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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

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University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Library
Brittle Books Project, 2012.

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In Public Domain.
Published prior to 1923.

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All exposed to the elements should drink BOVRI L.
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is not a medicine, it-is a food designed not to force but to help nature in the digestion and assimilation
substantial nourishment for Brain, Blood, Bone, and Muscle.

Sold by Grocers and Chemists throughout the United Kingdom.
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she thinks very beautiful."

VEL-VEL, w

GOING ON WHEELS:
ANI)

MR. CLIPSTICK'S CLOCK.
BY THE

REV.

P.

B.

POWER,

M.A.,

Author of " The Oilcd Feather," &c.

PUBLISHED

UNDER THE DIRECTION

OF THE

TRACT

COMMITTEE.

LONDON :
SOCIETY

FOR

NORTHUMBERLAND

PROMOTING
AVENUE, W.C.;

97, \

CHRISTIAN

VESTBOURNE

BRIGHTON:

NEW YORK:

KNOWLEDGE,

43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.;

135,

E, &

J.

GROVE, WV.
NORTH STREET.

B. YOUNG & CO,

GOING ON WHEELS.
CHAPTER I.

I

AM going to write in the following
pages about people who go on
wheels. Wagons go on wheels, so do
perambulators; watches, clocks, steamengines, they are all wheelers; and if
I were to start with saying that, I were
going to write something about their
wheels, I dare say my reader would
soon shut up, and say he knew all
about them already. A wheel's a
wheel, and it goes round; and there's
an end of it.
But, perhaps, you do not know
everything about people who go on
wheels; for this subject of "Going on
Wheels " is a very large one, and a
very important one too.
You will say it was quite natural
that Mr. Zachary Turner should have
this idea, seeing he was a wheelwright,
and a very good one too. As the shoemaker says, "There is nothing like
leather," so it would be no wonder if
a wheelwright said, " There is nothing
like wheels;" and, indeed, if we could
see through Mr. Zachary Turner's
brains, clean to the other side, I have
little doubt, we should find that this
was what he really thought.

I should say that, Mr. Zachary
Turner was good sixty; but he was a
man who had used himself well, and
so did not look his years. lie had,
as he himself expressed it (taking the
idea, no doubt, from his surroundings),
been going round and round all his
life-in other words, he had just been
steadily minding his business-and the
consequence was, he was now well-todo.
Fair work had done him no
harm, as it seldom will do to any man
who just minds his business, and does
not give himself to things which rack
him, body or mind.
The only sign of age coming upon
our good friend, if, indeed, it could be
called such, was a desire to have just
forty winks after his dinner. These he
took in his workshop; for, he thought
it would be making too regular a thing
of it, if he settled himself comfortably
in his armchair, in the parlour, by
the fire.
And now, Zachary had just had his
forty winks. They say we are dreaming only for the second or two while
we are awakening, even though one's
dreams seem to cover a long space of
time and to have lasted all night.

GOING ON WHEELS.

If this be the case, I am not called
upon to account for more than the
thirty-ninth and fortieth of the wheelwright's winks, and what took place
while they were going on.
Well, Zachary Turner saw a good
deal during that short time. And if
it had not been that, he was a man
who was not afraid to tackle any
wheel, of any size, and deal with it as
its case required, there is little doubt
that, the good man would not have
been able to smooth down his few
remaining hairs for at least a week to
come, so stiff and bolt upright would
they have stood at the sight he saw,
and the sounds he heard.
And these were they.
In a moment of time, -and covering
a great plain on earth, and filling the
sky above the earth (and though he
couldn't see them underground, he
could hear them there, too), the wheelwright saw all the wheels in the world,
There were great
big and little.
water-wheels, all dripping from their
work, which had come in such haste,
they hadn't even stopped to dry themselves; and steam-engine wheels looking as bright and shiny,: as if they
were mere gentleman wheels, and
never did any work at all; there were
wheels from lathes, and:watches, and
wagons, and threshing-machines, cogwheels, steam screws, a few old
paddles, and no one knows -what; all
sorts and conditions of wheels, including those in Zachary's own shop, both

the new which were finished, and old
which were being repaired; and so
complete was the strike, that even the
spokes, and tires, and other bits of new
wheels, which were going to be put
together, made such noises as they
could; though they could not pretend
to speak as full-grown wheels; and
declared that, when they became
wheels, they would do as all the' rest
did, and strike work. Whereas the
rest determined to work no more,
these determined that they would not
even begin to work at all. Even the
grumpy old grindstone, which was
generally engaged in sharpening up
others, now sharpened himself up in
quite an unexpected way, and said, he
too, if not exactly a wheel, was, at any
rate, first cousin to one; and as, on
occasions like this, all the members of
a family: should ' pull together, he
begged to say that, next time the wheelwright came to turn his handle, he
would not' budge a single inch. They
might try to sharpen tools on the top
of him, or the bottom of him, or either
side of him, or on the handle, or on
his legs, if they liked, but round he
would not go, let them push or tug as
hard as ever they liked.
In fact, Zachary Turner was the
astonished witness of a strike amongst
all the wheels in the world.
If the dream had continued long, I
will not undertake to say what the
consequences would have been to the
wheelvright.
One. thing is certain,

GOING ON WHEELS.

his good opinion of wheels would have
been gone for ever. Whereas he used
to look upon them as the most docile,
useful things in the world, content to
go round and round, and do their
work as they were told; he would
now have looked upon them as highly
dangerous, and obstinate things,
capable of obstinacy, ill-temper, unreasonableness, and mischief of every
kind. He used to look upon them,
when they were brought to him in a
dilapidated state, with pity more than
anything else, for they were worn by
honest work, or had met misfortune in
accident, and he had a benevolent kind
of feeling as he repaired them; and
when he made a new wheel, he always
had a fatherly kind of feeling to it,
hoping it would have a long and
honoured career of usefulness; but
now, who could tell what would
happen? Perhaps, wheels would go
and smash themselves out of spite;
and no one knew who would be upset.
High up, the wheels of St. Paul's
clock, or Big Ben might take to telling
the wrong time, and putting all the
world out; down below, the wheels
might roll off the Lord Mayor's coach
on Lord Mayor's day, of all days in
the year, and spill his lordship, mace
and gold chain, and all, in the gutter;
and only laugh at the policeman who
told them to " move on." And as to a
new wheel, even though it were only
that of a perambulator-what fatherly
pleasure could he, have in any such

again for ever ! That little wheel
might turn out to be the ringleader in
some great agitation, ending in a strike
which might stop every clock and
watch in the neighbourhood, bring the
train to a standstill-prevent the jack
turning with its roasting joint-hinder
the baker's cart so that there could be
no delivery of bread. Beginning with
itself, maliciously spilling the baby
whom it should have rolled home to
its fond mother, it might have gone on
to do still more atrocious deeds, so
that the wheelwright, instead of being
proud of being, so to speak, its parent,'
might be utterly ashamed of it, and
even that he had ever been the
means of its coming into existence at
all.
For a moment, the wheelwright
looked a little dazedly about; what he
had seen and heard had, for the
instant, proved too much for him;
but quickly recovering himself, he was
reassured and comforted, for the grind=
stone looked as demure as possible;
and as though it wouldn't for the
world be guilty of an indiscretion of
any kind. Zach gave it a turn with
the handle to make sure, and he
thought it flew round twice instead of
once.
All the new wheels were in
their places, looking able and willing to
work; the poor old things which had
come to be patched, seemed to the
benevolent wheelwright's
eye ad
though they all longed to be at work
as soon as possible, and in a few

