Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber’s Note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. THE TALE OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL [Illustration: AN OLD DOORWAY] THE TALE OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL BY ELIZABETH CYNTHIA BARNEY BUEL _Regent “Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter,” Daughters of the American Revolution_ ILLUSTRATED BY EMILY NOYES VANDERPOEL AUTHOR OF “COLOR PROBLEMS” AND “CHRONICLES OF A PIONEER SCHOOL” LITCHFIELD, CONNECTICUT MCMIII COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY ELIZABETH CYNTHIA BARNEY BUEL UNIVERSITY PRESS · JOHN WILSON AND SON · CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. DEDICATED IN GRATEFUL AFFECTION TO THE MARY FLOYD TALLMADGE CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION WHOSE READY SYMPATHY AND ENTHUSIASM HAVE NEVER FAILED IN WORK FOR “HOME AND COUNTRY” INTRODUCTORY NOTE The Tale of the Spinning-Wheel is revised and enlarged from a paper read before the Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, Connecticut; New England Society in the City of New York, Waldorf-Astoria, New York City; Mary Floyd Tallmadge Chapter, D. A. R., Litchfield; Judea Chapter, D. A. R., Washington, Connecticut; Massachusetts Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Boston; Katherine Gaylord Chapter, D. A. R., Bristol, Connecticut; Connecticut Society of the Colonial Dames of America, New Haven, and also in Hartford; Denver Chapter, D. A. R., Denver, Colorado; Warren and Prescott Chapter, D. A. R., Boston, Massachusetts; Orford Parish Chapter, D. A. R., South Manchester, Connecticut; National Arts Club, New York; Esther Stanley Chapter, D. A. R., New Britain, Connecticut; Annual Spring Conference, Connecticut D. A. R., at Middletown; Dorothy Ripley Chapter, D. A. R., Southport, Connecticut; Wiltwyck Chapter, D. A. R., Kingston, New York; Litchfield Club, Litchfield, Connecticut, etc., etc. THE TALE OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL “_Queens of Homespun, out of whom we draw our royal lineage._”—HORACE BUSHNELL. THE TALE OF THE SPINNING-WHEEL