d surely trade brings about greater
prosperity everywhere."

"It was to bring back to France that prosperity and peace that your
family and mine went to the war," murmured Pierre gently.

"Yes. And if this can be accomplished, and this frightful war be the
last war of the world it will be worth all that we have sacrificed,"
returned the older boy fervently. "But peace is a long time in coming."

He sighed.

"And prosperity will be still longer, I fear," added Pierre soberly.

There was an instant of tense silence.

Both boys were thinking.

"Speaking of commerce," resumed Henri, breaking in upon the serious
tenor of the moment and speaking in his former tone, "you doubtless know
that before the opening of the Suez Canal London was the great raw silk
centre of the world; now our own Marseilles leads, or did before this
fighting began. And we must not leave out Italy when talking of
silk-growing nations, for our neighbors, the Italians, have done as much
if not more silk exporting as has France. You see their climate is ideal
for raising silkworms; and when they are not beset by a plague that
destroys their crops, as it did between 1864 and 1878, the industry
prospers wonderfully with them. The thread from the Italian cocoons
seems to be naturally stronger than ours, and some of the best quality
raw silk in the world comes from small Italian villages. Then, too, of
course Italian labor is cheap. While in France we pay unskilled reeling
operatives from twenty to twenty-five cents a day Italian workmen doing
the same thing get only fifteen or twenty cents. There is not so much
American machinery used in Italy as here, however, and therefore some
merchants in the United States prefer French to Italian thread. But
generally speaking the very finest and highest priced silks made in
America are manufactured from French or Italian material. For many
purposes where less perfect thread is required the Americans use silk
from the East. It is cheaper, and manufacturers cannot afford the more
costly Italian and French thread for everything they make. Importing the
material in bulk, even compactly as it is shipped, is enormously
expensive. For you see there is always the chance of loss in the silk
business."

"Why?"

"Because although silk is necessary in the manufacture of certain
indispensable articles it is for the most part a luxury, and the demand
for it fluctuates. When times are hard people go without silk gowns and