gh for a boy."

"Glad yer are, fer yer can do the liftin' work an' help Carl there. He
ain't good for much, any way. Tim Short used ter shirk on him 'ceptin'
when I knowed it, an'---- Hey! here she goes!" (as the machinery
suddenly started). "Set this 'ere flocker again, Carl, and then show
this feller how to run t'other. I'll start up the grinder, an' go up to
the drier."

Accordingly Christopher Hanks departed, while Fred put on a gingham
frock which his mother had made him as a working blouse, and, at the
hands of Carl, received his first lesson.

XIV.

A "flocker" is a large, clumsy looking wooden machine, four or five feet
in length, and just wide enough to take on the cloth, which at that mill
was all made double width. It consists chiefly of heavy rollers, so
arranged that the cloth passes between them. There is a deep pit at the
bottom of the machine, which will hold several bushels of "flocks," in
addition to the bulk of a large web of cloth, from forty to fifty yards
in length.

"Your name is Carl, I believe," said Fred, by way of introducing
himself.

"Yes, Carl; that's it."

"My name is Fred Worthington. I think we shall get along together."

"I hope so," returned Carl sincerely, and continued: "The first thing to
do is to put the cloth into the machine and set it running."

Then, showing how to do this, he added:

"Now we start it up by switching this belt so" (moving the belt from the
loose to the stationary pulley).

"What's the object in running cloth through here?" inquired Fred; for
though he had always lived in Mapleton, yet in truth his knowledge of a
woolen factory was very limited, and in this respect he did not differ
much from the majority of the villagers.

"It is to make it weigh more, and to give it a body, so it can be
finished," replied the boy, while he turned a basketful of flocks upon
the revolving rollers between which the beaver cloth was now swiftly
passing.

"But why do you call that stuff 'flocks'?" inquired Fred. "It looks like
the fine dust that we find at the end of our pants and coats, where it
settles down against the hems."

"Well, that's just what it is."

"I thought everybody called that shoddy."

"I know they do, and I used to do so myself before I came here."

"But what are the 'flocks' that we have here made of?"

"Old rags."

"I thought shoddy was made from old rags."

"They are both made from them. The best ones are put into shoddy, and