"IT IS LIKE A FAIRY STORY"]

"And France--was she left out, Father?" asked Pierre anxiously.

"Have no fears for your native land, my son. France came into her
silk-making heritage about the time of Francis I. England followed her
example more slowly because, you know, our English brothers are a little
more conservative than we are. All in good time, however, England made
silks and very beautiful ones, too, in which her kings and queens were
resplendent on state occasions."

"It is like a fairy story, Father," murmured Marie.

"Then you are not tired?"

"Tired!"

The priest smiled.

"At the beginning of the sixteenth century Bologna had the finest
throwing mills for the twisting and spinning of thread then known. But
China with its peculiarly fertile soil still continued to be the land
best adapted for raising raw silk, although several other countries
surpassed it in the manufacture of fabrics. In Italy silk-making like
glass-making was held to be one of the most honorable of occupations;
and silk-makers intermarried with the nobility, being accorded equality
of rank with the best born families."

Pere Benedict paused for breath; then gave an odd little chuckle.

"I could tell you many an amusing tale of the early uses of silk," he
said. "Picture, for example, Henry V celebrating his victory at
Agincourt by putting purple silk sails on his ships! And think of Queen
Elizabeth receiving as a gift a pair of knitted silk stockings which, by
the way, so spoiled her for wearing woolen ones that she disliked ever
to wear them again. Silken hose were a rarity in those days, even for
queens. Now of course as people saw more and more uses to which silk
could be put they came to want it; and the monarchs of all countries,
realizing that silk-making would bring money into their coffers, urged
their subjects to take up sericulture. Henry IV of France did much to
make it popular among the French peasants, offering rewards to those who
would grow mulberry trees. England was found to have too cold a climate
for silk cultivation; so James I, who was king at that time, tried to
have the industry transplanted to the new colony of Virginia. This plan
did not succeed, however, as the American planters found the growing of
potatoes and tobacco far more profitable. In 1732 another attempt was
made in the American states of Georgia and South Carolina and was again
abandoned, because although America could raise both mulberry trees