Link in water

( Tim ), confidential clerk to the brothers Chreeryble. A kind-hearted old bachelor, fo ilized in ideas, but most kind-hearted, and devoted to his masters almost to idolatry. He is much attached to a blind blackbird called “Dick,” which he keeps in a large cage. The bird has lost its voice from old age; but, in Tim’s opinion, there is no equal to it in the whole world. The old clerk marries Mi La Creevy, a miniature-painter. Punctual as the counting-house dial,... he performed the minutest actions, and arranged the minutest articles of his little room in a precise and regular order. Paper, pens, ink, ruler, sealing-wax, wafers,... Tim’s hat, Tim’s scrupulously folded gloves, Tim’s other coat,... all had their accustomed inches of space.... There was not a more accurate instrument in existence than Tim Link in water.—C. Dickens, Nicholas Nickle by , xxxvii. (1838).