for a working-girl as to deny her the cheap privilege of sitting down
when she could do him no good by standing up. Yet the great
establishment is still continued, with all its gorgeous display of
plate-glass windows, its polished counters, its wealth of costly goods,
and its long array of tortured saleswomen.

These instances of complicated affliction among needle-women by no means
embrace all that came under my notice. They were so numerous that it was
impossible for me to avoid seeing and feeling that no such grief had
been permitted to come over me. I trust that my heart was sufficiently
grateful for this immunity,--for I became satisfied, that, if we were to
thank God for all His blessings, we should have little time to complain
of misfortunes. I know that I endeavored to be so. I labored to take a
cheering view of what we then considered a very gloomy prospect. And
this disposition to contrast our condition with that of others, while it
taught me wisdom, brought with it a world of consolation. I saw that
there was a bright side to everything,--that the sky was oftener blue
than black; and my floral experiences in the garden taught me that it
was the sunshine, and not the cloud, that makes the flower. It became
my study to look only on the bright side of things, convinced, that, if
the present were a little overcast, there was a future for us that would
be all delightful. I was full of hope; and the eye of hope can discover
a star in the thickest darkness, a rainbow even in the blackest cloud.

Hence I went cheerfully to learn the art of operating a sewing-machine,
in which I soon became so expert as to prove a profitable pupil. There
were from a dozen to twenty learners beside myself, some few of whom
were educated and agreeable girls, the daughters of families moving in
genteel circles, who had come there with a sensible ambition to acquire
a thorough knowledge of the art. With these I formed a very pleasant
acquaintance, so that my apprenticeship of a few weeks, instead of being
a dull and lifeless probation, calculated to depress my spirits, was
really an agreeable episode in my quiet career, cheering by its new
associations, and invigorating by reason of the unmistakable evidences
occurring almost daily that a sewing-girl was probably the last machine
whose labor was to become obsolete.

The fame of these schools for female operatives went all over the
country, and attracted crowds of visitors. Some of thes