"The cuckoo clock has stopped!" exclaims little Griselda.
"Stopped!" says Miss Tabitha, throwing up her hands. "Impossible!"
"I mean cuckoo has stopped," the girl says. "The clock is going on, but the cuckoo isn't telling the hours."
"What can we do?" says Miss Tabitha. "Should we send for the watch-maker?" But Miss Grizzel shakes her head, and says, "That would be worse than useless, Tabitha. Were we to search the world over, we would find no one to put it right. Fifty years and more, that clock has never missed an hour! We are getting old, Tabitha -- and maybe our day is nearly over!"
Mary Louisa Molesworth (1836-1921), author of beloved children's novel The Tapestry Room, tells of a young girl's experiences finding magic and mystery in the ancient homestead of her ancestors, in The Cuckoo Clock.