THAT WERE GOOD AS PLAYS
CHAPTER IX CHRISTOPHER RECOGNIZES AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE
CHAPTER X AN AMAZING ADVENTURE
CHAPTER XI THE SEQUEL TO THE LETTER
CHAPTER XIII CLOCKS ON LAND AND CLOCKS AT SEA
CHAPTER XIV HOW RUBIES, SAPPHIRES, AND GARNETS HELPED TO TELL TIME
CHAPTER XVI WHAT MASSACHUSETTS CONTRIBUTED
CHAPTER XVII THE ROMANCE OF THE WATCH
CHAPTER XVIII CHRISTOPHER HAS A BIRTHDAY
ILLUSTRATIONS
| "Those men—one of them took a ring—I saw him" | Frontispiece |
| "So you never saw an old fellow like this, eh?" | Page 24 |
| What was it that rendered the figure so familiar? | " 103 |
| Ah, what an evening the two cronies had together that night | " 164 |
CHRISTOPHER AND THE CLOCKMAKERS
CHAPTER I
A CLOUD WITH A SILVER LINING
Christopher Mark Antony Burton was a tremendously imposing name to give a baby. When he lay in his crib, wee and helpless, he looked as if he might never survive the weight of it. Even later, when he began to toddle about on his small, unsteady feet, the sonorous pseudonym trailed in his wake, threatening to drag him down to an early grave.
Nevertheless his father protested against the burden being lightened one iota. Christopher Mark Antony Burton he had been christened and Christopher Mark Antony Burton he must remain. Had it not been his father's, his grandfather's, and his great-grandfather's name before him; and all his life had not Mr. Burton longed for some one to whom to pass on the treasure of which he was so proud? And then on a happy day a son came upon the scene and presto, before the boy was an hour old, the ponderous appellation was clapped on his unlucky head.
Mr. Burton, however, did not consider the child unlucky—not he! To bestow this signal honor afforded him infinite satisfaction. No gift he could have granted his heir could, in his opinion, equal—much less surpass—this one.
He had, to be sure, on the day of the baby's birth, deposited in the savings bank five hundred dollars to its credit; but what was money when weighed against being Christopher Mark Antony Burton, the fourth?
And Christopher had thrived despite the fact that life, no respecter of persons, did not spare him the misfortunes common to the race. He had whooping cough, measles, and mumps like other children, and when at length he reached the ripened age of six he was led to school and it was here, with one swift, leveling blow, that his splendor vanished even as the grass which in the morning groweth up and at night is cut down, and withereth.
He issued forth from his home as Christopher Mark Antony Burton and returned to it shorn of his glories and as plain Chris Burton. Was ever transformation more complete? Certainly not in the estimation of his father and mother. But Chris himself was overjoyed at the emancipation. It seemed as if a ball had been lifted from his foot and left him free as air. And the wonderful part of it was that the operation had been so quickly and painlessly accomplished. It had taken a round-faced, red-haired urchin just about fifteen seconds to sever his bonds.
"Christopher Mark Antony Burton!" jibed he with sardonic glee. "Haw, haw! Can you beat it? Cut it out, Chris."
Whereupon a group of derisive youngsters had proceeded without further ado to cut it out.
"Chris Burton! Chris Burton!" they piped, capering gleefully about their victim.
Christopher's consent to this re-christening was not asked. The name would have been cut in the same ruthless fashion whether he willed it or not. Fortunately, however, he welcomed his release, and this cheerful