22 The Catskill Fatrtes.

THE OLD CLOCK TELLS A STORY.

“Tue first sound you ever heard, Job, was the

 
  
 
 
 
  

ticking of my pendulum, and the very first ob-
ject your baby eyes noticed was my brass ship
rocking, always rocking, as it did years before you
lived, and has done ever since. Babies are some-
times born out on the ocean and in strange places,
but I think that the top of a mountain is a droll
place for a cradle. I will tell you
all about it. I am really very an-
cient—quite a grandfather clock,
as you may see from my wooden
case. I was sent over from -Lon-
don in my youth, and once I was
mended here in America by the
grandson of the clock-maker who made me. He knew me
directly, and said, ‘ Here is my grandfather’s work. At first I
lived in New York, where I was for sale in a shop, until I was
bought by a man who had me placed on a sloop to be taken
up the Hudson River. It was a long voyage in those days,
I promise you, and we were one week on board of the sloop
before we reached our destination. Now the great steamboats
make the same journey in a few hours. I could tell you the
exact time if I were placed on the ‘ Daniel Drew’ in running