to the "Ax Handle Factory" to obtain wood
ashes to use as a fertilizer, his wife remarked, "Why not take Mary
with you, John? She can stop at Singmaster's with a basket of carpet
rags for Sadie. I've been wanting to send them over for some time."
Turning to Mary, she said: "Poor little, crippled Sadie! On account of
a fall, which injured her spine, when a small child, she has been
unable to walk for years. She cuts and sews carpet rags, given her by
friends and neighbors, and from their sale to a carpet weaver in a
near-by town, helps her widowed mother eke out her small income."

"I'd love to go see her," said Mary. Elizabeth Schmidt also expressed
her willingness to go, when asked, saying: "I am positive mother will
add her contribution to the carpet rags for Sadie, I do pity her so
very much."

"Yes," said Mary's Aunt, "she is poor and proud. She will not accept
charity, so we persuade her to take carpet rags, as we have more than
we can possibly use."

On reaching the Singmaster cottage, the girls alighted with their
well-filled baskets, Mary's Uncle driving on to the "Ax Handle
Factory," promising to call for the girls on his return. The sad,
brown eyes of Sadie, too large for her pinched, sallow face, shone
with pleasure at sight of the two young girls so near her own age, and
she smiled her delight on examining the numerous bright-colored
patches brought by them. Thinking the pleasure she so plainly showed
might appear childish to the two girls, she explained: "I do get so
dreadfully tired sewing together so many dull homely rags. I shall
enjoy making balls of these pretty, bright colors."

"Sadie," Mary inquired, "will you think me inquisitive should I ask
what the carpet weaver pays you for the rags when you have sewed and
wound them into balls?"

"Certainly not," replied Sadie. "Four cents a pound is what he pays
me. It takes two of these balls to make a pound," and she held up a
ball she had just finished winding.

"Is _that all_ you get?" exclaimed Elizabeth.

"Have you ever made rag rugs?" inquired Mary.

"No, I have never even seen one. Are they anything like braided mats?"

"Yes, they are somewhat similar to them, but I crochet mine and think
them prettier. I have made several, with Aunt Sarah's assistance. I'll
come over and teach you to make them one of these days, should you
care to learn, and I'm positive you will find ready sale for them. In
fact, I've several friends in the city who have