THE BEWITCHED CLOCK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 135, 8 September 1870, Page 7

THE BEWITCHED CLOCK.

About half-past cloven oYlock one Sunday night, a human leg, enveloped in blue broadcloth, mi^ht have been seen entering Deacon Barber's kitcheu window, in the village of Appleton, in the State of Maine. The leg was followed by an entire body of a live Yankee, attired in his Sunday go-to-meeting clothes. It was, in short, Joe Mayweed, who had thus burglariously won his way into the Deacon's kitchen. " Wonder how much the old Deacon made by orderin' me not to darken his door again?" soliloquised the young gentleman. "Promised him I wouldn't, but didn't say nothing about winders. Winders is just as good as doors, ef there ain't no nails to tear your trousers onto. Wonder ef Sally will come down? — the critter pi'omiaed me. It's cold enough to freeze a Polish bear, Oh, here comes Sally !"

The beauteous maiden then descended with a pleasant smile, a tallow candle, and a box of lucifer matches. After receiving a rapturous greeting, she made a rousing fire in the cooking stove ; and the happy couple sat down to enjoy the sweet interchanges of hopes and vows, when they were startled by the old Deacon, Sally's father, shouting from his chamber door, " Sally ! what are you getting up in tbe middle of the night for?"

"Tell him it is almost morning," whispered Joe.

" I cannot tell a fib," replied Sally,

" I'll make it the truth then," said Joe ; and running to the large old fashioned clock, he set it at five.

" Tell me what time it is," cried the old gentleman.

" It's five by the clock," replied Sally ; and immediately corroborating her words, the clock struck five.

The lovers sat down again and resumed their conversation. Suddenly the staircase began to creak.

" Grood gracious ! father's coming down," said Sully.

" The Deacon !" cried Joe. " Hide me, Sally."

" Where can I hide you ?" cried the distracted girl.

" Oh, I know," said he ; " I'll squeeze into the old clock case." And without another word he concealed himself in the case, and then closed the door.

The Deacon was dressed ; and seating himself, he pulled out his pipe, lighted it, and began to smoke.

" Five o'clock, eh ?" saidhe. " Well, I shall have time to smoke a few pipes, and then I'll feed the critters."

" Hadn't you better feed the critters fust?" suggested the doubtful Sally.

" No ; smokin' clears my head and wakes me up," replied the Deacon, not a whit disposed to hurry. Bur-r-r, whiz, ding ! ding ! ding ! went the old clock.

" Well !" exclaimed the Deacon, starting up and lay ing the pipe on the stove ; " what on'arth is that ?"

" It's only the clock striking five," replied Sally, tremulously. Whiz, ding ! ding ! went the old clock, furiously.

" Powers of creation !" cried the Deacon ; " strikin' five eh ? • It has struck over a hundred already!"

Deacon Barber !" cried the Deacon's better half, who had hastily robed herself, and now came plunging down the staircase in the wildest state of alarm, " what in the universe is the matter with that clock ?"

•' Groodness only knows," replied the old man. " It's been a hundred years in the family, and never acted so before."

Whiz ! ding ! ding ! whiz ! went the old clock again,

" It'll burst itself!" cried the Deacon, who retained a leaven of good old New England superstition in his nature. " And now," said he, after a pause, advancing towards the clock, " I'll see what is goina: on in it."

"0, don't !" cried the daughter, seizing one of his coat tails, while his wife clung to the other. "Don't!" chorousod both the women.

" Let go my raiment," shouted the deacon, "I ain't afeerd of the powers of darkness."

But the women wouldn't let go ; so the deacon slipped out of his coat ; aud while from the sudden cessation of resistance she fell heavily on the floor, he pitched forward and grabbled the knob of the door. But no human power could open it, for Joe was holding it from the inside with a deathgrip.

The old deacon began to be dreadfully frightened. He gave one more tug, when an unearthly yell, as of a fiend in distress, burst from the inside, then clock-case pitched headforemost at the Deacon, fell headlong on the floor, smashed its face, and wrecked its fair proportions. The current of air extinguished the candle — the Deacon, the old lady, and Sally fled upstairs — and Joe Mayweed extricated himself from tbe clock, and effected his escape by the way he entered. The next day all Appleton was alive with the story that Deacon Barber's clock had been bewitched: and although many believed his version yet some, especially Joe Mayweed, affected to discredit the whole affair, and hinted that the Deacon had been trying the experiment of tasting an early dram, and that the vagaries of the clock only existed in his imagination.

However, the interdict being taken off, Joe was allowed to resume his courting, and won the assent of the old people to his union with Sally, by repairing the old clock till it went as well as ever it did.