GOING ON WHEELS,

moments Zach was happy with his
family of wheels again.
Happily for us, for otherwise, perhaps, we might not have heard so
much of the wheelwright's thoughts,
the good man had not delayed long
over his dinner to-day. The missus
was away, so Zach had not much
inducement'to sit; and the dinner was
composed of Scotch broth and rice
pudding, both easily swallowed. So,
even with the forty winks thrown in,
there was a good half-hour of the
usual dinner-time to spare. And that
half-hour was made good use of in
putting some good ideas into his
neighbour Jimmy Dumpers' head.
Jimmy Dumpers was always wrong
with his family; and, by consequence,
his family were always wrong with him.
Things never went well in the
Dumpers' family; if they did get
along at all, it was by pulling and
hauling, or pushing, so to speak, tearing along, instead of running along as
they should have done.
"Well, what's the matter now ? "
said the wheelwright, the broad grin
of good humour having scarcely yet
passed from his face, as his poor neighbour Dumpers came into his shop,
looking woebegone and miserable as
usual. "All wrong with the wife and
children, I suppose, as usual; all
wrong with the roof and the cellar;
all wrong with the boiler and the feeding-bottle; the front door isn't right,
and the back door isn't right ; the one

won't shut, and the other will bang ;
bad business, I suppose, neighbour
Dumpers! "
"Ay, Zachary Turner; and I'm
pretty well tired of it ; it's been going
on now nigh these fifteen years. I
wish I had never married at all. I
was born a single man, and I don't
know where my brains were that I
didn't keep so. If one had been born
double, one couldn't have helped it;
that would have been a comfort, such
as it was; but to have been born
single and comfortable, and then to
have gone and doubled oneself, and
made oneself uncomfortable, that's the
provoking part of it; one's conscience
says: 'Timothy Dumpers, 'tis all your
own fault; why didn't you stay comfortable and happy as you were '"
" If your conscience said all that to
you, Timothy," answered the wheelwright, "you've been giving it lately
something that don't agree with it;
and if you know of a conscience doctor anywhere hereabouts, the sooner
you send for him the better; and if
your conscience, as you call it, goes on
talking to you like that, you'll never
get right as long as you live. Conscience is for putting a man right, and
keeping him so, too; but I don't
believe that your conscience ever said
all this to you. It may have said the
first part, and I'm pretty sure it did;
but, my friend Timothy, what about
part No. 2? " Tis all your own fault,'
that's right enough; but ' why didn't

GOING ON WHEELS.

you stay happy and comfortable asyou
were ?' That's a bit of your own,
Mr. Timothy. And you mustn't father
it on conscience-'tis as much as to
say, ' the only way a man has a chance
of being happy is by keeping single;'
and let me tell you, friend, that's
throwing a stone at the Almighty,
who, first of all, was the One to settle
that men should be married at all."
" I don't know how it is," said Mr.
Dumpers, "I'm sure I don't; but
things won't run smooth. They're
always scraping along in my housejolt, bump, scrape, scratch, rub,
scrunch, crunch-is there any other
word, neighbour, you can give me ?"
"What kind of a word do you
want?"
" Oh ! an ugly one; the uglier the
better. A word that will set your
teeth on edge. A word that will give
you an awful pain in your side, as if
you had been lugging along a heavy
weight all the day-ay, andfor the matter of that, all the day before, and the
day before that again-a word that'll
make you feel so tired when you've
said it, that you'll want to go to bed
for a week, to rest yourself after
getting it out ; that's the kind of word
I want, or half-a-dozen of them, so as
to make up an ugly sentence to tell
any one who cares to know it, what
kind of a life I lead."
"Poor Mrs. Dumpers!" said the
wheelwright.
"'Poor Mr., you mean."

"Nay, friend, poor Mrs. Dumpers,
and poor little Dumperses; and poor
servant-maid Dumpers; and I was
going to say even poor feeding-bottle
Dumpers; for, even that will come to
grief, and go scratch, scrunch, crunch
some day until it comes to smash."
" Ay,you haven't to go far for its
and scrunching, and
scratching,
crunching, for 'twas cold as a stone
at two o'clock this morning when the
child awoke; and when we did get it
to rights, the cork tumbled out, and
I had a quarter-of-an-hour's hunt
for it, until at last it was found in
the toe of my boot, into which it
tumbled, of all places in the world,
to spite me, no doubt. I want to
know why things should be always
going wrong like this. They don't
go wrong with you, Zachary Turner;
if they did, you wouldn't have that
full moon of a face of yours."
"Should you like to know how to
make them go right?" asked the
wheelwright, with a genial glow on
his full round face.
"I'll tell you what," said Timothy
Dumpers, "I'd like to see the man
who could tell me that; there's two
pounds ten for. him," said Timothy,
bitterly; " all I have in my pockets.
There's the cash," said the melancholy man; "but sure as fate, if any
man puts his finger on it, I'll have
him up for getting money under false
pretences."
"I'm your man," said the wheel-

GOING ON WHEELS.

wright, quietly taking up the two
pounds ten, and putting it into his
"I'll do a good
trowsers'-pocket.
day's work to-day. I'll earn a lot of
money, and I'll put you in the way
of getting rid of your melancholy
face, and voice too, if you'll only
attend to what I say."
Mr. Timothy Dumpers was rather
taken aback at the sudden disappearance of his cash, but he had not the
least belief in the wheelwright's
being able to fulfil the conditions on
which he offered it, and fully believed
he should be in a position to demand
it back again from him, as soon as
he heard what he had to say. Accordingly, he contented himself by
saying, somewhat sarcastically and
bitterly: " Mr. Zachary Turner, say
your say, and when you've said it,
you'll have to hand back that cash.
You may talk on till night if you like."
"There needn't be much talk,"
said the wheelwright; "few words,
and much in them, that's my motto
for talk. Run the Dumpers family
on wheels."
"Is that all ?" said Dumpers, after
he had waited a minute or two for
the wheelwright to go on.
"How much more do you want for
your money, man ? There's what
will put you, and Mrs. Dumpers, and
every Dumpers, down to the baby,
and the servant-maid, and the feedingbottle, and the front door and the
back, all right."

"You'll have to give a lot more
for that money if you keep it," said
Timothy Dumpers. "What do you
mean by running the family on
wheels? You'll have to give plain
English for good money."
"Now look round you," said the
wheelwright, "'and if that won't
satisfy you, then go outside and look
about you. What do you see here ?"
and the wheelwright pointed to a
great wagon-wheel. Here's a round
thing that wouldn't in itself hold a
shovelful of anything, but when 'tis
under a cart, it and its fellows will
carry tons, which could never have
been carried otherwise at all. Look
how compact it is," and the wheelwright put a hand on each side of it.
" Look how endless it is," and he ran
his forefinger all round it. " A wheel
is a wonderful thing. 'Tis my delight to make and to repair wheels.
When I've made a new one, I say,
'There, that will make some man do
a thousand times more work than he
could have done without it; 'twill
make things run smooth,' and when I
repair a wheel I say, 'There, i'm
setting things right again; they can't
run smooth until I've put them right
again: and they are right now.' I
sometimes feel proud, neighbour, when
I think I'm a wheelwright.
I make
wheels, and without wheels the world
must almost stand still."
" But what's all that to me ?"
" Why, just this. You see, there

