If you sit still till I have
finished this clock, I will show you a treasure I found yesterday."
"Can you mend everything?" asked Roy, curiously; "I never knew you
understood about clocks."
"I've learned to mend most things," was the answer; "it isn't given to
every one to make, and I'm one of the menders in the world not the
makers. There's one thing I can't mend--and that is broken hearts."
There was silence: Roy broke it at last by saying with knitted brow,
"I'd rather be a maker than a mender, but lots of people aren't either."
"Quite right," nodded the old man; "most folk are breakers."
"I wish I was as clever as you," said Dudley; "you mend umbrellas, and
kettles, and plates, and windows, and gates, and all sorts. How did you
learn?"
"Well, I ain't ashamed of owning that my father was just a travelling
tinker, and when I was a little fellow I used to go round with him and
see him do most things. It was from travelling through the country I
learned to love it so. And my father, he was a thoughtful man, and when
I used to ask where the tin came from, and where the iron and where the
lead, he took to learning of it up so that he could answer me; and then
I came to find that most of our comforts come from underground, and so I
fell to digging.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36