The Weathercock, Being the Adventures of a Boy with a Bias, by George
Manville Fenn.
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There is actually another title to this book, "The Boy Inventer", and
that is just the character of our sixteen-year-old hero. He is living
with his uncle, who is a doctor in a small Lincolnshire village. He is
friendly, after a fashion, with three boys who are living in the
Rector's house, where they are being educated.
Our hero, Vane Lee, is also a bit of a naturalist, as is the author of
this book. But some of his inventions have a way of going wrong, as for
example when he decides to make the defective church clock work. He
takes it all to pieces, cleans all the parts up, and puts it all
together again--with the exception of two vital wheels. In the middle
of the night the clock's bell begins to strike without cease--the signal
in the village for a fire. Everybody turns out and rushes about with
fire hoses looking for the fire, and it takes a while before they find
out that there never was a fire at all.
But one day Vane is set upon by two gipsy boys, and beaten nearly to
death. Nobody knows who did the deed, as Vane is for a long while
unconscious. Eventually he comes round, and things become a little bit
clearer, but exactly how I will not reveal here.
The typography of the book we used was not very good, and there were a
number of spelling inconsistencies. For instance "gipsy" is sometimes
spelt "gipsey" and sometimes "gypsy". And the unfortunate Mr Deering
is sometimes spelt "Dearing" and sometimes "Dereing". I hope we have
ironed these things out, as well as making the hyphenation more
consistent throughout the book.
Read it, or listen to it--you'll enjoy it.
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THE WEATHERCOCK, BEING THE ADVENTURES OF A BOY WITH A BIAS, BY GEORGE
MANVILLE FENN.