I got a hatchet, but could do nothing.

I called father; he brought a crowbar and pried up the board, then crawled under it and found the screw.

I took good care not to lose it a second time.
"The instrument was fairly mounted when the clouds mounted to keep it company, and the comet and I again parted.
"In all observations, the blowing out of a light by a gust of wind is a very common and very annoying accident; but I once met with a much worse one, for I dropped a chronometer, and it rolled out of its box on to the ground.

We picked it up in a great panic, but it had not even altered its rate, as we found by later observations.
"The glaring eyes of the cat, who nightly visited me, were at one time very annoying, and a man who climbed up a fence and spoke to me, in the stillness of the small hours, fairly shook not only my equanimity, but the pencil which I held in my hand.

He was quite innocent of any intention to do me harm, but he gave me a great fright.
"The spiders and bugs which swarm in my observing-houses I have rather an attachment for, but they must not crawl over my recording-paper.