this I was most thoroughly a mill-girl in appearance, at least; my
clothes were white with cotton, my hair far from tidy; fatigue and
listlessness unassumed were in my attitude. I had not heard the Southern
dialect for so long not to be able to fall into it with little effort. I
told him I had been a "spooler" and did not like it--"wanted to spin."
He listened silently, regarding me with interest and with what I
trembled to fear was disbelief. I desperately pushed back my sunbonnet
and in Southern drawl begged for work.

"Spinnin'?" he asked. "What do you want to spin for?"

He was a Yankee, his accent sharp and keen. How clean and decent and
capable he appeared, the dark mill back of him; shantytown, vile, dirty,
downtrodden, beside him!

I told him that I was tired of spooling and knew I could make more by
something else.

He thrust his hands into his pockets. "To-night is Saturday; alone
here?"

"Yes."

"Where you going to stay in Granton?"

"I don't know yet."

"Don't learn spinnin'," he said decidedly. "I am head of the
_speedin'-room_. I'll give you a job in my room on Monday morning."

My relief was immense. His subsequent questions I parried, thanked him,
and withdrew to keep secret from Excelsior that I had deserted for
Granton.

Although these mills are within three hundred feet of each other, the
villagers do not associate. The workings of Granton are unknown to
Excelsior and vice versa.

The speeding-room in Granton is second only in noise to the weave-room.
Conversation must be entrancing and vital to be pursued here! The
speeder has under her care as many machines as her skill can control.

My teacher, Bessie, ran four sides, seventy-six speeders on a side, her
work being regulated by a crank that marked the vibrations. To the lay
mind the terms of the speeding-room can mean nothing. This girl made
from $1.30 to $1.50 a day. She controlled in all 704 speeders; these she
had to replenish and keep running, and to clean all the machinery gear
with her own hands; to oil the steel, even to bend and clean under the
lower shelf and come into contact with the most dangerous parts of the
mechanism. The girl at the speeder next to me had just had her hand
mashed to a jelly. The speeder watches her ropers run out; these stand
at the top and back of the line. The ropers are refilled and their ends
attached to the flying speeders by a quick motion. The yarn from the
ropers is wound off on to the speede