sheepskins are prepared and I, for one, am not sorry for I've no very
clear idea."

"I'm worse off than you, Nat," chuckled Peter. "I've no idea at all."

"Nonsense, Peter! By this time you must know the general process for
preparing skins."

"Why, yes. I suppose the hair is taken off and the skins tanned just as
calfskins are."

"Yes, the main facts are the same. There are many points, however, where
the processes differ because the skins of sheep, kids, goats, and such
creatures must undergo entirely different treatment. The kid used for
gloves and even for shoes, you see, is far more delicate than is the
calfskin that we have been finishing."

"Yes, of course," agreed Peter thoughtfully. "Well, I suppose we shall
now find out all about it and that it will be interesting; but I do
wish, Nat, that we could learn it somewhere except in another
beamhouse."

Peter's wish, alas, was of no avail and accordingly once more the two
boys donned rubber boots and overalls and started again at the foot of
the ladder--this time in Factory 2, where the skins of sheep, kids, and
goats were tanned. Sheepskins, they soon learned, were received by the
tanners in one of two conditions: either the wool was already off and
they arrived in casks drenched or pickled, many bales of one dozen each
being packed in a cask; or the skins came to the tannery salted, with
the wool on and precisely in the condition that they were when taken
from the backs of the sheep at the ranches and abattoirs. So long as the
hair was on the skins were called "pelts"; but the moment the hair was
removed the skins became "slats." The pickled skins it was simple enough
to tan, for they had been carefully prepared for the tanners before
being shipped; there were firms, the foreman told Peter, that did just
this very thing. If desired the pickled sheepskins could even be worked
into a cheap white leather without further tanning. Most of them,
however, were tanned.

But the unhairing of the sheep pelts was a different problem. After they
had been soaked about twenty-four hours in borax and water to get out
the dirt and salt they must first be put through a machine that cleansed
the wool and shaved off any fat adhering to the flesh side. Then they
were ready to have the wool removed. A very delicate process this was,
Peter and Nat soon discovered. Each pelt was spread smoothly on a table
wool side down, and a preparation of lime and sulphide of sodium was
spr