g, I'm always at home. Busy at work, too?" she continued,
putting a tiny cap upon her fist. "That looks droll, and tells tales."

"Oh, don't!--do spare me," cried Flora, snatching the article from her
odd companion, and hiding it away in the table-drawer. "I did not mean
that any one should catch me at this work."

"Don't think, my dear, that I am going to criticise you. I am no judge
of sewing,--never set a stitch in my life. It must be a dull way of
spending time. Can't you put your needle-work out?"

Flora shook her head.

"Too poor for that? Mrs. Turner's daughter takes in all such gimcracks.
Send what you've got over to her, and I'll pay for the making."

"Miss Carr!" said Flora, greatly distressed.

"What, angry again?"

"No, not exactly angry; but you wound my pride."

"It would do you no harm to kill it outright," said Miss Carr,
laughing--such a loud, jovial peal of merriment, which rang so clearly
from her healthy lungs, that Flora, in spite of her offended dignity,
was forced to laugh too.

"You feel better now. I hope the proud fit is going off, and we can
enjoy a reasonable chat. These clothes--what a bore they are, to both
poor and rich,--the rich setting their heart too much upon them, and the
poor despised because they have not enough to keep them warm,--and
those mean and old. Then, this is not all. There are the perpetual
changes of the fashions, which oblige people to put on what does not
suit them, and to make monstrous frights of themselves to dress in the
mode. You must have a morning-gown, a dinner-dress, and an evening
costume; all to be shifted and changed in the same day, consuming a deal
of time, which might be enjoyed in wholesome exercise. I have no
patience with such folly. The animals, let me tell you, are a great deal
better off than their masters. Nature has provided them with a coat
which never wants changing but once a-year; and that is done so
gradually, that they experience no inconvenience. No need of their
consulting the fashions, or patching and stitching to keep up a decent
appearance. It is a thousand pities that clothes were ever invented.
People would have been much healthier, and looked much better without
them."

"My dear madam, did not God himself instruct our first parents to make
garments of the skins of animals?"

"They were not necessary in a state of innocence, or He would have
created them like cows and horses, with clothes upon their backs," said
Wilhel