"How did you learn so much about finishing cloth? You have been here but a little while." "My father worked in a mill, and I have heard him talk about it. Then I have been in a factory enough myself to know pretty nearly everything that is done." "Do we take the cloth direct from the weave room? It doesn't look as though anything had been done to it when it reaches us." "It is 'burled' first; then we get it." "'Burled'? What do you mean by that?" "Why, the knots are all cut off. You see the weavers have to tie their warp on the back side when it breaks, and that is what makes the knots." "I don't see what harm those little things would do, as you say they are on the back of the cloth." "They are the worst things there are, for if one of them gets in by accident it is sure to make a hole through the cloth when it runs through the shears." Thus, with work and talk, the day flew by almost before Fred was aware of it. In fact, the hours seemed shorter to him than any he had passed for weeks. Now there was something new to occupy his attention, and work enough to keep his hands busy. The many curious machines before him, of which Carl had told him a little, interested him much--so much, indeed, that even at the end of the first day he felt no small desire to know more of them. XVIII. In the evening, after Fred's second day in the factory, as he sat with his parents in their pleasant home, and the thought of Carl and of his sad deformity and still sadder story recurred to him, he could not help contrasting the circumstances of the little humpback with his own. Two mornings before, as he entered the mill, he had felt that his burden was almost greater than he could bear. He was disgraced and thrown out of his position, and was about entering upon a cheerless life, where there was but little opportunity for advancement. But now, as he reflected upon his surroundings, he saw that he was much better off than many others. He had both father and mother, who loved and cared for him, who provided for him a cheerful home, and who would at any time sacrifice their own pleasures and comforts for his. Moreover, he was well and strong, and had the advantage of attending school, while Carl had been obliged to go into the mill at a little more than ten years of age, in order to earn something toward the support of his mother and invalid father. It was while thus employed that he met with the terrible accident that so deformed him and blighted his young life.