一天夜裏，我們的牧師突然被驚醒了，大鍾又在“打點”報時了！他一看表，才1點鍾，可是那鍾一連敲了13下才停。牧師拿著一支電筒走上鍾樓想去看看究竟發生了什麼事情。借著電筒光，他看見一個人，馬上認出那是本地雜貨店店主比爾·威爾金斯。 ‘Whatever are you doing up here Bill？’asked the vicar in surprise. “你究竟在上麵幹什麼，比爾？”牧師驚訝地問。‘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 surpise.’ “我想把這口鍾修好，”比爾回答說。“好幾個星期了，我天天夜裏到鍾樓上來。嗯，我是想讓你大吃一驚。”
‘you certainly did give me a surprise ！’said the vicar.‘You ’ve probably woken up everyone in the village as well.still，I‘m glad the bell is working again.’ “你確實使我大吃一驚！”牧師說，“也許同時你把村裏所有的人都吵醒了。不過，鍾又能報時了，我還是很高興的。” ‘that’s the trouble， vicar ，‘answered Bill.’It‘s working all night， but I’m afraid that at one o‘clock it will strike thirteen times and there’s nothing I can do about it.‘ “問題就在這裏，牧師，”比爾回答。“不錯，鍾是能報時了，但是，恐怕每到1點鍾，它總是要敲13下，對此我已無能為力了。” ’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 go downstairs and have a cup of tea.“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。” DZ）