My Boyhood and Youth 



from my mind, I happened to think it would 

 be a fine thing to make a timekeeper which 

 would tell the day of the week and the day of 

 the month, as well as strike like a common 

 clock and point out the hours; also to have an 

 attachment whereby it could be connected 

 with a bedstead to set me on my feet at any 

 hour in the morning; also to start fires, light 

 lamps, etc. I had learned the time laws of the 

 pendulum from a book, but with this exception 

 I knew nothing of timekeepers, for I had never 

 seen the inside of any sort of clock or watch. 

 After long brooding, the novel clock was at 

 length completed in my mind, and was tried 

 and found to be durable and to work well and 

 look well before I had begun to build it in wood. 

 I carried small parts of it in my pocket to whit- 

 tle at when I was out at work on the farm, 

 using every spare or stolen moment within 

 reach without father's knowing anything about 

 it. In the middle of summer, when harvesting 

 was in progress, the novel time-machine was 

 nearly completed. It was hidden upstairs in a 

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