, "I wanted to come, and I think the factory is
magnificent; besides, I want the money."

"So do I," said the other, "and pa said I should have all I earn till
there's enough to get a silk dress. I do want a silk dress so, don't
you?"

"No," said Katie, "I don't care;" but at this moment Miss Peters came
toward them, saying,--

"No talking, girls; you are new hands, or I should have to fine you;
every time a girl speaks it's a penny off of her day's wages, but I'll
let you off this time. Bertie, you haven't done a thing yet."

Katie blushed, for though she had not stopped work a single moment, she
had been tempted by her companion into breaking the rules; but Bertie
looked up insolently at the superintendent as she slowly took up some
of the rags, and muttered in a low tone, which was heard by most of her
neighbors:--

"Who's going to mind you? You're only a servant-girl, anyway;" for Miss
Peters had, in her early life, "lived out."

Whether Miss Peters heard or not Katie could not be sure, but she
thought she saw a heightened color in the young woman's face, and was
just going to ask her companion how she could be guilty of such
rudeness, when she remembered the rule in time, checked herself, and put
her finger significantly on her lips.

As to Bertie, she stared round the room, working a little now and then,
and talking aloud to herself as she could get no one to talk to her.
Miss Peters was very indignant; but thought it best to take no notice
just yet; for, as the girl had said, she was Mr. Sanderson's daughter,
and she did not know just how far it would do to enforce rules in her
case.

The girls in the rag-room were dismissed at five o'clock, so, as the
bindery did not close till six, Katie did not have the company of her
brothers on her homeward walk, Bertie taking their place, and talking
all the way about the indignity of working in a factory and the hardship
of having to work at all. She told about her cousins in the city, who
were quite fine ladies, according to Bertie's account, doing nothing but
play on the piano and do fancy-work. They were coming with their mother
to make a visit in the summer, and how ashamed she should be to appear
before them in the character of a paper-mill girl. The girl talked about
her father in anything but a respectful manner, but seemed to find
comfort in the thought of her silk dress. She had never had one yet, and
it had long been the goal of her ambition. What color