Read "The Clock-Bell and the Alarm-Bell" by Elizabeth Rundle Charles online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"WE have lived a long time here together," said the ponderous / Alarm-bell to the little brisk bell in the clock-tower of the / Orphan-house, "and a useful life yours has been! I have watched / carefully, and never once during these hundred years that we have stood / side by side have you failed to tell the hours and half-hours by day / and night. I have plenty of leisure for thought; but it would be beyond / my powers to calculate how often your voice has been heard in the / service of man.
"I observe, too, how much attention is paid you by all, and with how / much well-deserved respect you are regarded. Nothing is done in house / or field without your sanction. At your early call, this little busy / hive begins to stir in the morning. At your mid-day invitation, the / boys gather from the fields where they have been working; and the girls / from the laundries and workrooms to the noon-day meal. At your evening / summons, the doors are closed at night, and not a sound is heard / afterwards in house or field until your steady voice wakens our little / world again.