Though our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another, he has never
managed to get enough money to have the church clock repaired. The big clock has
stopped since it was ruined many years ago. One night, however our vicar was woken up by the stroke of the bell. Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one clock, but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped. So the vicar went up into the clock tower
with a torch to find out what had happened. He noted with surprise that a figure whom
he immediately recognizeed as Bill Wilkings was upstairs. Bill Wilking was the owner of our local grocery store. The vicar asked Bill what he had done up there. Bill told the
vicar that he had been coming up there for weeks in order to have the bell restored.
The vicar was glad to say that although the bell had woken up a great many villagers, it
began to work again. Bill added that the bell would strike thirteen times at one o'clock
and he could not solve the problem. The vicar consoled Bill by telling him that although
thirteen was not as good as one, it was better than nothing. Then the vicar and Bill
went downstairs to have a cup of tea.
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