GOING ON WHEELS:

are wheels of all sizes, and for all
purposes; from the cart-wheel to the
wheel of the perambulator, from the
wheelbarrow to the squire's carriage;
and, though I haven't to do with
them, from the watch to the steam.
engine: and as they are just outside
ways of getting these along, so there
are other wheels of adl sizes for getting along the family; and, as you,
want the worth of your money," and
here the wheelwright jingled the two
pounds ten in his pocket, and made a
funny little twitch just under the eye,
"you shall hear about them. I can
speak well of them, for I've run the
Turner family on them for nigh
twenty years ; and my old girl looks
so fresh, you wouldn't think she'd
been twelve months upon the road.
" Now," continued the wheelwright, "the way I run the family
on wheels is this: I hope' some good
of every one of them, because I believe that there is some good in each
of them. If you don't believe that
there is any good in anybody, why,
of course, you can't get any good out
of them. You can't get blood out of
a turnip, as the saying is. Now I'll
tell you about our Robert. At one
time that lad was inclined to be very
He gave his mother,
troublesome.
and me, too, a deal of worrit; we
used to lie awake at night thinking
about him. He used to be away all
the day long with other lads, who
were teaching him no good. He gave

his mother sauce when she spoke to
him ; and, worse than- all, he only
laughed when he saw her cry. Poor
lad, if only he had known what
went to make those tears, perhaps.
he'd never have been the one to cause
them roll down her cheeks. I wonder
now if anyone ever tasted a mother's
tears; they must taste uncommonly
bitter; those doctors are always
tasting all sorts of things, I wonder
if they ever had a try at these.
Well, I almost gave him up. ' When
a boy will do that, he'll do anything,'
I said to myself. But I was wrong,
neighbour. The boy had something
in him still. When our Daisy broke
her leg, he stayed at home all one
Saturday afternoon to play with her.
Said I to myself, there's something
to work on there; and I took him on
that tack. Bless me, 'tis nigh thirty
years ago; and when he saw that I
was downright expecting good from
him-not scolding him about it, but
just believing it would come, he came
round by degrees; and when he became a changed lad-and mind you,
neighbour, I prayed a great deal that
he should-he came to me one day.
and said: 'Father, you're not going
to take that job at the mill, because
you say that you have no one that
you can trust to put in charge here
while you're away. Put me.' He
saw me look anxious, and puzzled,
and in doubt; so he says (and I
thought I saw him drawing himself

GOING ON WHEELS.

up, and trying to look as if he were
worth something): ' Father, you
thought that there was good in me
when scarce. anyone else did, and
you treated me as if there were; and
I've tried to work your thought out
true. Now believe again, and I'll
work it out.' Bless you, neighbour,
the boy was now on wheels, and was
going that fast that I was afraid of
being hurried along with him; and
the bread of the family lay here, and
if things went wrong here, it meant
an end to the family's bread. But
there was that in the lad's eyes that
made me trust him; so I left him
here in charge; and, would you believe it that, during the week I was
away, he kept the place open. Every
night he walked ten miles to bring
me word of what happened during the
day; and he took an order for a new
wheel for Farmer Stone's wagon, and
another for Mrs. Jones' perambulator;
and he gave a price for mending the
wheel of a barrow, and he wasn't sixpence out either. Bless you, that boy
ran on wheels all that week, and he's
been running on them ever since.
Now and again they get out of order,
I don't deny; but in the main, and
even more than that, he's kept the
road smooth and well, and I'm glad
now I thought something could be
made of him.
"Then, neighbour, I took to making some allowances in the family,
and that was the same as making

wheels.
I often said to myself:
'They're young and foolish; they
only see the outside of things, as I
did myself when I was their age.'
I took more to trying to put them
right, than to being hard on them
when they went wrong. And I found
it answer; for it did myself good too.
I got to be less impatient, and to
worrit and fret myself less. I thought,
they don't mean to go wrong, and
that's a great thing. There's a deal
of 'fret' gets into the hearts of
parents about their children; and
when the fret is there, it will take
hold of anything, and work on it;
but I got rid of that, and I found I
could put things straight, and keep
them so too, much easier when I
went on a wheel myself in things
like this. Mind you, neighbour, the
road wasn't always smooth; 'twas
sometimes hard travelling; but I
thought of my own work, and I
said: 'Zachary Turner, does all your
work lie with little perambulator
wheels ? Is this the only kind of
thing you make?'" (and here the
wheelwright held up the little wheel
of a perambulator, and showed it to
his neighbour).
":' You're as good
Zach, for a wagon-wheel for rough
work as any man who ever made
one;' and so I learned a lesson from
the workshop for the house, and I've
run as smooth as most folk for many
a year. There, friend; there's your
two pounds ten back, and you're not

GOING ON WHEELS.

badly off to have got the money's
worth and the money back too.
'Tisn't many of us can do business
like that.
"You must do something to make
the home happy," said the wheel-

wonderful at what small cost one can
sometimes give happiness. 'Twas only
yesterday that little ragamuffin son of
Thompson's round the corner comes
into my shop, and, with all the cheek
in the world, holds- up a great piece of

wright. "It may be, some little
things are all that are needed; but
remember Home is meant to be a
happy place, and if you set yourself
to make it unhappy it can't be so.
Don't be above doing little things. 'Tis

wood to me, and says: ' Mr. Turner, I
want a wheel.' He didn't so much as
say ' If you please' at first, though he
said ' Thankee' at last. I didn't say
to him, 'You dirty little brat, what
brings you here ? be off with you;'

GOING ON WHEELS.

but I said, 'Oh, indeed, a wheel!'
'Yes,' says he, 'a round one.' ' Indeed,' says I ; 'are you sure a square
one won't do?' ' Not it,' says he;
'it must be as round as a letter O.'
'And what do you want it for ?' says
I. ' To go round and round,' says he,
'in a wheelbarrow I'm making out
of a raisin-box I got at the grocer's.'
'Well,'
says I, ' I'll make you
an "if you please" wheel. What
I call a " good manners wheel."
'Oh, aye,' says he, 'I twig. Please
make us the wheel.' It didn't take
me five minutes to cut it round.
'There now,' says I, ' is it all right ?'
'All right,' says he. 'No it's not,'
says I; and I made a hole in the
middle for him. 'Now,' says I, ' it's
all right ; a good manners wheel; but
the manners part ain't finished yet.'
Bless you, that boy was as sharp as a
needle. He twigged in a moment what
I meant; and pulling the front lock
of his hair for want of a cap, he says,
'Thank you, Mr. Turner,' and when
he gets to the door, he does it again;
and off he went on wheels himself. I
do what I can to make them happy at
home, and I put a good face on things.
That I find to be a wonderful wheel;
and a deal will run, and a long journey
too, on a wheel like this.
"And I'll tell you one good thing
to remember, and 'twill be no end of
use. We married folk ain't going
through the world in a gig, or any of
those little concerns which hold two at

the most, though there's one kind of
carriage that's called a ' sociable; '
that's a famous one for married folk to
travel in; but the most of us have to
go in a family coach; or, if that's too
grand, in a family wagon; and we
must make room for everyone, as best
we can. And we must take care not
to tread on one another's toes; for
every one has got his own toes; and
one man's toes are as dear to him, as
another's are to him. But the grand
thing is, to roll the whole affair along
on wheels, and have no angles and
corners, but keep them smooth all
round."
CHAPTER II.
TIE wheelwright might have enlightened his neighbour upon a good
many other points in family matters,
for all we know, had he not been interrupted by the arrival of a newcomer, a man of about eight-andtwenty years of age, who carried a
small bag in his hand. He had all
the appearance of what one would call
a smart man; and, indeed, such he
was esteemed to be on the road.
The new-comer was a stranger to
the wheelwright; and this was his
first appearance in this neighbourhood
at all. He was a traveller for the
house of Tripps and Co., who, besides
their general business as wholesale
ironmongers, had a great deal to do
with patents of one kind, and another.
The immediate object which their

