My guardian, a good old man, told me that there was so many clocks then
making, that the country would soon be filled with them, and the
business would be good for nothing in two or three years. This opinion
of that wise man made me feel very sad. I well remember, when I was
about twelve years old, what I heard some old gentleman say, at a
training, (all of the good folks in those days were as sure to go to
training as to attend church,) they were talking about Mr. Terry; the
foolish man they said, had begun to make two hundred clocks; one said,
he never would live long enough to finish them; another remarked, that
if he did he never would, nor could possibly sell so many, and ridiculed
the very idea.

I was a little fellow, but heard and swallowed every word those wise men
said, but I did not relish it at all, for I meant some day to make
clocks myself, if I lived.

What would those good old men have thought when they were laughing at
and ridiculing Mr. Terry, if they had known that the little urchin who
was so eagerly listening to their conversation would live to make _Two
Hundred Thousand_ metal clocks in one year, and _many millions_
in his life. They have probably been dead for years, that little boy is
now an old man, and during his life has seen these great changes. The
clock business has grown to be one of the largest in the country, and
almost every kind of American manufactures have improved in much the
same ratio, and I cannot now believe that there will ever be in the same
space of future time so many improvements and inventions as those of the
past half century--one of the most important in the history of the
world. Everyday things with us now would have appeared to our
forefathers as incredible. But returning to my story--having got myself