Too much steam

Another repairer fixes the 'king-bolt'. Twain pretends to know what that is, though he clearly does not. Now the watch stops and starts, and kicks back like a gun when it goes off.

Later, its hands shut together like scissors, then spin round like a spider's web, racing through a whole day in a few minutes.

The watch had cost two hundred dollars. By now, Twain has spent two or three thousand dollars on repairs.

The last watchmaker turns out to be a poor old former steamboat engineer. He looks at the watch and says it makes too much steam. At this, Twain jokes that he 'brained him': the exaggeration is part of the humour.

Twain ends with the wisdom of his Uncle William: a good watch stays good until the repairers get their hands on it. And Uncle William used to wonder where all the failed tinkers and gunsmiths and shoemakers go, since they all seem to become watch repairers.

Many readers recognise the experience: a good thing made worse by people trying to fix it.