rom the
outside of the cocoon; but plain braids, Pierre was interested to know,
were made in America as cheaply and well as in Europe, most of them
being manufactured from artificial silk.

It was a great surprise to Pierre to find there was such a thing as
artificial silk.

"I knew there were artificial flowers and artificial--well, almost
everything," laughed Pierre to his mother. "But artificial silk!"

He gasped.

"What is it made of, Pierre?" questioned Madame Bretton, who had come to
regard with wonder the fund of information her big son was acquiring.

"The man who told me about it said that cotton and the pulp from soft
wood were used for one sort," he answered. "Another kind comes from
dissolving cellulose in chemicals, and forcing this mixture through long
tubes into some sort of a bath that makes the material come out in
threads; these threads can then be wound, spun, washed, soaked, and
dyed. Here in America most of the artificial silk which, by the way, is
known as viscose, has cellulose in some form as its base, afterward
being treated with different combinations of chemicals."

"What shall we do with you, Pierre, if you learn so much?" questioned
Madame Bretton mischievously.

Pierre smiled.

"I'm going to learn every bit I can, so that I may soon work up to
earning lots of money," he said. "Then you and Marie can leave the
mills, and I can take care of you."

"You are a good son," his mother answered with an odd little catch in
her voice. "But do not be distressed because we are in the mills. Indeed
we are very happy there."

"You would make the best of anything you had to do, Mother; you're that
sort," replied the boy, taking her hand in his. "But I know well it is
hard for you to work at a machine all day when you have never been
accustomed to it, and I do not mean you shall do it one moment longer
than I can help."

"There, there, son----" his mother's eyes filled, and to change the
subject she said briskly:

"And these artificial silks of which you were telling me--are they good
for anything else but for making braids?"

"Yes, indeed. Nitro and viscose silks are more brilliant and lustrous
than are real silks. They have no such soft feeling, however. They feel
more like the harsh, loaded silks made from thread which has been
chemically weighted. But they are coming into demand more and more for
such purposes as the warp and filling of various sorts of fabrics, rugs,
silk stockings,