l reaching out for conditions in human
life in which it is easy and natural to be good and happy. It had not
been accomplished in this semimonastic life, but the efforts toward it
had their influence, and, you may judge by the quality of its
founders, had never died.

[Illustration: NEEDLEBOOK of Moravian embroidery, made about 1850. _Now
in the possession of Mrs. J. U. Myers, Bethlehem, Pa._]

[Illustration: MORAVIAN EMBROIDERY worked by Emily E. Reynolds,
Plymouth, Pa., in 1834, at the age of twelve, while at the Moravian
Seminary in Bethlehem, and now owned by her granddaughter.

_Courtesy of Claire Reynolds Tubbs, Gladstone, N. J._]

The two schools very early in their history seem to have established a
reputation for learning and culture which made them a desirable
influence in the formative lives of the children of the most thoughtful,
as well as the most prominent and prosperous, American families. Indeed,
the school for girls became so popular as to lead to an extension and
founding of several branches in other of the southern states. The art
and practice of fine needlework became a popular and necessary feature
of them, distinguishing them from all other schools. "Tambour and fine
needlework" were among the extras of the school, and charged for, as we
learn from school records, at the rate of "seventeen shillings and
sixpence, Pennsylvania currency."

It was not alone tambour and fine needlework, as we shall see later,
that was taught by the Moravian Sisters, but the ribbon work, crepe
work, and flower embroidery, and picture production upon satin. These
pictures, however important as performances, were not the most common
form of needlework taught by the Sisters. Flower embroidery was the
usual form of practice, and it was of a quality which made each one a
wonder of execution and skill. The materials were satin of a superb
quality for the background, or Eastern silk of softness and strength,
and the silks used in the stitchery were generally "slack twisted" silk
threads of very pure quality, and in certain cases, where they would not
be likely to fray, lustrous flosses of Eastern make. The stitch used in
these flower pieces was an over-and-over stitch, or what was called
satin-stitch, which was without the lap of Kensington stitch. There was
in every piece of embroidery done under the instruction of the
accomplished and devoted Sisters certain virtues, certain effects of
conscientious and patient work, m