The Spinners

inning mill, but the foreman had his own theory an

"Now if you just look into the works and get a general

a staccato pulse, a louder, more painful, more penetrating din. The bass to this harsh treble arose from humming bel

eight of the walls, ran rods supporting rows of silver-bright wheels from which the power descended, through endless bands, to the machinery beneath. The floor

m nearly all the machines there streamed away continuous bright ribbons of hemp or flax, that caught the light and shone. This was the 'sliver,' the wrought, textile material passing through its many changes before it came to the spinners. The amber and lint-white coils of the winding sliver made a brightness among the duns

f Sally Groves lumbered at her ministry, where she fed the Carding Machine. She was subdued to the colour of the hemp tow with which she plied it. Elsewhere Sarah Northover flashed the tresses of long lines over her head and seemed to perform a rhythmic dance with her hands, as she tore each strick into three and lai

im and he wanted to stop here and ask Sabina many questions. She looked much more beautiful while spinning than in her black dress and white apron-so the young man thought. Her work displayed her neat, slim shape as she twirled round, stoop

rbade interest

ymond, please. Power comes from the water-wheel and the steam engine and it's brought down to each machine. Just

sy things put together," laughed Raymond; while Mr. B

the dust and small rubbish," he explained. "

ranch of the work, and a past master of all spinning mysteries. His lucid and simple exposition had very well served to introduce an attentive stranger to the complex operations going

John Best befor

ing clear. It looks quite different to me from what it must to you. I'll get the general scheme into my

pause or slackening, nothing but the whirl of living hands and arms and bodies, dead wheels and teeth and pulleys and pins operating on the inert tow. The mediators, animate and inanimate, laboured together for its manufacture; while the masses of mingled wood and steel, leather and brass and iron, moved in controlled obedience to the giant forces liberated from steam and water that drove all. The selfsame power, gleaned from sunshine and moistu

ntil the whole great complexity came to a stand-still. The drone of the overhead wheels ceased, the crash of the draw-heads stopped. A startling silence seemed to grow out of the noise and quell it, while a new activity manifested itself among the workers. As a bell rang they were changed in a twinkling and, amid chatter and lau

e picture galleries were the walls brightened, and with sentiments and ideas. The names of the workers were printed up in old stamps-green and pink-and beside them one might read, in verses, or photographs, or pictures taken from the journals, something of the history, taste and personal life of those who set them there. Serious girls had written favourite hymns beside their working

n to deck the working-place with objects and words that should breed happy thoughts and draw the mind where its treasure harboured. Each heart it seemed was holding, or seeking, a romance; each heart was settled about some stalwart figure presented in the picture gallery,

rhyme round which a black border

ing, coili

the

g, thinking

dear

ling, toil

n the

ng, thinki

y o

.H

joined

. "It's about time we

niel thin

the most interesting

live! Who

out. Poor Flossy Hackett wrote that. She was going to marry a sailor-man, but he cha

l. I hope he got

to peep from the shell t

h woman and Flossy went into the river-in the deep pool beyond

e had the handli

ppy dreams. Reality's not the best of life. People do change their minds.

udied the wall by the spinning frame where Sabina Dinnett worked. He found a photograph of her mother and a quotation from Sh

own self

ollow, as the

t then be fal

lery-indeed, no other picture but that of

r approach

ade a sta

g. Best is wonderful, but he c

and straightforward. D

t. When I want something to do, I can fling a

pe. Let us lunch. I'm stopping here this afternoon. Aunt Jenny wa

r Raymond and warned her nephew not to be too exacting at first. She pointed out that it was very improbable Daniel's brother would become a model in a moment, or settle down to the business of fixed hours and clerical work without a few lapses from the narrow and arduous path. So the elder was prepared to see his brother kick against the pricks and even warned John Best that it might be so. Brief acquaintance with Raymond had already convinced the f

ad a simpl

ut the best yarn from a given sample of the raw. Hand identical stuff t

see with him seemed exceedingly improbable; yet he felt the dim possibility by occasional flashes in the young man, and it was