've had enough of this! You go and bring those spindles," and
Plunkett shouted this so loudly that the girls were downright
frightened at last.

"Oh, do not scold us," Martha entreated, shrinking back.

"No, no, brother, let us be gentle."

"Stuff! Now, girls, you get at that spinning wheel as I tell you."

The two girls looked at each other. They no longer dared carry matters
with a high hand, and yet how could they spin? They knew no more how
to spin than did a couple of pussy-cats. After going up to the wheels
and looking at them in wonder, they exclaimed:

"I can't."

"What?" yelled Plunkett.

"We--we don't know how."

"Well, upon my soul!" Plunkett cried. "Now you two sit down there as
quick as you can." They sat as if they were shot. Plunkett seemed very
much in earnest. "Now turn those wheels!"

"They--they will _not_ turn," they cried, trying and making an awful
botch of it.

"Twist the thread," Lionel instructed with much anxiety.

"O Lord! It _won't_ twist, they _won't_ turn. Oh, good gracious! We
can't! we can't do it at all."

"Now then, look at this," Plunkett cried, and he took Nancy from the
chair, and seated himself at the spinning wheel; and Lionel unseated
Martha--gently--and took her place, and then the fun began. "Now
watch--and we will teach you something about this business."

This way set the wheel a-flying,
Set it whirring, set it flying.
Work the treadle with a will.
While an even thread you're plying,
Never let your wheel be still.

Come, you will not lose by trying,
I can see you have good will.

And while the girls joined in this gay spinning song, the men buzzed
an accompaniment of "Brr, brr, brr," and the fun waxed fast and
furious, the men spinning faster and faster every moment, the girls
becoming more and more excited with watching and trying to
learn--because they now saw that there was nothing for them but to
begin business; and more than this, they began almost to like the
farmer chaps. After a moment, first one began to laugh, then another,
till suddenly they all dragged off into a merry "ha, ha, ha!"

Look! How the busy task he's plying,
Hercules is at the wheel;
Look, I too can set it flying,
Scold me if I do it ill

Nancy--or rather Julia--sang, as she took a turn at it. All had turned
to fun and frolic, and now even Lady Harriet--or Martha--could not
withstand the temptation to try her hand; so d