The History of Gutta-Percha Willie | Page 8

lock. I'm sure I shall be able to set it right."
"Not with that great big hammer, then," said Willie.
"No; I have smaller hammers than that. When do you want it, sir?"
"Could you manage to do it at once, and let me take it home, for there's a little baby there, just arrived?"
"You don't mean it!" said the smith, looking surprised. "I wish you joy, sir."
"And this is the lock of the room she's in," continued the doctor.
"And you're afraid of her getting out and flying off again!" said the smith. "I will do it at once. There isn't much wrong with it, I daresay. I hope Mrs Macmichael is doing well, sir."
He took the lock, drew several screws from it, and then forced it open.
"It's nothing but the spring gone," he said, as he took out something and threw it away.
Then he took out several more pieces, and cleaned them all. Then he searched in a box till he found another spring, which he put in instead of the broken one, after snipping off a little bit with a pair of pincers. Then he put all the pieces in, put on the cover of it, gave something a few taps with a tiny hammer, replaced the screws, and said-
"Shall I come and put it on for you, sir?"
"No, no; I am up to that much," said Mr Macmichael. "I can easily manage that. Come, Willie. I'm much obliged to you for doing it at once. Good-night."
Then out they went into the snowstorm again, Willie holding fast by his father's hand.
"This is good," said his father. "Your mother will have a better day all to-morrow, and perhaps a longer sleep tonight for it. You see how easy it is to be both useful and kind sometimes. The smith did more for your mother in those few minutes than ten doctors could have done. Think of his great black fingers making a little more sleep and rest and warmth for her-and all in those few minutes!"
"Suppose he couldn't have done it," said Willie. "Do you think the watchmaker could?"
"That I can't tell, but I don't think it likely. We should most probably have had to get a new one."
"Suppose you couldn't get a new one?"
"Then we should have had to set our wits to work, and contrive some other way of fastening the door, so that mamma shouldn't take cold by its being open, nor yet be disturbed by the noise of it."
"It would be so nice to be able to do everything!" said Willie.
"So it would; but nobody can; and it's just as well, for then we should not need so much help from each other, and would be too independent."
"Then shouldn't a body try to do as many things as he can?"
"Yes, for there's no fear of ever being able to do without other people, and you would be so often able to help them. Both the smith and the watch maker could mend a lock, but neither of them could do without the other for all that."
When Willie went to bed, he lay awake a long time, thinking how, if the lock could not have been mended, and there had been no other to be had, he could have contrived to keep the door shut properly. In the morning, however, he told his father that he had not thought of any way that would do, for though he could contrive to shut and open the door well enough, he could not think how a person outside might be able to do it; and he thought the best way, if such a difficulty should occur, would be to take the lock off his door, and put it on mamma's till a better one could be got. Of this suggestion his father, much to Willie's satisfaction, entirely approved.
CHAPTER IV.
HE SERVES AN APPRENTICESHIP.
WILLIE'S mother grew better, and Willie's sister grew bigger; and the strange nurse went away, and Willie and his mother and Tibby, with a little occasional assistance from the doctor, managed the baby amongst them. Considering that she had been yet only a short time at school, she behaved wonderfully well. She never cried except she was in some trouble, and even then you could seldom have seen a tear on her face. She did all that was required of her, grew longer and broader and heavier, and was very fond of a lighted candle. The only fault she had was that she wouldn't give Willie quite so many smiles as he wanted. As to the view she took of affairs, she seemed for a long time to be on the whole very well satisfied with life and its gifts. But when at last its troubles began to overtake her, she did not approve of them at all. The first