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Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951

"The Extra Day"

That day is done with--
gone. There are three hundred and sixty-five of these separate sheets
in a year. It's just an invention of scientific men to measure the
passing of--Time, you see?"
They said they saw.
"Another invention," he resumed, his face betraying more and more
emotion, "is a clock. A clock is just a mechanical invention that
ticks off the movements of the sun into seconds and minutes and hours.
Both clocks and calendars, therefore, are mere measuring tricks. Time
goes on, or does not go on, just the same, whether you possess these
inventions or whether you do not possess them. Both clocks and
calendars go at the same rate whether Time goes fast or slow. See?"
A tremendous discovery began to poke its nose above the edge of their
familiar world. But they could not pull it up far enough to "see" as
yet. Uncle Felix continued to pull it up for them. That he, too, was
muddled never once occurred to them.
"Scientific men, like all other people, are not always to be relied
upon," he went on. "They make mistakes like--you, or Thompson, or Mrs.
Horton, or--or even me. Clocks, we all know, are full of mistakes, and
for ever going wrong.


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