"It was worth getting down to hear so comforting an assurance," said Mary as she ascended again the chair and the volumes. She finished her weekly task, then slowly and cautiously descended, carried the big books back to their places, set the chair in its corner and lighted the gas. She stood for a moment looking up at this clock. The space over the mantel-piece was just the place for it and it was only after it had been firmly anchored to the wall that the thought had arisen, "How can I ever get up there to wind it?" She smiled as she thought of a social gathering a few days before, when a lady had called to her across the room, "Mrs. Blank, tell us that clock story again." And she had answered: "It isn't much of a story, but it serves to show the manner in which we computed the time. One night the doctor woke me up. 'Mary,' he said in a helpless sort of way, 'It struck _seven_--what _time_ is it?' 'Well--let me see,' I said. 'If it struck seven it meant to strike three, for it strikes four ahead of time. And if it meant to strike three it's just a quarter past two, for it's three quarters of an hour too fast.'" Ting-a-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Ting-a-ling-ling-ling. Mary recognized her husband's ring. "Yes, what is it John?" "I'm going out for twenty minutes, watch the 'phone, please." She laughed in answer to this most superfluous request, then sat her down near by. * * * * * "John, Mrs. B. said a pretty good thing last night." "That's good." "I've a notion not to tell you, now that the good thing was about you." "That's better still. But are good things about me so rare that you made a note of it?" "I don't know but what they are," said Mary, reflectively. "There was Mrs. C., you know, who said she didn't see how in the world Doc Blank's wife ever lived with him--he was so mean." "I wonder about that myself, sometimes." "The way I manage it is to assert myself when it becomes necessary--and it does. You're a physician to your patients but to me you're a mere man." "I feel myself shrivelling. But how about Mrs. B.'s compliment?" "I was over at the church where a social program of some sort was being given and 'between acts' everybody was moving about chatting. An elderly woman near me asked, 'Mrs. Blank, do you know who the Hammell's are?' I told her that I did not, and she went on, 'I see by the paper that a member of their family died today, and I thought you, being a doctor's wife, might know something about it.' "Mrs. B. spoke up promptly, 'Why, Mrs. Blank wouldn't know anything about the _dead_ people--her husband gets 'em _well_.'" The doctor laughed, "And she believes it too," he said. "No doubt of it. So a compliment like that offsets one of Mrs. C.'s kind." "O, no. The C.'s have it by a big majority. Don't you know I have the reputation of being the meanest man in the county?" "No, I don't."