Some of the family objected, for the Old World traditions about
factory life were anything but attractive; and they were current
in New England until the experiment at Lowell had shown that
independent and intelligent workers invariably give their own
character to their occupation. My mother had visited Lowell, and
she was willing and glad, knowing all about the place, to make it
our home.
The change involved a great deal of work. "Boarders" signified a
large house, many beds, and an indefinite number of people. Such
piles of sewing accumulated before us! A sewing-bee, volunteered
by the neighbors, reduced the quantity a little, and our child-
fingers had to take their part. But the seams of those sheets did
look to me as if they were miles long!
My sister Lida and I had our "stint,"--so much to do every day.
It was warm weather, and that made it the more tedious, for we
wanted to be running about the fields we were so soon to leave.
One day, in sheer desperation, we dragged a sheet up with us into
an apple-tree in the yard, and sat and sewed there through the
summer afternoon, beguiling the irksomeness of our task by
telling stories and guessing riddles.
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