GOING ON WHEELS.

representative now had in calling upon
the wheelwright was, to. introduce to
his notice, and try to get orders for, a
certain patent box for wheels, which
was to cut out not only all boxes which
ever had been, and which now were,

but also all which ever could be, until
the end of the world.
It was the pride of the representative
of Tripps and Co. that he was a smart
man; and he was looking forward to
.his smartness as a means to his getting

on well in business. He :was not
troubling himself much as to the good
old-fashioned ways of carrying on
trade: he left those to his grandfather;
they were dead and buried with him.
Times were altered now, and folk must

go with the times; anyhow he meant
to; and the best .principles for him
were those by which money could be
made fastest.
Now Zachary Turner was not a bad
hand at taking people's measure with

GOING ON WHEELS.

his eye; and he took the new-comer's
in a moment. He saw in him a man
who was all for business, as he called
it, all for going ahead. The man did
not take Zichary's fancy at all; indeed,
I might say, without any breach of
Christian charity, quite the other way.
The new-comer did not, however,
give the wheelwright much time to
spend upon taking stock of him, for
he was scarcely well in the shop, before
he announced his name and business
too. He certainly did say "Good
morning;" but that was of course a
mere matter of form.
" The representative of ' Tripps and
Co.,"' said the new-comer; "a wholesale house in London, with which you
have not perhaps had any dealings
as yet. A house, sir, of the highest
standing; and you can have failed to
have heard of it 'ere this, only because
we have quite recently commenced any
direct business with the smaller towns.
Tripps and Co., sir, are the promoters
of many excellent patents. The patent
represser for keeping down soapbubbles in washing-tubs is theirs; and
I should say Mr. Tripps could keep his
brougham on that alone. The patent
nail-lifter is theirs too; it will catch a
nail one inch under the surface, even
when the head is gone, and lift it as
skilfully as a first-class dentist would
a tooth, that he had a good grip of
from the under-jaw. I should say he
could marry Miss Tripp on that. She
might have her choice of fifty young

fellows like myself, with that elevator
for a fortune. But what brought me
here, sir,"-continued the commercial
traveller, looking hard at the wheelwright, looking at him as though he
would penetrate him through and
through with the importance of the
announcement he had to make-" is
this. We have just brought out something in your line. If there had
never been such a thing as a patent
before, patents ought to have been invented for this alone. It is a box fur
wheels; almost makes wheels run of
themselves. Look here! " said the
Commercial, and he produced a model
of a box of a wheel from his bag.
"Men have been made knights and
baronets, and even lords, for a less
thing than bringing out a box like
that. It's almost enough to make a
carriage run without a horse at all.
Full price to the customer, you know,"
said the Commercial, and drawing close
to the wheelwright, and whispering in
his ear "forty per cent. discount to
you. You know something about
wheels," said the Commercial, as he
looked round; " one would think this
affair was made on purpose for you."
The wheelwright did not at all
suffer his breath to be taken away by
the speed with which the new-comer
ran on; neither did he allow his composure to be ruffled by the assurance
of the former, disagreeable as it was
to him. He quietly examined the
patent box, heard all the explanations

GOING ON WHEELS.

which the Commercial had to give
about it, and then put it down on his
bench, and calmly informed his visitor
that, in his opinion, as a practical
man, it was a humbug; and with a
slight touch of humour he added that,
whoever married Miss Tripps as a
speculation, with that box as her
fortune, would find himself in the
wrong box, and indeed ought to be
unmarried again as soon as possible, if
such a thing could be, seeing he had
been married under false pretences.
The effect of this depreciation of
their wares would have made most
men explode with violent passion, or
gather up their goods as quickly as
possible, and take themselves off in a
huff.
Not so, however, with the representative of Tripps and Co. Though
young, he was a man of the world;
and men of the world know that
nothing pays worse than losing one's
temper, especially while negotiating
any mercantile transaction.
This
young man accordingly addressed the
wheelwright with rather a bland and
smiling air, slightly mingled with a
little touch of patronizing, which spiced
it, and kept it from seeming flat.
"My dear Sir--Dukes, Marquises,
and Earls, the Lord Mayor, and
Royalty itself, will go about on that
patent box; and, why shouldn't our
poorer fellow- creatures have the benefit
of a good thing, just as well as others.
As the king and beggar breathe

the same air, and see the same light,
even costers will roll their onions and
cabbages about on this selfsame box,
before five years are out. It will b"
impossible to keep an universal benefit
like this-a thing that was invented
for mankind, and not for a man-from
becoming the property of the human
race. The wheel belongs to humanity,
and so must this box too. No wheel
will be able to run without this box."
" I've made many a wheel during
my day that has run many thousands
of miles without it, and " said Zachary,
looking hard at the Commercial, "I
mean to make many more. MTy wheels
have gone hitherto without any blarney,
such as your patent box wants to set it
off. Honest work has made them run,
and will make them run still. Now,
tell me this, young man, do you know
much of what you have been talking
about ? Do you know anything more
of a wheel than that it is round, and
is a thing that goes round ? "
"Aye," said the Commercial unblushingly; "I understand wheels in
omnibuses, cabs, wagons, carts, wheelbarrows, perambulators, carriages, flys,
dog-carts, everything up to the statecoach with its eight cream-coloured
horses."
"And do you understand 'wheels
in business ?' " asked the wheelwright.
"I should think I did," said the
Commercial, spinning out the I long
enough to make it answer for half a
"' Go-a-head,' that's
dozen people.

GOING ON WHEELS.

my motto. Get on anyhow you can;
but get on, don't stop at any price.
Leave all you can behind you; never
let any one get before you; keep all
you can from being abreast of you:
that's what I call business going on
wheels."
" And that's not my notion of it,"
"I've been
said the wheelwright.
good many years
running business a
more than you have, young gentleman;
and the business has run pretty well
too; and its wheels haven't come off,
and left he coach in the mud, as I've
seen the wheels come off of many a
business that started away at a great
pace; but never came to its journey's
end, at least not to the end folk started
with in their mind."
"And pray what were your wheels?"
The Commercial was going to say
" Old Chap;;" but there was a certain
seriousness, and I might almost say
severity, in the wheelwright's face,
which prevented his being honoured
with that familiar title.
" I'll tell you what they were, young
man," said Zachary Turner, very seriously and very decidedly. " Patience
was, and patience is, one of my wheels
-a wheel it takes a long time to make,
but when 'tis made, 'tis a good one;
'twill travel far and travel long; 'twill
carry heavy weights, and do good honest
work. The business that runs on
patience, as one of its wheels, is one
in which a man does not make too
much haste to get rich; and so does

not wear himself out, or resort to cutting down his neighbours to almost
nothing. Patience makes a man give
good honest work; for he is ready to
give good time to it; none of your
scamping work for me, either in not
waiting for my timber to be seasoned,
or in working it up in a hurry when it
is ready. That's one good wheel.
"And satisfaction with what is
moderate, that's another. So as I get
a fair profit on my work, I'm content.
Folk know this-they know I won't
cheat them. As many come to me and
give me work without my giving them
a price at all, as come with making a
bargain. And so I have as much as.
I can do, and a great deal more.
Sometimes I'm almost inclined to say
to the work, 'I wish you wouldn't
come, at any rate for the next six
months,' and I call my business going
on wheels in this respect.
" And diligence - that's another
wheel. I've kept the road with that
wheel for many a year. I don't idle
to-day and try to do two days' work
to-morrow; though it isn't every man
who idles a day who does that. When
I get* up in the morning I know I
have my day's work to do. I know
there are folk depending upon me to
have it done. Every hour has its own
work; and 'tis no business of other
hours to do it, if it be left undone; and
that wheel I've run with great success.
"Then there's precision-precision,
young man-exactness in what I say

