iar face, and something seemed to rise in
her throat that she found hard to swallow; but just as she felt that she
_must_ have a good cry, and at the same time resolved that she wouldn't,
the great steam-whistle shrieked, the bell in the tower rang, the gates
opened from the inside, the gathered crowd rushed in, and all along the
road might be seen flying figures of men, women, boys, and girls,
hurrying to be in their places at the commencement of work and thus
avoid the fine imposed upon stragglers. There was a pause of a few
moments in the paved inside court while the inner doors of the great
brick building were opened, and then the incoming crowd entering in
various directions, scattered among the different corridors and left the
"new girl" standing alone and bewildered at the entrance.

In front of her stretched a long, narrow hall, clean and fresh
(Squantown Paper Mills were new and built after the most approved
models), with doors opening from it at intervals on both sides. Some of
these doors were open and some were shut; into some the work-people were
constantly disappearing, as though the doors were mouths that opened
suddenly and swallowed them up, and into some of the open ones Katie
peeped timidly and turned back disconsolately as she discovered that
they only afforded entrance to similar corridors, pierced by similar
rows of doors.

At length the last straggler had entered, gone his way, and disappeared,
and dead silence reigned. Katie felt as though she were alone in the
universe, and almost wondered if she were to be left there forever, when
a short, sharp, deafening whistle echoed through the hall, and at the
same instant the great building vibrated from top to bottom, the roar of
machinery swallowed up the silence, and the day's work began.

Immediately afterward a side door, close to where our little girl was
standing, opened, and out of it came the foreman of the mill, who had
been up to this moment in the office, receiving his orders for the day.

"Hallo, you!" he said crossly, seeing a girl standing idle in the hall;
"why don't you go about your business? Go to work if you belong here; go
home if you don't! No idlers or beggars allowed here, so close to the
office door, too. Come, run away quickly."

"If you please, Mr. Thornton, I've come to work in the mill, in the
rag-room, but I don't know which way to go."

"Oh!" said the foreman, "you're a new hand, eh? Rather a small one. It
seems to me