tick tack

But come to the clock, Mary. Remember, our lives are short, and they contain only a certain number of "tick tacks;" we cannot, therefore, afford to waste them.

I got me a hammer and nails with the heavy lead sinker offen my fishnet, and it wasn't long before the finest tick-tack you ever saw was working against the Spiegelnails' parlor window, with me in a lilac-bush operating the string that kept the weight a-swinging.