GOING ON WHEELS.

and what I do," and here the wheelwright looked very hard at the young
Commercial. "I'm precise in my
promises of when I'll send work home;
and when I've made the promise; I'm
precise in keeping it. I'm precise in
not saying too much. Now, for instance, I wouldn't talk about the
Queen's coach, or the Lord Mayor's
either, when I know nothing about
them. I keep to what I understand.
I like men to be sure of my words;
and to that end, I'm first sure of them
myself. ' If Zachary Turner says it,
that's enough,'-that's what I like
people to say; and that's been a good
wheel in business, at least to me.
"Then there's such a thing as
frugality-an old-fashioned thing, and
one that may go wrong no doubt; but
one, which, if it's used as it ought to
be, will be a good business-wheel. I
see people living up to all thdy have;
and some I see living beyond it, getting
into other people's debt, and so ruining
themselves, and often those who trust
them too. It used not to be so in old
days; but it is so now; and is becoming more and more so every year. I
don't mean that a man should stint
himself of such things as are needful
for him to have. I would not make a
miver of him, if I could; but a man
cannot get on without capital; and
where is a working-man to get capital,
unless it be from saving. The Bank
never came to nme and said, ' Mr.
Turner, would you like alittle money?'

No! Zachary Turner made his owni
money-he obliged himself. When:
Zachary Turner wanted money, 'twas
to Zachary Turner he went for it, and
'twas Zachary Turner gave it to him;
aye, and 'twas to Zachary Turner he
returned it again like an honest man,
with interest.
No wonder that
businesses won't go on wheels,
smoothly and quickly--but drag
heavily, like a log of wood being
hauled along the road, bumping, and
thumping, and sticking, and stopping
-when men are living from hand to
mouth in them; when the money that
ought to go into them has gone here,
there, and everywhere, except where
it ought to have gone. This man
can't afford to buy seasoned wood ; and
that man can't afford to pay his workmen while he's carrying out his contract; and another has to pay for the
accommodation of waiting-forty per
cent. perhaps," said the wheclwright,
with a wink. "And so they can
never get on; and the business, after
sticking here and there, at last sticks
altogether, and can be got on no more.
Now look about you, young man; and
if you could do it, you might look half
round the county at the wheels here
and there and everywhere. Hundreds
of them are mine; and every man who
has one will tell you with satisfaction,
' That's one of Turner's wheels' (even
without the patent box you lknow)
And what did I begin with?' Why,
with a single wheel of a garden barrow

GOING ON WHEELS.

that wanted patching. But I made
such a wheel of it that I next got
Farmer Gee's wagon, then his gig,
then the Squire's carriage; and I kept
saving and saving something out of
a1l my work, and my business ran on
wheels, until it has run to where it is
now.
f And one thing more, my friend;
and it is a wheel of wheels; and let
me recommend it to you, who have
much more of life, I suppose, before
you, than I have-' Do to others as
you would be done by.' My business
has rui well on that wheel; indeed, I
might aay, that has been as good as a
whole set of wheels to me; aye, as
good as if everyone of them had your
patent box, and, perhaps, a great deal
better.
"I
pow," continued the wheelwright, "that there are many makebelieve of wheels ; dishonesties of one
kind and another, sharp practices,
over-Qredits, and such like. But I
don't hold with them. I never did;
and I never mean to, either. Good
morning." And the Commercial had
to take his departure, patent box and
all; if not much richer, let us hope a
little wiser than when he came in.
It was fortunate for the wheelwright, and, perhaps, for those who
came to him that afternoon, that it
was Saturday, when in the usual
course of things the shop would have
been shut up somewhat earlier than
usual. The wheelwright was a busy

man, and might not otherwise have
been able to spare the time for these
conversations with his visitors, which
it is hoped will benefit others as well
as them.
And now he would have shut up
shop, had not the Minister come in,
just to order a new wheel for his
garden barrow. He found the wheelwright a little warm from the
vehemence of his conversation with
the Commercial, and asked him
whether anything had been vexing
him.
"Oh, dear no," said the wheelwright. "I'm only a bit warm like,
from trying to do a young chap good.
He has been here with some of his
pranks in trade, and I've been showing him they won't run; that if a
man wants his business to really run
right and keep the road, he must put it
upon wheels, proper wheels;" and
then the wheelwright told the Minister
what he had put forth, as, in his
opinion, the proper wheels on which
to run. "And you'll forgive me, sir,
if I make so bold as to say 'tis the
same in religion. Wheels are needed
there as well as everywhere else.
Now, do you believe in wheels in religion ?"
The wheelwright, if we could have
really read his mind, did not think
that the Minister would know what
he meant; or, perhaps, fall in with
his notion of things, if he did. He
was, consequently, somewhat surprised

GOING ON WHEELS.

when the Minister said: " Of course I
do. I believe in God-made wheels."
"And what may they be ?" asked
the wheelwright; who, to do him
justice, was quite as willing to take in
new ideas about wheels from other
people, as to give his own.
"
Well, I don't believe in manmade wheels in religion.
I know
they exist, for I see them everywhere;
and I have seen them break down in
all directions. The road to the better
world is strewn with breakdowns of
this kind. One man will run to
heaven on wheels of ' his own good
works;' one, on 'never having done
any one any harm;' another, on
'having intended to do good,' although
he never really did it.
"And, as to being happy, I've seen
false jollity determining not to think
of any of these matters, but to forget
them all; and a host of things of this
kind, all tried, but they break down
at the last. There's a deal of rough
travelling, Mr. Turner, on the way
to heaven; and 'tis only what's the
genuine thing that will stand it out to
the end."
"But you believe in folk being
happy, don't you ? " asked the wheelwright. "You don't think a man's
to travel to heaven with a gloomy
heart, and a gloomy face to match."
"No one ever heard me preach that
doctrine," said the Minister.
"A
merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance" (Prov. xv. 13), says the

Scripture; and I believe in both the
one and the other. "I will run in
the way of Thy commandments, when
Thou shalt enlarge my heart" (Psa.
cxix. 32). That religion may be said
to run on wheels, which doesn't drag
wearily along, because a man knows
that his sin is forgiven, because he
can trust his Saviour, because he is
sure that all things shall work
together for his good, because God is
his Friend, and will continue so in
life and death.
"It is the Spirit of God that can
give a man's spirit 'joy and peace in
believing' (Rom. xv. 13). It is He
that can fill us with all joy. A
dragging religion is not the religion
that God intended us to have. As
long as we keep looking only at our
own poor selves, and our own sins, no
wonder if we drag. The most that
we can ever say is: ' O wretched man
that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ?' But if we
look away from self unto the One
Who stands in our stead before God,
then we may get rid of self and its
miseries, and rejoice in the Lord.
'Rejoice in the Lord alway, and
again I say rejoice,' was what the
Apostle said ; and when a man is able
to rejoice like that, then his religion is
going on wheels; then he gets on;
then the road's pleasant; then religion
is doing for the man what God intended it to do.
For who'd care
for a religion that only made him

