ear," Ellen's mother remarked. "But that is not all
she is doing. There is a cluster of bobbins hanging down one side of
the cushion which are wound with threads, and these threads she weaves
around the pins in such a manner as to make lace."

"I never saw anybody make lace that way. I have seen Aunt Maria knit
it with a crochet-hook."

"This is a different kind of lace altogether from the crocheted lace.
They do not make it in the United States. The woman whom you see in
the picture lives in Belgium in Europe. In that country, and in some
parts of France and Germany, many of the poorer people earn a living
at lace-making. The pattern which in making the lace it is intended to
follow is pricked with a pin on a strip of paper. This paper is
fastened on the cushion, and then pins are stuck in through all the
pin-holes, and then the thread from these bobbins is woven around the
lace."

"Can they work fast?"

"An accomplished lace-maker will make her hands fly as fast as though
she were playing the piano, always using the right bobbin, no matter
how many of them there may be. In making the pattern of a piece of
nice lace from two hundred to eight hundred bobbins are sometimes
used. In such a case it takes more than one person--sometimes as many
as seven--at a single cushion."

"It must be hard to do."

"I dare say it would be for you or me. Yet in those countries little
children work at lace-making. Little children, old women and the least
skilful of the men make the plainer and coarser laces, while
experienced women make the nicer sorts."

"What do they do with their lace when it is finished?"

"All the lace-makers in a neighborhood bring in their laces once a
week to the 'mistress'--for women carry on the business of
lace-making--then this 'mistress' packs them up and takes them to the
nearest market-town, where they are peddled about from one
trading-house to another until they are all sold."

"Do they get much for them?"

"The poor lace-makers get hardly enough to keep them from starvation
for their fine and delicate work; but the laces, after they have
passed through the hands of one trader after another, and are at last
offered to the public, bring enormous prices. A nice library might be
bought for the price of a set of laces, or a beautiful house built at
the cost of a single flounce."

"I think I should rather have the house, mamma."

"So should I. But the people who buy these laces probably have ho