"Oh, rats! I should have told them they could keep their money--the old grannies!" jeered his listener wrathfully.
"But poor Harrison! What was he doing in the meantime?"
"Growing to be a very old man, alas!" McPhearson answered in a saddened voice. "It was not until 1773 that the last of the £20,000 for which he had so valiantly struggled was given him."
"I'm thankful he got it and hadn't died."
"He died three years later--an old man of eighty-three. Nevertheless he lived long enough to see his dream fulfilled. Sixty years of his life he had devoted to experimenting with and perfecting his chronometer. It was a great service to the world--a deed that influenced not only all subsequent clockmaking but ultimately all marine enterprises. It also, by making navigation easier, saved innumerable lives. Other scientists followed and built on his discoveries until now, thanks to them all, the sea is practically as safe and familiar a spot to dwell upon as is the land. No longer are vessels at a loss to know where they are. With the finely adjusted nautical instruments at their command, scientific books, wireless communication, and the correct time sent out each day by radio they have no excuse for failing to make and maintain accurate observations."
"But poor old Harrison--I cannot help regretting he had to wait so long for his prize money," bewailed Christopher.
"I rather think, laddie, had you asked the inventor of the chronometer which gave him the greater satisfaction--the award the English Government paid him or the joy derived from successfully working out the puzzle it propounded--he would have told you that in his estimation, when weighed the one against the other, the money counted for nothing--nothing!"
HOW RUBIES, SAPPHIRES, AND GARNETS HELPED TO TELL TIME
"Well, Christopher, what do you think of the jewelry business?" his father inquired one day after he had been for several months a regular visitor at the store.
"I like parts of it very much," replied he. "The clocks and watches are all right. There's sense in those. I shouldn't mind a bit becoming a repairer if I could be as good a one as Mr. McPhearson. But the rings, bracelets and all those ruby-emerald-diamond fol-de-rols make me sick."