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But if Enoch was content to follow the beaten ways of life, there was one window through which he looked into the upper heaven of all: thereby he saw what it is to create. He was a born mechanician. A revolving wheel would set him to dreaming, and still him to that lethargy of mind which is an involuntary sharing in the things that are. He could lose himself in the life of rhythmic motion; and when he discovered rusted springs, or cogs unprepared to fulfill their purpose, he fell upon them with the ardor of a worshiper, and tried to set them right. Amelia thought he should have invented something, and he confessed that he had invented many things, but somehow failed in getting them on the market. That process he mentioned with the indifference of a man to whom a practical outcome is vague, and who finds in the ideal a bright reality. Even Amelia could see that to be a maker was his joy; to reap rewards of making was another and a lower task.

One cold day in the early spring, he went “up garret” to hunt out an old saddle, gathering mildew there, and came upon a greater treasure, a disabled clock. He stepped heavily down, bearing it aloft in both hands.

“See here, ‘Melia,” asked he, “why don’t this go?”

Amelia was scouring tins on the kitchen table. There was a teasing wind outside, with a flurry of snow, and she had acknowledged that the irritating weather made her as nervous as a witch. So she had taken to a job to quiet herself.

“That clock?” she replied. “That was gran’ther Eli’s. It give up strikin’, an’ then the hands stuck, an’ I lost all patience with it. So I bought this nickel one, an’ carted t’other off into the attic. ‘T ain’t worth fixin’.”

“Worth it!” repeated Enoch. “Well, I guess I’ll give it a chance.”

He drew a chair to the stove, and there hesitated. “Say, ‘Melia,” said he, “should you jest as soon I’d bring in that old shoemaker’s bench out o’ the shed? It’s low, an’ I could reach my tools off’n the floor.”

Amelia lacked the discipline of contact with her kind, but she was nevertheless smooth as silk in her new wifehood.

“Law, yes, bring it along,” said she. “It’s a good day to clutter up. The’ won’t be nobody in.”

So, while Enoch laid apart the clock with a delicacy of touch known only to square, mechanical fingers, and Rosie played with the button-box on the floor, assorting colors and matching white with white, Amelia scoured the tins. Her energy kept pace with the wind; it whirled in gusts and snatches, yet her precision never failed.

“Made up your mind which cow to sell?” she asked, opening a discussion still unsettled, after days of animated talk.

“Ain’t much to choose,” said Enoch. He had frankly set Amelia right on the subject of livestock; and she smilingly acquiesced in his larger knowledge. “Elbridge True’s got a mighty nice Alderney, an’ if he’s goin’ to sell milk another year, he’ll be glad to get two good milkers like these. What he wants is ten quarts apiece, no matter if it’s bluer ‘n a whetstone. I guess I can swap off with him; but I don’t want to run arter him. I put the case last Thursday. Mebbe he’ll drop round.”

“Well,” concluded Amelia, “I guess you’re pretty sure to do what’s right.”

The forenoon galloped fast, and it was half past eleven before she thought of dinner.

“Why,” said she, “ain’t it butcher day? I’ve been lottin’ on a piece o’ liver.”

“Butcher day is Thursday,” said Enoch. “You’ve lost count.”

“My land!” responded Amelia. “Well, I guess we can put up with some fried pork an’ apples.” There came a long, insistent knock at the outer door. “Good heavens! Who’s there! Rosie, you run to the side-light, an’ peek. It can’t be a neighbor. They’d come right in. I hope my soul it ain’t company, a day like this.”