"No; I went back into the mill and stayed until my mother died; then I came here." "Did you say your father was dead?" "Yes; he died while I was sick." "Have you any brothers or sisters?" "No; I have no one but my uncle." "I suppose he is kind to you?" "Yes, he is; but Aunt Gretchen don't seem to like me very well, she has so many children of her own." "I should think you would board somewhere else, then." "My uncle wants me to stay with him. If I boarded at the factory boarding house my wages wouldn't more than pay my board, and I shouldn't have anything left to buy my clothes with. If I should leave him and then get sick he wouldn't take care of me, and I should have to go to the poorhouse. I have always dreaded that since the city helped us when we were all sick." "Well, you will soon be strong enough, I hope, to get another job, where there is more pay." This conversation was now interrupted by the appearance of Hanks, who said to Fred: "Come along up stairs with me, Worthington; I want yer ter help me lug some cloth down. I'll show yer where ter find it; then yer kin git it yerself erlone. Yer look stout 'nuff ter handle it 's well as me." Each shouldered a web of cloth which made a bundle about two feet through and six feet long--rather a heavy burden for a boy; still, Fred handled it easily and quickly, deposited it by the flockers, and turned to his superior for further orders. "Take out them pieces next; they have run long enough. Carl will help you about doing it; then you may go up and bring down two more pieces." With these orders he vanished, and the boys went to their work. "How long do these have to be run?" asked Fred of the little humpback. "About three hours. If they stayed in longer than that they would get too heavy." "This light stuff don't make them so very much heavier, does it?" "Oh, yes; we can beat in flocks enough to double the weight of the cloth." "Is that so?" exclaimed the new hand incredulously; and then added, after a moment's thought, "But I should think they would all tumble out." "I suppose they would if the cloth wasn't fulled as soon as we get through with it; but that sort of sets them in." "Where do they full it?" "Out in the fulling mills, near the extractor. Didn't you see those long wooden things with the covers turned back, and the cloth going up through them so fast?" "Yes, I saw them, but didn't know what they were. I don't see how going through those fulls the cloth." "It's the stuff they put in--fuller's earth and soap; they pile the soft soap in by the dishful, and it makes a great lather. I s'pose the fuller's earth is what does the most of the work. After the cloth comes out of the fulling mills it's 'bout twice as thick as when it goes in, and feels all stiff and heavy. It's no more like what it is now than nothing." "What's the next process it goes through?" "It goes into the washers next, and is washed as clean as can be."