The family garden, orchard, and farm animals kept Harry very busy, especially on Saturdays. Even though he could use the help, he decided to let Tommy sleep in.

It was mid-morning when Harry looked up from his hoeing and noticed his father take his well-worn watch from his pocket, shake it gently, and hold it to his ear. He gently shook it again and held it to his ear once more. Harry's father seldom checked his watch during the day. For him, relying on the position of the sun was usually accurate enough reckoning.

Something must be wrong with Dad's watch, thought Harry.

"Something wrong with your watch?" called out Harry to his father. His father nodded, then lowered the watch and called back, "Would you like to help me try and fix it?"

"Sure!" Harry replied. "I've never seen the inside of a watch before."

"I hope we can fix it" said his father.

Harry placed his dirt-covered boots next to his father's on the back doorstep. The cool air of the kitchen was a welcome relief from the sun's burning heat. They washed their hands thoroughly before Harry's father pour two large glasses of cold water to quench their thirst. Harry was used to hard work, but he sure felt glad when the work was done.

Harry watched carefully as his father placed the pocket watch face down on the large kitchen table and carefully inserted a knife's blade between the back cover and the body of the watch, then slowly twist the blade. The cover resisted for a moment and then popped open. Harry's father placed the cover aside and showed Harry the most fascinating world of small gears and levers he had ever seen.

Harry's father quietly studied each part of the watch and then said, "The mainspring has come loose and must be reattached."

"Mainspring? What's a mainspring?" asked Harry.

His father placed the watch closer to Harry and said, "Look here. This is the mainspring. It is held from unwinding by this lever. It must be secured here so that, when the watch is wound, it will hold the spring's coil from releasing too fast."

Harry peered ever closer as the light from the kitchen window reflected brightly off the now motionless timepiece.

"This gear," continued his father, "is released and then caught by this lever. This gear then turns this gear and this, this one. Each gear turns at various speeds so that the second, minute, and hour hands all keep the correct time."

Harry's father carefully placed the mainspring back into its proper position, tightened the smallest screw Harry had ever seen, and rewound the watch by turning the stem forward, backward, and forward. Then, holding the watch face up, Harry and his father stared intently as it began ticked rhythmically once more. All other sound seemed to disappear as the tick, tick, tick of the watch filled the air.

Long after Harry and his father were back at work in the hot sun, Harry continued to think about the pocket watch.  I wish Tommy could have seen the gears of my dad's pocket watch, thought Harry. He's probably really tired from his long trip.

"Perhaps some day I'll be a watchmaker," he told his father.

"Perhaps so," said his father.

Learning Activity