a great part of the
season. But, so far from doing them an injury, the fleecy mantle
protected them from the open exposure to cold under which the strawberry
will sometimes perish. It was a privation to me to have them thus
entirely shut up from observation; but more than once, when the snow had
softened under the influence of an incipient thaw, I could not refrain
from plunging my hands into it and uncovering a plant here and there, to
see how they were faring. So far from perishing under the continued
cold, I found them holding up their heads with wonderful erectness,
their leaves crisp and fresh, with an intense greenness that contrasted
strongly with the white blanket in which Nature had kindly wrapped them.
Thus satisfied that they were well provided for, I endeavored to check
my impatience for the coming spring: for really it seemed the longest
winter I had ever known.

Both my sister and myself continued our labors at the factory, though we
discovered evidences that even at machine-sewing there was likely to be
some uncertainty as to continued employment at the usual remunerative
prices. We had learned to have entire confidence in its stability; but
symptoms were appearing that the business, in some of its branches, was
likely to be overdone. The makers of the first machines, having sold
immense numbers at high prices, had acquired vast fortunes. This invited
competition, and manufactories of rival machines having been established
by those who had invented modifications of the original idea, the
quantity thrown upon the market was very great, while prices were so
reduced that additional thousands were now enabled to obtain machines
and set them to work. The competition among the makers thus gave rise to
competition among those who used the machines. Prices of work declined
in consequence, and of course the sewing-girls were required to bear a
large share of this decline, in the shape of a reduction of wages. We
could do nothing but submit, for the needle was the only staff we had to
lean upon. If we were to continue realizing as much per week as before,
we could do so in no other way than by working longer and more
industriously. This fell very hard upon us during that long winter. We
could afford no holidays, no recreation, not even to be sick. As we felt
we had no dependence but the needle, we still clung to the idea, that,
if we could purchase machines of our own, we should do much better But
though now reduc