"I thought everybody called that shoddy." "I know they do, and I used to do so myself before I came here." "But what are the 'flocks' that we have here made of?" "Old rags." "I thought shoddy was made from old rags." "They are both made from them. The best ones are put into shoddy, and the odds and ends into flocks." "Well, if this stuff is flocks, how is shoddy made, and what does it look like?" "It is something like wool. The rags are fed into a 'picker' up in the 'pick room,' and come out all torn apart." "What is it used for then?" "It is mixed with a little coarse wool, and carded into rope yarn, the same as wool, ready to be spun." "The idea of weaving shoddy into cloth is new to me. It can't make very good cloth." "Well, they only use it for the back of the cloth. Here, look at this piece! See; it is white on one side and brown on the other. The white side is the face, and is made from good wool. You see we are beating these flocks in on the back side." "Yes, I see you are; and now as you've told me about shoddy, I'd like to know about flocks, for that's what I have got to handle, I suppose." "I guess you'll know all you want to about them before you've been here long. I'm 'bout dead from being in this dust so much. It fills a feller all up. See how thick it is now, and you're drawing it in with every breath." By this time the other machine was ready for action, and Carl, finding that they were short of flocks, gave Fred a basket, took another himself, and both boys started for a fresh supply. They went up stairs, passed through the "gig room," and across a long hall which opened into a little room by itself, where the rag grinders were humming away. This was their destination. Carl filled one of the baskets with flocks and the other with ground rags; then turning to Fred, said: "You wanted to know about flocks and how they are made. This is the first machine they go through. You see that pile of rags and odds and ends. When they have been run through here, they will come out cut up fine, like those I just put in your basket. Now we will go back, and I will show you the next process they go through." Each of the boys now shouldered his basket and returned down the stairs. There Carl turned his flocks upon the cloth that was rapidly being filled, and then emptied the contents of the other basket into a tub or tank, which was about five feet wide by fifteen long. It was full of thick, muddy looking water, which was rapidly going round the tank. It struck Fred as a curious proceeding when he saw the fine cut rags thrown into that place; it looked to him very much like throwing them away, and he was about to ask an explanation when Carl satisfied his curiosity by saying: "This is the wet grinder. We put the rags in here, and run them in water about three hours until they are ground up as fine as can be, and look just like porridge." "What do you do with the porridge?"