The Clock by James Lincoln Collier Page A

No, if I can’t work at the mill I’ll have to leave Humphreysville. Maybe go to New Haven, where there’s plenty of shop work. Maybe I could apprentice to an apothecary.”
    Hearing that made me go cold all over. I’d always thought that Robert would be here. It never before crossed my mind that he might go away. What would I do? “If you go, I’ll go with you, Robert.”
    He grinned at me. “I don’t know what your ma would say about that, Annie.”
    â€œI don’t care. I’ll run away. I’ll get a job in a mill somewhere and study when I can and get to be a schoolteacher.”
    Robert shook his head. “Let’s see how things go,” he said. Then we came to his house and he went in with his family to have supper.
    ******
    I had to talk to somebody about it, and I decided to tell Hetty Brown. Her house was on the village road on the other side of the village green near the mill. It wasn’t much out of my way, and sometimes I walked home with her, and had a glass of cider before I went on home myself. We left together on Monday at five o’clock, and as soon as we were clear of the mill I said, “Hetty, if I tell you a secret will you promise not to tell?”
    â€œI promise. I won’t tell.”
    â€œKnow why Robert isn’t tally boy anymore? It’s because Robert and I caught Mr. Hoggart stealing wool. Robert already knew he was doing it, because the tally sheets didn’t come out right. Then I went to ask him not to dock my pay for being late, and there he was in the carding room, filling a bag with wool.”
    She gave me a kind of scared look. “Are you sure?”
    â€œCertain of it. The tally sheets have been coming up short for months, Robert says. And then we caught him. He doesn’t want Robert to be tally boy anymore. He’s got to do lifting and hauling, and he’s bound to hurt himself.” It made me feel a lot better to have somebody to tell it to. “But you mustn’t tell anybody.”
    â€œI promise.”
    â€œNot even your pa.”
    But Hetty was bound to look on the best side of it. “Maybe he doesn’t think you know. Maybe he just decided to give Robert a different job for some reason.”
    â€œI wish that was true.”
    â€œMaybe you can do something about it,” Hetty said.
    â€œHe said if I was friendly to him he might make me lamp girl.”
    â€œSee?” Hetty said. “He isn’t so mad at you after all.”
    I frowned. “I couldn’t be friendly to him if I tried. I hate him.”
    â€œYou shouldn’t hate anyone,” Hetty said.
    â€œMaybe I shouldn’t, but I do. Look what he did to Tom Thrush just for gossiping a little. And now he’s trying to hurt Robert.”
    I looked at her. “What are we going to do?”
    She took hold of my hand and we stopped in the road, facing each other. “I’ll tell my pa,” she said.
    â€œNo, don’t.” I said. “You promised. We don’t have any proof.”
    She thought for a minute. “How would you get proof?”
    I wiped my eyes. “If we could find out what he does with the wool. He has to hide it someplace,” I said.
    â€œWouldn’t he try to sell it?” Hetty asked.
    â€œWell, he would, we figure. But he wouldn’t go out and sell a bagful every few days. He’d save it up until he had a wagon load, and then slip away with it at night and sell it a long way from here. It must be stored someplace.”
    â€œAll you have to do, then, is find where he stores it.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t be so easy. How would you do it?”
    â€œYou could think of a way,” Hetty said.

CHAPTER SEVEN
    T HE FIRST THING I had to do was find out where Mr. Hoggart was hiding the wool. That wasn’t going to be the easiest thing, for now that we were supposed to be running on clock time on the farm, Pa kept a good eye put for