GOING ON WHEELS.

melancholy ?
God couldn't expect
people to care for it; and God doesn't.
He says it is not His religion. It is
to take sadness away, and not to give
it, that He sent Christ, and offers us
the gift of His Holy, Spirit."
"Why, you're waxing almost as
hot as I was when you came in," said
the wheelwright.
" And isn't it something to be hot
about in a good way?" answered the
Minister.
" You're right," said Zachary
Turner. "I wish we were all hotter
on it than we are; we'd run a deal
easier and smoother than we do to
heaven; and I'll think over these
wheels a bit more than I have done.
Excuse me one moment, sir."
"Here I am, Doctor," said the
wheelwright, in answer to a loud
cheery call for Mr. Zachary Turner.
" Good luck to have caught you in
the shop at this hour on a Saturday,"
said the Doctor. "I'm just going to
Squire Peach's and I want you to
look for a moment to that spoke which
has shaken loose. Just patch it for
to-day, and you shall have the trap on
Monday. Hallo! " said the Doctor,
spying the Minister, "vou have a
visitor I see."
"Aye," said the wheelwright. " He
and I have been talking about wheels,
about religion going on wheels. Indeed, I've been a preacher myself all
the morning; but, as 'tis Saturday,
and not Sunday, the Minister won't

mind. It won't be interfering with
him. We've been talking about religion going on wheels: about its
being pleasant, and not a drag and
weary work." And the wheelwright
in a few words put the Doctor in
possession of his morning's ideas and
talks too.
"Now then," said Doctor Williams,
as he drove along to Squire Peach's,
"that's not a bad notion of Zachary
Turner's.
If I had time I should
have liked to talk it out with him.
Wheels! Wheels! Why, men's bodies
should, so to speak, go on wheels, as
well as their religion, and everything
else."
This idea the Doctor kept turning
in his mind all the way to the Squire's;
no wonder, therefore, it was running
inhis head, and almost. on the tip of
his tongue, while he paid him his
visit.
" Well, Doctor," said Squire Peach,
"getting on a bit; but 'tis slow work ;
can scarcely crawl even with the help
of the crutches."
"And whose fault is that?" said
the Doctor.
" Well, if I'm to believe you, Doctor,
'tis my own."
"And you may believe me, Squire.
Every drop of that port wine you take,
is so much acid poison to your blood.
All those good things you eat, or at
least what you call 'good,' though in
truth they are awfully bad, are so much
poison too, You might have some

GOING ON WHEELS.

2z

chance with them, if you had plenty
of wholesome exercise to work them
off; but idleness is the curse of every
man who is idle, be it in body or in
mind. You thought to get along
through life on what I might call false

Not, perhaps, very much ; still, as
much as could be expected under the
circumstances.
What you've been
doing on port wine, other folk have
been doing on beer, and porter, and
spirits. What does it matter what it

wheels; but they have broken down
under you, and you have broken down
a top of them. No use for you to
think of going ahead, unless indeed
you get a new set of wheels; then
something may be done for you yet.

is done on, when the same bad end
comes round at last? I looked in on
Zachary Turner, the wheelwright, on
my way here, and I found him and
the Parson talking about wheels, and
folk going on wheels, and I've been

GOING ON WHEELS.

thinking of it all the way as I drove
here.
"And now, Squire, you and I
are old friends; and I may speak out
my mind to you; and what I would
say is this: Though you're getting
well on in life, I should like to mount
you on a new set of wheels. And
you may yet do tolerably well. Many
an old body of a coach, when it has
been set upon new wheels, has run
for a long time, and run well.
" Temperance must be one of your
wheels.
The body cannot get on
without it. Temperance in all things:
in what you eat, and what you drinktemperance in your temper; aye,
even when you have a twinge from
the gout. Temperate men run on,
no one knows how long.; while sooner
or later, and oftentimes sooner than
later, the intemperate come to.
smash.
"Honest occupation for the mind
and the body-that's another wheel.
Idle minds are dissatisfied minds:
every trifle vexes them; the worries,
which other folk have no time even
to think of, are always naggling them.
There are no men who spin along
through life with so much happiness
as those who have honest work.
You'd be a happier man, and a
healthier, and more of a man alto.
gether, if you were earning a couple
of shillings a day, and living on it,
than you are now with four thousand
a year, and nothing to do. As soon

as we get you round from this attack,
my advice to you is, try and earn a
day's wages any way you can. And
if you can bring yourself to live on as
much as you earn, so much the better.
"What I mean is, that you should
do, so far as you can, as much work
of some kind or other in a day, as a
working-man would do. You may
make it out in any kind of exercise
you like; but you must observe God's
laws of health, if you would be well.
And that's precisely one of the very
best wheels on which the body can
run. Few people break down who
do that. No doubt, there are many
who have inherited sickly bodies, and
they never can be well; not but that
they might be often much better than
they are, if they, too, would go on
God's wheels, and observe the laws
of health suited to their state. But
most folk with whom I have to do,
and many other doctors too, come to
grief through their own fault; and
often I'm almost tempted to say:
'Serve them right.' And then instead of spinning along through life
like a coach on a good set of wheels,
they drag through .it 'slow coaches'
indeed, with no wheels at all. There's
no end of pulling and pushing, but
very little getting on. And if they
do get on a bit, they're so scraped
themselves, and have so scraped all
around, that one would almost be
tempted to wish they weren't there at
all."

GOING ON WHEELS.

Good reader, I cannot follow out
all that came of these ideas of Mr.
I
Zachary Turner about wheels.
hope the man who dragged along in
his family went home and brisked
up a bit, and made matters a little
more pleasant.
It is believed that
Mr. Dumpers did, inasmuch as, to the
amazement of the whole village, he
was seen a week after this leading a
small Dumper by the hand, and
taking great pains in refixing a wheel
which had come off a twopenny
coach, which the latter was pulling
by a string, and which had unfortunately upset.
The Commercial was quite lost
sight of; but it is hoped that he
learned some good principles, which
would be helpful to him in after
life.
Our good friend the Minister took
to being more glad in spirit than ever
he had been. The village folk used
to say that he seemed to be running
like to heaven; and the fear of more
than one of the old folk in the workhouse was that, he would get to
heaven before them; and there would
then be no one to help them on their
way.
The Doctor was so impressed with
this wheel-idea, that he took to trying to get people to keep well, rather
than to curing them when they got
ill; and no end of good he did in
this way.
As to the Squire, he took to fell-

23

ing trees, and digging a bit in his
garden, and taking walks about his
grounds, and looking in upon his
labourers, and doing a little good one
way and another in his walks; and
all this proved so beneficial to him,
that, compared with his past way of
getting on, he might really be almost
said to be "going on wheels."
As to the good wheelwright himself, he just kept on the even tenor of
his way; making wheels for other
folk, and keeping on wheels himself.
So he ran along in this world, and so
he ran towards a better one.
And, good reader, may you do the
same. In everything run on wheels;
don't drag along.
Conduct your business, do your
work, on honest and holy principles;
and you will find it will be running,
and not dragging, work.
Try to rejoice in the Lord, Who
has bought you back to Himself with
the precious blood of His dear Son;
who offers you His Spirit to gladden
you, and His heaven to receive you;
and you shall speed, and not drag, on
the way to heaven.
Use your body as the Almighty intended it to be used, and you will be
saved many a weary, dragging hour;
and with a sound mind in a sound
body, you will go cheerily through life.
"Rolling" for me, a thousand times,
any day befre "dragging." There is
nothing like
" GOING ON WHEELS."

