work, and was much happier for having plenty to do. The
care of such a little house, she said, was nothing to her, and she
never meant to keep another maid. The apprentice must be called in to
help. By the aid of his mother-in-law, however, Lenz finally succeeded
in securing a new girl.

Matters how went on pleasantly and smoothly again till into the summer.
Annele insisted upon her mother's obliging the landlord to pay Lenz
back his money, and the father-in-law consequently appeared one day,
and made Lenz an offer of the wood behind his house, in return for the
money received, and for one thousand florins in addition. Lenz replied
that he did not want the wood, but ready money, for which, however, he
could very well afford to wait. No further steps were taken, except
that the landlord, like the man of honor he was, gave a receipt, drawn
up in due form, good in case of life or death.

Late in the summer, the usual quiet of the village was interrupted by
two great events,--the marriage of the engineer with Bertha, the
doctor's second daughter, the eldest choosing to remain single; and the
return of the doctor's son, now a skilful clockmaker, from his studies
abroad. It was said he meant to build a great clock-factory, not far
from his father's house. A great outcry was raised among the native
clockmakers, that they should be ruined if clocks were to be
manufactured by machinery, as they were in America. Lenz took the
matter quietly, and, with the schoolmaster, spared no pains to carry
into operation his long-cherished plan of uniting the workmen in one
common association. Perhaps necessity would compel them to a step of
which they had not been able or willing before to see the advantages.
The two spent whole days in going from house to house, explaining the
standard regulator. They recommended the adoption of five different
sizes, which would be quiet sufficient to show all the variety of
works. Nothing but a division of labor could save the workpeople. The
axles, wheels, and springs, and more especially the stoppers and
screws, could be made cheaper and better by machinery, while the
adjustments of the parts and the finishing touches must always be left
to the hand of a master. Human understanding and thought are
indispensable to the proper arranging and harmonizing of the whole. He
urged the clockmakers either to contribute a share to the new
manufactory or to set up one of their own. But he found idle complaints
ins