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We think and aspire and dream, and meanwhile the fires grow cold upon the hearth, the daily cares and common needs plead eloquently for our undivided service; the stupendous movement of Existence goes on unceasingly, at our doors; thousands struggling for gold and fame and mere bread, and resorting to infamous devices to obtain them; the great commercial currents flow and flow, according to their mystic laws; the price of stocks goes up, goes down, and with them, the life and fate of thousands; the inconsequent bells ring out from Craddock Church, and the people congregate; the grave of the schoolmistress sleeps in the sunshine, and the sound of the bells streams over it meaning no irony to lose itself in the quiet of the hills; rust and dust collect in one's house, in one's soul; and this and that, and that and this, like the pendulum of the old time-piece, with its solemn tick dock the moments of one's life, with each its dull little claim and its tough little tether, and lead one decorously to the gateway of Eternity."
"All right, Chaplain," I responded; "I have forty rounds in the box, and forty on the person, and will give them the best I have in the shop. But, say! Take care of my watch, will you? And, should anything happen, please send it to the folks at home;" and handing him my little old silver time-piece, I resumed my place in the ranks.
Sam glanced at his time-piece with an earnest thoughtful look, and said "Well, yes; but look sharp." He had already pulled the lever of the home signal, and now, with two mighty pulls, blocked both up and down lines with the distant signals.
A sailor just returned from four years on the South American coast, who had doubled Cape Horn, shot condors on the Andes, caught goats at Juan Fernandez, fished for sharks in the Atlantic, and heard parrots chatter in the Brazilian woods, could not fail to be very entertaining, even though he cared not for the Incas of Peru, and could tell little about the beauties of an iceberg; and accordingly everyone was greatly entertained, except the Queen Bee, who sat in a corner of the sofa, playing with her watch-chain, wondering how long Roger would go on eating pie, looking at the time-piece, and strangling the yawns induced by her inability to attract the notice of either of her squires, whose eyes and ears were all for the newcomer.
She was thinking of this when at last she fell asleep, sitting by the fire, still resting her hand upon the chair by her side. It was by no means unnatural, though by no means poetic, that her girl's pain should end so. But when the time-piece on the mantle chimed twelve with its silver tongue, she found herself suddenly and unaccountably wide awake. She sat up and looked about her.
After a time, as if to ascertain whether it were really a locket, or a watch, he asked "if Miss Howard could tell him the hour." "Certainly sir," said she, and stepping to the desk and consulting a silver time-piece about the size of a dining plate, she told him that it was half-past three.
Do not try to measure events by the second-hand on your little time-piece. Sin and Satan go on only that their overthrow may at last be the more terrific, the more impressive, the more resounding, the more climacteric. Why do the wicked live? In order that they may build up fortresses for righteousness to capture.
Her time-piece was ours, the sun. By night it must have been her guardian star; for frequently she gazed up at a particular section of the heavens, like one regarding the dial in a tower. By some odd reasoning or other, she had cajoled herself into the notion, that whoever steered the brigantine, for that period was captain.
But the most common time-piece was a line cut in the floor, and when the sun touched his meridian height his rays were cast along this mark through a crack in the door; and thus the hour of noon was made known. A few years later the irrepressible Yankee invaded the country with his wooden clocks, and supplied the want.
To our surprise, the immense time-piece indicated an advanced hour in the afternoon. We could not abandon the superb temple, so amply filled with the products of human industry, embracing that which was regally magnificent, as well as that most applicable to our daily needs without an enthusiastic thrill.
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