't need so many rules and the work
would not be so hard. One thing more: I believe you are to be in the
rag-room; that is a dirty place, in spite of all our efforts to keep it
clean and well ventilated; you won't find it very pleasant there always,
but perhaps you can learn to _endure_ for Christ's and duty's sake; and
every one has to begin at the bottom, you know, who means to climb to
the top of the ladder."

During the latter part of this talk the gentleman and the child had been
ascending flight after flight of broad, open staircases, as well as
several narrow, spiral ones, crossing machinery-rooms, where great arms
and wheels and screws, in constant motion, made the little girl shudder,
and threading narrow passages and outside balconies, where the broad
raceway foamed and roared fifty or sixty feet beneath them. Katie had
never been inside of the great paper-mill before, though she had always
admired its fine proportions and handsome architecture from the outside.
She was surprised now to see how really beautiful everything was. The
floors were laid in wood of two contrasting colors; the balusters were
of solid black walnut; there were rows and rows of clear glass windows
in the rooms and corridors, while the machinery was either of shining
steel or polished brass. In some of the rooms were girls tending the
ruling and cutting and folding machines, and occasionally one would nod
to Katie, but no one spoke except where the work rendered it necessary.

At last the room next to the top of the vast building was reached, and
there Mr. James opened a door and ushered Katie into a room which
extended the whole length of one side of the building. The windows, of
which there were fifteen, were wide open, but for all that the air was
so thick with dust that at first Katie drew back with a sense of
suffocation.

"I told you it would not be pleasant," said Mr. James, "but this is your
appointed place. Be a brave girl, and when you are used to it it won't
seem so bad."

The sense of suffocation was caused by the particles of dust with which
the air was heavily laden, and which flew from the piles of rags which
over fifty girls were busily engaged in sorting, putting the
dark-colored ones by themselves, the medium-colored by themselves, and
the white ones--or those that had been white--into large boxes. As soon
as these boxes were filled they were placed on wheelbarrows and emptied
into long slides by men who waited for th