Our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another, but he has never managed to get enough money tohave the church clock repaired. The big clock which used to strike the hours day and night was damaged many yearsago and has been silent ever since.
' One night, however, our vicar woke up with a start: the clock was striking the hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that itwas one o'clock, but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped. Armed with a torch, the vicar went up into the clocktower to see what was going on. In the torchlight, he caught sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as Bill
Wilkins, our local grocer. 'Whatever are you doing up here Bill ?' asked the vicar in surprise.' I'm trying to repair the bell,' answered Bill.' I've been coming up here night after night for weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise.'
'You certainly did give me a surprise!' said the vicar. 'You've probably woken up everyone in the village as well. Still, I'mglad the bell is working again.''That's the trouble, vicar,' answered Bill. 'It's working all right, but I'm afraid that at one o'clock it will strike thirteen timesand there's nothing I can do about it.'
'We'll get used to that Bill,' said the vicar. 'Thirteen is not as good as one but it's better than nothing. Now let's godownstairs and have a cup of tea.'
我們教區的牧師總是為各種各樣的事籌集資金。但始終未能籌足資金把教堂的鐘修好。教堂的鐘很大，以前不分晝夜打點報時，但很多年前遭到毀壞，從此便無聲無息了。
一天夜裡，我們的牧師突然被驚醒了，大鐘又在“打點”報時了！他一看錶，才 1 點鐘，可是那鍾一邊敲了 13 下才停。
牧師拿著一支電筒走上鐘樓想去看看究竟發生了什麼事情。藉著電筒光。他看見一個人，馬上認出那是本地雜貨店主經比爾.威爾金斯。
“你究竟在這上面幹什麼，比爾？”牧師驚訝地問。
“我想把這口鐘修好，”比爾回答說。“好幾個星期了，我天天夜裡到鐘樓上來。嗯，我是想讓你大吃一驚。”
“你確實使我大吃了一驚！”牧師說，“也許同時你把村裡所有的人都吵醒了。不過，鍾又能報時了，我還是很高興的。”
“問題就在這裡，牧師，”比爾回答說。“不錯，鍾能報時了，但是，恐怕每到 1 點鐘，它總要敲 13 下，對此我已無能為力了。”
“大家慢慢就習慣了，比爾，”牧師說。“13 下是不如 1 下好，但總比 1 下也不敲強。來，咱們下樓去喝杯茶吧。”
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