"He is responsible for the clocks and the hour-glasses." "Where does he live ?" asked the boy.
But Uncle Jacob had spread the list on the summer-house table; he was fairly immersed in it and in a cloud of tobacco smoke, and Peter Paul did not like to disturb him.
"Twenty-five Bybloemens, twenty-five Bizards, twenty-five Roses, and a seedling-bed for first bloom this year." * * * * * Some of Uncle Jacob's seedling tulips were still "breeders," whose future was yet unmarked[6] (he did not name them in hope, as he had christened his nephew!) when Peter Paul went to sea.
[Footnote 6: The first bloom of seedling tulips is usually without stripes or markings, and it is often years before they break into stripes; till then they are called breeders, and are not named.] He was quite unfitted for a farmer.

He was always looking forward to what he should do hereafter, or backward to the time when he believed in fairy clocks.

Now a farmer should live in the present, and time himself by a steady-going watch with an enamelled face.

Then little things get done at the right time, which is everything in farming.
"Peter Paul puzzles too much," said his mother, "and that is your fault, Jacob, for giving him a great name.

But while he's thinking, Daisy misses her mash and the hens lay away.