A SERIES OF PENNY STORI.ES.
BY

THE

IREv.

AUTIHOR

Demy 8vo.

P. B. POWER, M.A.,

OF "THE

OILED FEATHER.

32 pages, Pictorial Paper Wrapper, id. each.

Born with a Silver Spoon in His
Mouth.
It Only Wants Turning Round.
The Choir Boy of Harlestone
Minster.
"He's Gone Yonder."
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MR.

CLIPSTICK'S

PART I.

CLOCK.

with much ado, she also made him
know hers, and so the matter was
Shews how Mr. Clipstick wound up his clock
on the last night of the year, three years ago.
settled; and in due time they were
CLIPSTICK was an artizan of found one sun-shining morning at the
excellent character, and well-to- church together, and were married.
do in the world; he was none of your Mary Gray came to a comfortable
shuffling drunken fellows, who are home; her husband had furnished it
almost a disgrace to any trade; but neatly, he had as much as fifty pounds
a brawny-armed, honest-faced man, in the savings bank; and as far as
who could work for what he ate, and earthly things go, they had every procat what he worked for. Let me tell spect of happiness.
You perceive, kind reader, a little
you that, Mr. Clipstick was a downright honest respectable fellow, " a true boy in the picture on the cover; well !
chip of the old block," for his father that is young Master Clipstick, Mr.
before him had, been honest and re- Clipstick's only son and heir (to all
that can be got for him); and you see
spectable too.
Well! Mr. Clipstick, after he had also a clock; well ! it is about that
served his apprenticeship, worked hard clock we have principally to write.
The way Mr. C. came by the clock
at his trade, and in course of time
saved a very comfortable little sum, was this :-about a year before, he
began to think of getting a wife. As bought it at a sale; he had it a dead
our friend had not spent his money in bargain, but like most bargains it did
the public-house, or in dressing above not turn out good for much; for with
his station, or keeping company with all Mr. C.'s windings and settings, it
spendthrifts, he could honourably ask never would keep time. It would
a respectable girl to come and share either go too fast, or too slow; but
his home; and when with much ado alas! never, never right. At last little
(for Clipstick with all his pretensions, C., who was always saying strange
was a very modest man), he contrived things, suggested that it should get a
to make Mary Gray know his mind; dew inside; "that'll do it, father,"

MR.

MR. CLIPSTICK'S CLOCK.

26

said the boy; and on due reflection,
the case, being a valuable one, was
kept, and a new set of works actually
bought; and on the old year's last night
the clock was wound and set, little
Clipstick having been allowed to stay
up to witness the operation. It was
astonishing what a comfort the clock
now became; it kept true time; it
kept the tradesman right in all his

minutes before twelve on the above
named night; "you'll go all right for
another year," and then he and Sammy
his son, this great operation being over,
prepared to go to bed. But as we
have said, Sammy was always saying
strange things; so when his father
said, " good-night," he asked him,
"Father, do you think you'll go all
right for another year ?" "Aye,

aye, Sammy," was the reply, and so
Mr. C. went to bed. Whether it was
the ringing of the village bells which
kept him awake, we cannot tell: but
the workman lay listening for a long
time to the peals from the old parish
church, the sound of which the keen
PART IT.
north wind blew down to the house in
Skews how Mr. Clipsticl wound up his clock
on the last night of the year, two years ago.
which he lived. We often fancy that
" THERE, that'll do," said Mr. C., as the train rolls on to the sound of certain
he finished winding his clock a few words, and that the bells jingle some

appointments; in a word, it went right ;
and by the unanimous consent of the
household, the clock was on the last
night of the following year, voted well
worthy of the money and trouble
which had been spent upon it.

MR. CLIPSTICK'S CLOCK.

familiar voice in our ears; and now
the old village bells seemed to repeat
over and over again, "Will you go
right fo-or this year ? " They rang all
sorts of changes, but always repeating
the same words over and over again.
At last the sound seemed so entirely
like a human voice, that the tradesman got up, and went over to his son's
little bed to see if he were repeating
his last question, but little Sammy was
fast asleep. Oh well, it was only
fancy, so he went to bed again, but
though the bells had now stopped, the
voice still kept on, "Will you go
right fo-or this year ?"
" There
must be something in this," said
John Clipstick; and so he lay awake
thinking.
And as John Clipstick thought,
some matters came into his mind, of
which he had not taken much account
before-" go right!" what could be
the meaning of that-hadn't he gone
right last year, and why shouldn't he
this; he had paid his way, and that
was more than some of his grander
neighbours could say; he had been
punctual in his engagements, kind to
his wife and child; he had worked
hard, and indulged himself but little
-was not that going right ? There
was no denying that all these things
are very good in themselves, still they
were unable to quiet the troublesome
sounds which still jingled these questions in his ears; and at length the
tradesman began to think about the

matter seriously, and as he now fairly
gave his mind to the subject, a new
light began to break in upon him.
J. C. began to think, "Life is a journey, man is going somewhere, and
where have I been going during the
past year ? "-aye, thought John, that
is a stiff question, but it must be
answered nevertheless. "If I were
now suddenly pulled up, and told,
'TO-NIGHT,

JOHN

JOURNEY

THIS WORLD ENDS-YOU

IN

CLIPSTICK,

YOUR

should I be
found to have gone right?" then
John's heart smote him; and when
he came to look at the matter in this
light, he did nat feel he could lay his
hand upon that heart and say, "I am
ready to go-I have gone right-I
am on the right road-death will be
only one step farther, and then I shall
be in the land of life for ever." John
Clipstick was perfectly correct in supposing that he had not gone right;
he had cared little for true religion,
although he had been decent and
moral; his place in God's house
had often been empty, his Bible
many a day had not been read,
and worse than all, he felt he had
no real desire for heaven, no true
earnest love to God; and, forasmuch as God had made man to love
and serve Him, John felt he had
been going wrong-and if I go on
DIE

BEFORE

thus -aye,

MORNING,'

if I

do, WHAT THEN?

and at last he fell into a troubled
sleep.

MR. CLIPSTICK'S CLOCK

again at the end of the year, or for
Sammy; or for the Broadstorie bells,
no matter what they choose to chime.
WHEN John Clipstick got up next Thus things went on until near midmorning, he looked very hard at summer, when John Clipstick heard
Sammy; and when he came home to something which changed his mind
breakfast he looked hard again, as again. He had observed that, with all
though he would look right through his reading and attendance at church,'
him; and then lie looked hard at the he did not really feel any better than
clock, as though he would make sure he had done before; on the other hand,
that they had not been in collusion, he began to feel himself worse; and
playing into each other's hands, and the right way seemed harder to walk
both together playing him some trick. in than it used to do. How was this?
It is a great thing to look honest in This appeared poor encouragement to
the face, and as Sammy's face and keep on in his present path; he was
the clock's both looked honest, the finding out more and more how wicked:
tradesman held his peace. But he he was, he was discovering how "strait
thought all the more; and soon his was the gate and narrow was the way
wife began to see a great change in. which leads to life, and how few there
him; his place in church was never be which find it;" and there were times
empty, morning or evening; the dust when the tradesman began to wish'
had no longer any chance of gather- he had never known anything of this
ing thick upon his Bible; the poor new way.
Thus matters went on for some
spider which had lurked behind that
Bible for many a day, and even time; and day after day John Clipspun its web from a corner of stick seemed to get deeper and deeper
it, and murdered many a hapless into the mire; and at length he deterfly in its immediate. vicinity,; now mined on asking advice from the
found the neighbourhood so unsettled Minister, who he knew was always
that it decamped, bag and baggage, ready to see and converse with every
one fine morning, and was heard of no poor person. This determination was
more; and although some took the strengthened by a sermon preached
liberty of.twitting John on his new one Sunday morning, at which John
ways, and were impertinent enough Clipstick had been an attentive hearer.
to interfere with him, as if his doings The text was Proverbs xiv. 12: "There
were any affair of theirs, he held on, is a way which seemeth right unto a
determining to have an answer ready man, but the end thereof are the
for the clock, ifit should question hi m ways of death." At the sound of the
PART -III.

