ut seventy
dollars. The interest upon this, with necessary repairs, may be
reckoned at about five dollars per year.

To every six-foot rug goes two-thirds of a pound of warp, and this
would amount to from ten-and-a-half to fourteen cents, according to
the rate of purchase. To every such rug must go three pounds of cotton
or two pounds of woolen rags, costing for cotton thirty and for woolen
fifty cents. To the cotton rugs must be added the possible cost of
dye-stuffs, which, again, might cost twenty cents, making cost of
material in either cotton or woolen rugs from sixty to sixty-four
cents.

As far as profit is concerned, if rag rugs are well made they will
sell for two dollars each, if successful in colour, from two dollars
and a half to three and a half, and if beautiful and exceptional in
colour and finish from four to six dollars. But it must be remembered
that this latter price will be for rugs which have artistic value.
Probably the average weaver can safely reckon upon one dollar and
eighty-five cents to two dollars regular profit for the labor of
sewing and filling and weaving and knotting the rugs. It is fair to
accept this as a basis for regular profit, the amount of which must
depend upon facility of production and the ability to produce
unexceptionable things.

But it is not alone pecuniary gain which should be considered. Ability
to produce or create a good thing is in itself a happiness, and the
value of happiness cannot easily be reckoned. The knowledge necessary
to such production is a personal gain. Everything we can do which
people generally cannot or do not do, or which we can do better than
others, helps us to a certain value of ourselves which makes life
valuable. For this reason, then, as well as for the gain of it, a loom
in the house and a knowledge of weaving is an advantage, not only for
the elders, but to the children. If the boys and girls in every
farmhouse were taught to create more things, they would not only be
abler as human beings, but they would not be so ready to run out into
the world in search of interesting occupations. A loom, a
turning-lathe, a work-bench, and a chest of tools, a house-organ or
melodeon, and a neighbourhood library, would keep boys and girls at
home, and make them more valuable citizens when independent living
became a necessity. Everything which broadens the life, which must by
reason of narrow means and fixed occupation be stationary, gives
something of