weaver's to be
made into cloth. Part of the linen yarn was dyed blue, and, mingled with
white or unbleached yarn, was woven into a chequered stuff for the
curtains of servants' beds and for dresses for the maids and aprons for
their mistresses. In view of the fact that all the bed-linen and most of
the table-linen was thus made at home, one cannot wonder that a
house-wife's linen-closet was an object of special care and pride.

If there were at that time any woolen manufactories in the United
States, their powers of production must have been very limited, while
foreign cloths could only have been worn by the gentlemen, and by them
probably not at all times, for a few years later than the date of
madam's diary we find that English cloths were sold at the then fearful
prices of eighteen and twenty dollars per yard. So sheep must be kept
and sheared, and their wool carded, rolled and spun. As linen-spinning
was the fancy-work of winter, so wool-spinning was that of summer. Back
and forth before the loud-humming big wheel briskly stepped the cheerful
spinner through the long bright afternoons of summer, busily spinning
the yarn that was to be woven into cloths and flannels of different
textures. Busily indeed must both mistress and maids have stepped, for
not without their labors could be provided the coats and trousers, the
undershirts, the petticoats and the woolen sheets, to say nothing of
blankets, white or chequered, and the heavy coverlets of blue or green
and white yarns woven into curiously intermingling figures, all composed
of little squares; and last, but not least, the yarn for countless pairs
of long warm stockings for the feet of master and man, mistress and
maid. For as a legacy from dying slavery the servants were still unable
or unwilling to provide for their own wants, and the house-mistress had
frequently to knit Jack's stockings with her own fair fingers, as well
as to "cut out the stuff for Jim's pantaloons," which she will "try to
teach Silvy to sew."

Did we think that we had reached the last purpose for which the homespun
woolen yarn was required? We were mistaken, for here is the entry:
"To-day dyed the yarn for back-hall carpet. Remember to tell the weaver
that I prefer it plaided instead of striped."

Economy of time must, one would think, have been the most necessary of
economies to the old-time housewives. With so many things to do, how did
they find time to make those marvels of misplaced ind