Slkews how Mr. John Clipstick's clock made
him think, and what it made him do last
year.

MR. CLIPSTICK'S CLOCK.

word "way" and "right," John Clipstick pricked up his ears; here was
the very subject about which he was
so anxious; and although he was not
silly enough to suppose the Minister
was going to preach at him, still he
felt pretty sure he was going to preach
The sermon was a very
to him.
homely, plain-spoken one; any labouring man could understand it, and it
showed how what man often thought
to be the right way, proved in the long
run to be the wrong one, ending, as the
text said, in death. "There is the
way of pleasure," said the Minister,
"the young man thinks it all right to
enijoy himself while he can, and so he
lives on careless of his soul; no one
can persuade him he is doing any
harm, until death draws near his body,
then he sees that the end of his past
Then
way is death to the soul."
" Ah,"
comes the way of idleness.
said the Minister, " some people think
it no harm to saunter through life;
their way is an easy one, and they
think it all right, because they don't
hurt anyone, but they must give an
account of the good which they have
left undone, and which they had plenty
of time to do, and so the end thereof
are the ways of death." Then came
the man who hoped to be saved by his
morality; and when the Minister spoke
of him, John Clipstick looked very
hard at him, and thought (but may be
it was only his fancy) that the Minister
did the same to him. "The way of

morality, it is an excellent way," said
the Minister-" and I hope to show
it may be so. No man can reach
heaven who does not walk in it;
(' Good,' said John to himself) without morality a man cannot be holy,
and 'without holiness no man shall
see the Lord.' But," said the preacher,
"the way of morality may be only
the way of death." Had a bombshell, fresh from Sebastopol, fallen into
John Clipstick's lap, he
not have
been more astonished than he was at
this strange doctrine. He opened his
eyes as wide as he could, so as to
make sure that the Minister looked
quite right in his mind, and then he
began to think he must be a wicked
man to preach such strange things.
" What ?" thought he, "a man not
be saved because he is moral? If
men can't be saved for their morality,
I should like to know what will become of most folks; where's the good
of being what one ought to be, if this
is all the thanks one gets for it?" As
John Clipstick sat in a free seat
very near the door, he might easily
have shown his displeasure by walking
out, but like a sensible man, he determined to hear the Minister to the end,
although his feeling was: " Well !
what shall we have next ? ' " Now,"
said the Minister, "I'll prove what I
said (' Wish you may,' muttered John,
'you'll be sharper than I take you to
be f you do.')-I said the way df
morality might be the way of death

-could

MR. CLIPS TICK'S CLOCK.

('So you did,' muttered Clipstick) throw ourselves upon the mercy of
What says the Word of God? 'The God,'--but tell me, my friends, what
soul that sinneth it shall surely die.' is to become of His justice ? His
Well! is not one bad thought a sin? justice is quite as dear to Him as His
is not the omission of one duty a sin ? mercy; and a man deceives himself if
the most moral man has had a bad he thinks he is in the right way, when
thought, and has omitted something he just calls out, 'Lord have mercy 1
which he ought to have done, as well Lord have mercy !'"
as done something which he ought not
Had it been the custom for the
to have done; therefore, even if he be congregation to speak during the serthe most moral of men, he is, and mon, our friend John would now
must be, condemned by that text."
assuredly have cried out, " Come, tell
John thought that this was rather us what is the right way, you Ihave
hard measure, still he felt there was been telling us a lot of ways which
no denying that it was true; but he are not right, now let us have the
had a loophole ready for escape-if a right one ;" for John was convinced
man repent, surely that will save him. by what he heard, and he was deterIt seemed as though the Minister was mined, as he had heard so much
listening to his hearer's thoughts, for about the wrong, to. hear about the
he proceeded-" But some people think right. There was no necessity, howthat if they repent, that will be ever, for any uneasiness ; the Minister
enough; and if they show they was coming to that point: "Now,
are in earnest by determining not to do my friends, seeing that God's justice
the like again, then they are safe. Now, must be satisfid, mercy cannot save
my friends, if a man fall downstairs man; the pri9oner is not acquitted
while he is drunk, and break his leg; because he cries out mercy! mercy !
and then, while he is confined to his when he is ing the dock. There rebed, feels deeply sorry that he was mains but one way by which we can
such a fool as to get drunk, and deter- be saved; that is God's own way,
mines on never drinking another drop, and therefore it is the right way-it
will that cure his leg? (' Not a bit of is the way of faith. The way of
it,' thought John.) No more will a faith is this : When a man finds that
man's being sorry for a fault, and his he cannot be saved by keeping God's
determining not to commit it again, law, and that' God's justice must be
blot it out of the judgment book satisfied in some way, and that he
of God. Now, with regard to the has nothing of his own wherewith to
mercy of God," continued the preacler, satisfy it, then when he says, ' 0
"many people are saying, 'Oh ! we my God, take Jesus INSTEAD of me !

MR. CLIPSTICK'S CLOCK.

mercy has provided Jesus as a substitute for me, if. I cast all upon
Him-Justice is contented to take
the blood of Jesus instead of man's if
I offer it; I now put forward Jesus
in my place'-then God's justice receiving the blood of Christ is satisfied,
and mercy, which provided Christ,
rejoices, and the sinner is savedin God's own way. All else follows
upon this. The Spirit of God makes
the man moral, and given to good
works; and he delights to work for
and to please that Saviour who has
saved him; and he feels he can never
There is
do too much for Him.
nothing which will make a man so
moral, and given to good works, as
love to that Saviour who has done
all for him-and none more deeply
repent than those who feel that their
sin was such as to need no less than
that blood to have blotted it out.
This is the way, my friends, God's
own way; walk ye in it, and it will
bring you to heaven at the last."
John Clipstick thought very much
over this sermon; he had been very
angry with the Minister at first, and
he would have liked to have told him
a bit of his mind; but he felt the
preacher had been all the while
knocking the nail on the head; and
this last part of the sermon had

clenched it on the other side. Our
friend John was not one of those
sulky men who won't think over a
thing because they don't like it--far
from it; he determined togo and ask the
Minister more about the matter; and
a comfortable, friendly talk they had
upon the subject; and the Minister
came to see John in turn, and when
he told him the story of the clock,
and how ever since he had acted on
what he had heard in the sermon, he
.had become a different man, the same
outside but quite different within.
"Aye, aye," said his visitor, "it is
with you, John, just as it was with
the clock; you were always trying
to get right and keep right, until you
had a new heart: whichever way you
turned before, you went wrong, but
now you'll go right, and men will
see that you do so; and when time
shall be no more, the right way will
have led you to a happy eternitykeep straight on, and you'll go right."
And so, when John Clipstick wound
up his clock on the last night of the
old year, to start it for the present
one, he was not afraid of Sammy's
questions, or the Broadstone chimes;
he had an answer ready, if they
chose to put the old question to him
and he passed from the old year to
the new one a happy man !

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