speechless;--each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others.

3. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of
the stagnation, when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice, protested
their innocence.

4. But now a faint tick was heard below from the pendulum, who thus
spoke:--"I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage;
and I am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons.
The truth is, that I am tired of ticking."

5. Upon hearing this, the old clock became so enraged, that it was on
the very point of _striking_. "Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial-plate,
holding up its hands.

6. "Very good!" replied the pendulum; "it is vastly easy for you,
Mistress Dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up
above me,--it is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of
laziness! You, who have had nothing to do, all the days of your life,
but to stare people in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all
that goes on in the kitchen!

7. "Think, I beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life in
this dark closet, and to wag backwards and forwards, year after year, as
I do."

8. "As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house, on
purpose for you to look through?"--"For all that," resumed the
pendulum, "it is very dark here; and although there is a window, I dare
not stop, even for an instant, to look out at it.