The Old clock [short story]

Title

Language

English

Year

1941

Subject

Short stories, Philippine (English)

Philippine fiction (English)

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

394 THE YOUNG CITIZEN NOVEMBER, 1941 THE OLD CLOCK ADAPTED BY PANCITA FLORES "I KNOW-I KNOW !" said the old clock. At least that was what Isidro thought it said. It stood very tall and straight in the sala outside Uncle Juan's bedroom door. Isidro had come to 'visit his Uncle Juan and cousins who lived in the great city of Manila. The boy lived in one of the provincial towns some distance from Manila. He could hear the big old clock as he lay trying to go sleep in his room on the other side of the sala. "I know! know-I know!'' it said. "I wonder what the old clock does know?" Isidro said to ,himself. "And I'm lonely when it ticks like that. We've got to get a big clock at home." 'He pulled.the sheet over.his head, and went down to the bo~tom of the b\ d, so he didn't hear Uncle Juan's voice when he came in to say goodnight, at least not unt(l he had called to him three times. "Why, Isidro," he said, When at lasi his flushed face peeped up, "what are you doing?" ''Hiding from the old clock," said Isidro ; and he told Uncle Juan all about it. "W ell, I will go and stop it so you will not hear its ticking if you like," said Uncle Juan. "But my old father loved that old clock, Isidro. It used to stand in the sala of his home when he was little.'1 "Is it as old as that?" asked Isidro. "Yes, it is quite that old. And I remember it myself whe11 I was a little boy," said Uncle Juan. "And I loved it, too." "Then I'll love it as well," said Isidro. "And I don't care if it does say 'I know!' because it must know a lot if it has lived all that time. I suppose it has ticked away for a hundred years, Uncle Juan." "Oh, no if It is not that old," said l,Jncle Juan. "But it's more than fifty years old. Father thought a great deal of this clock." 1 And Uncle Juan gave a sigh. "Wh.y?" said Isidro. He was wondering about that sigh. "I was thinking about the old house that used to be my .home," explaiIJed Uncle Juan, "and where your father lived when he was small. We should all be there living there now in the great mansion-you and I and your father- but for-"and Uncle Juan stopped. "But you wouldn't understand," he said. "I would," said Isidro emphatically. "I .understand a great deal." "It' was an important paper showing father's right to the property that, was lost," said ·uncle Juan. "Your great uncle, Isidro. H e left the great old mansion that we loved to your father and i:ne, you know. But we lost the paper telling about our right .t. o the property. So the house went to other, people, and your father and I were put out." Uncle Juan kissed Isidro good night, and the boy fell asleep to the sound of the old clock's song: "I know- I know!" In the middle of the night Isidro woke. The old c\qck had stopped ticking, and the house sounded quiet and strange without iis song, which the little boy had grown accustomed to hearing. "I'd like to hear it again," said Isidro to himself. "I wouldn't mind the dark then." He crept outside. "I saw Uncle Juan start the p~ndulum yesterday," he ( Please turn to pa9t 4o8.) ·THE YOUNG CITIZEN NOVEMBER, 19.p THE OLD CLOCK DEBUSSY I MOUNTING BUTTERFLIES (Con tinued fr(Jm page 394) (Continued from page 398) (Continued from page 400) thought, as he macje his way plies, goes up and down in board lengthwise, an <l across the wla, "and I can steps of a whole tone, with- fastened in tiny notches at do it." out any of the half-tone in- each end of the board, as Crash! There was a tervals found in the diatonic shown in the lowest P.icture. dreadful noise He had scales. This explains some To keep the body pushed over the tall, old of the p e c u 1 i a r chords straight, pins should be clock in the dark. Uncle which he uses. stuck into the groove of the Juan's door opened quick- He never crowds his mu- board undern~ath the-lower ly, and he came hurrying sic with tone color, but he end of the body to support with a flashlight in his has made music express it. The feelers (antennae) hand. poetic feeling in the most and legs of the butterfly "Why, I'sidro, what's the delicate and unusual fash- should be carefully armatter ?" ion. One simply feels the ranged, and, if necessary, "Oh, U ncle Juan, I just effect of his music as one may be kept in position by meant--" he began. ' "I dbeoae · us t1.5fut1nl laigfthetr,nooorn.a ·calm pins stuck into the board slantingwise and pressing wa2ted it to-.- " " Musicians .ha v,e peen upon the feelers and the If you will help me, keenly interested in D ebus- legs. said Uncle Juan, "perhaps sy's use of the old Greek The specimens should be together we can lift it up." scales and in his orchestral laid aside in a shady, dry There was not much combinations. But to the place, free from dust and damage done. The works listener, the point of inter- secure from the attacks of of the old clock were un- eEt is in the effect of the ants, mice, or cockroaches. hurt, but the back of the music. Small specimens will dry case was broken right away. Claude Deb~1ssy is the quickly, but the larger ones It lay splintered from the real founder of modern may take several weeks. fall, and there among the music. His highly original To know whether a specisplinters was something else methods of harmonizing men is ready for placing in ' -a long, thick envelope and creating tonal colors the collecting cabinet, touch with red seals! The color has rev o 1 u ti on i zed the the abdomen with a needle, went from Uncle Juan's whole musical art. His and if the skin is dry and face as he lifted it up. orchest r al compositions immovable, the drying is "What's this? Why, it's speak a new and different completed. the. lost paper !" he gasped. language, and his piano In the cabinet the speciJust at that minute the pieces are unique. He wrote mens may be damaged by pendulum started again. It his songs in such a manner mice, ants or cockroaches, swung to and fro, and there as no other composer has or they may mould. The was a whirring sound. And ever equaled. Everything is filing cabinet should be then, in the half-darkness, vague, ethereal, without a kept dry and lnsect proof. the song of the clock began definite rl;ythm or melody. A little napthaline or a few once more: "I knew- I Such is the music of Claude moth balls may be placed I knew- I knew! " Debussy. in the cabinet.

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