ulations.
He loved fresh air himself, and took vast pains to make his works sweet
and wholesome for those who breathed therein. Even Levi Baggs could not
grumble, for the exhaust draught in his hackling shop was stronger than
the law demanded, and the new cyclone separators in the main buildings
served to keep the air far purer than of old.

Ironsyde had established also the Kestner System of atomising water, to
regulate temperature and counteract the electrical effects of east wind,
or frost, on the light slivers. He was always on the lookout for new
automatic means to regulate the drags on the bobbins. He had installed
an automatic doffing apparatus, and made a departure from the usual dry
spinning in a demi-sec, or half-dry, spinning frame, which was new at
that time, and had offered excellent results and spun a beautifully
smooth yarn.

These things all served to assist and relieve the workers in varying
degree, but, as Raymond often pointed out, they were taken for granted
and, sometimes, in his gloomier moments, he accused his people of
lacking gratitude. They, for their part, were being gradually caught up
in the growing movements of labour. The unintelligent forgot to credit
the master with his consideration; while those who could think, were
often soured by suspicion. These ignorant spirits doubted not that he
was seeking to win their friendship against the rainy days in store for
capital.

Ironsyde came to the works one morning to watch a new Twist Frame and a
new operator. The single strand yarn for material from the spinners was
coming to the Twist Frame to be turned into twines and fishing lines.
Four full bobbins from the spinning machine went to each spindle of the
Twist Frame, and from it emerged a strong 'four-ply.' It was a machine
more complicated than the spinner; and, as only a good billiard player
can appreciate the cleverness of a great player, so only a spinner might
have admired the rare technical skill of the woman who controlled the
Twist Frame.

The soul of the works persisted, though the people and the machines were
changed. The old photographs and old verses had gone, but new pictures
and poems took their places in the workers' corners; and new
fashion-plates hung where the old ones used to hang. The drawers, and
the rovers, the spreaders and the spinners still, like bower-birds,
adorned the scenes of their toil. A valentine or two and the portrait of
a gamekeeper and his dog hung besi