remarked.
Seeing the woollen threads stretched up and down, perfectly colored and
looking like a greatly elongated pattern, gave him a complete insight of
the task for which he had been engaged.

"I thought I understood it before. I think I could not make a mistake
now. A mistake would mean disaster wouldn't it?"

"It would," answered the superintendent, delighted to find his new
helper such a promising aid. "See, here is the pattern. Watch the weaver
awhile, then come with me to the 'setting room.' There is where Amy will
be if she keeps on as industriously as she has begun. I tell you brains
count. You are both gifted with them, and it should make you
grateful--helpful, too. I think the least of all a man's possessions
that he has a right to keep to himself is his brain."

Hallam looked up in surprise. Amy's acquaintance with the superintendent
had begun most auspiciously, and he had desired to be considered her
"friend," even as now her brother's. Yet since her coming to work in the
mill, Mr. Metcalf had not exchanged a dozen sentences with her. She saw
him daily, almost hourly. He was everywhere present about the great
buildings. In no department was anybody sure of the time of his
appearance, yet not one was overlooked. This kept the operators keyed
to an expectancy which brought out from them their best, for the
approbation of this observant 'boss' meant much to each. Yet he rarely
spoke in a harsh tone to any, nor had any ever heard him utter an oath.
This, in itself, gave him a distinction from all other mill
superintendents under which most of these operatives had served, and
added, it may be, a greater awe to their respect of him.

"I've been color mixer in a carpet mill these forty years, and Metcalf's
the only 'Supe' I ever knew could run one without swearing," often
remarked the master of the dyeing room. "He does; and a fellow may count
himself lucky to work under such a man."

The color mixer, being a most important personage in the institution,
had influence among his _confreres_, with good reason. His trade was an
art and a secret. Like all trade secrets it commanded its own price. He
was said to enjoy a salary "among the thousands," and to have rejected
even richer offers for the sake of the peaceful discipline at Ardsley.

Then the two visited the "setting room," where the mill girls reached
the highest promotion possible in their business. The "setting" is the
arrangement upon frames of the thr