comes out, not a silkworm at all, but a moth
with head and wings and legs and eyes. This moth lays hundreds of
eggs, and in less than three weeks it dies.

This is what the silkworm will do if it is left alone; but it is the
business of the silk-raiser to see that it is not left alone. About
eight days after the cocoon is begun, it is steamed or baked to kill
the chrysalis so that it cannot make its way out and so spoil the
silk. The quarter of an ounce of eggs will make about thirty pounds
of cocoons. Now is the time to be specially watchful, for there is
nothing in which rats and mice so delight as a plump, sweet chrysalis;
and they care nothing whatever for the three or four thousand yards of
silk that is wound about each one.

To take this silk off is a delicate piece of work. A single fiber is
not much larger than the thread of a cobweb, and before the silk can
be used, several threads must be united in one. First, the cocoon is
soaked in warm water to loosen the gum that the worm used to stick its
threads together. Ends of silk from half a dozen or more cocoons are
brought together, run through a little hole in a guide, and wound on a
reel as one thread. This needs skill and practice, for the reeled silk
must be kept of the same size. The cocoon thread is so slender that,
of course, it breaks very easily; and when this happens, another
thread must be pieced on. Then, too, the inner silk of the cocoon is
finer than the outer; so unless care is taken to add threads, the
reeled silk will be irregular. The water must also be kept just warm
enough to soften the gum, but not too hot.

The silk is taken off the reel, and the skeins are packed up in bales
as if it were of no more value than cotton. Indeed, it does not look
nearly so pretty and attractive as a lap of pure white cotton, for it
is stiff and gummy and has hardly any luster. Now it is sent to the
manufacturer. It is soaked in hot soapy water for several hours, and
it is drawn between plates so close together that, while they allow
the silk to go through, they will not permit the least bit of
roughness or dirt to pass. If the thread breaks, a tiny "faller," such
as are used in cotton mills, falls down and stops the machine. The
silk must now be twisted, subjected to two or three processes to
increase its luster, and dyed,--and if you would like to feel as if
you were paying a visit to a rainbow, go into a mill and watch the
looms with their smooth, brilliant