In which I share a story-gift: "Accuracy" - a timely story
If you stay up late tonight to watch the shiny ball fall, I want you to tell this story to somebody while you're waiting. Okay?
Accuracy
A certain soldier had the job of firing a gun at six o'clock every evening.
He had done this job for many years and he was proud of his efficiency and time-keeping.
The government appointed a "Commission on Accuracy" (a very strange thing for a government to do, you might think) and the Commission made inquiries into the time-keeping of the soldier.
"This is what I have done for many years past," he told them, "Every day, at a quarter to six, I stop in front of the clock-maker's window in the village. I set my watch by the big grandfather clock that stands in the window. Then I walk up the hill. At one minute to six I step out to the gun, which has been made ready, and at six o'clock exactly, I fire.
All this being very satisfactory, it only remained to question the clock-maker:"This is a most wonderful clock," he told them, "It is the most accurate clock in the world. Clock-makers from all over the country come to look at it, indeed from all over Europe and from over the seas.
"How do I know it's so accurate? Why, every day at six o'clock a gun is fired, up on the hill, and I look at this clock, and it always says exactly six o'clock!"
Accuracy
A certain soldier had the job of firing a gun at six o'clock every evening.
He had done this job for many years and he was proud of his efficiency and time-keeping.
The government appointed a "Commission on Accuracy" (a very strange thing for a government to do, you might think) and the Commission made inquiries into the time-keeping of the soldier.
"This is what I have done for many years past," he told them, "Every day, at a quarter to six, I stop in front of the clock-maker's window in the village. I set my watch by the big grandfather clock that stands in the window. Then I walk up the hill. At one minute to six I step out to the gun, which has been made ready, and at six o'clock exactly, I fire.
All this being very satisfactory, it only remained to question the clock-maker:"This is a most wonderful clock," he told them, "It is the most accurate clock in the world. Clock-makers from all over the country come to look at it, indeed from all over Europe and from over the seas.
"How do I know it's so accurate? Why, every day at six o'clock a gun is fired, up on the hill, and I look at this clock, and it always says exactly six o'clock!"
Comments
Post a Comment
To err is human. To be anonymous is not.