"Yes," replied Johnny, "for as it was holiday time, there came trains from Nottingham and Leicester and other factory towns, ever so far off. You may think what a treat it is to the children, who often come with their parents; and the trains make them pay very little when there is so many of them, and so both old and young are so glad and so happy. First, you know, they have a long ride in the train, and then such fine gardens to amuse themselves in, and large rooms where they may eat the dinner they bring with them, or drink tea, just as they choose; they have hot water and tea-things for nothing; and if they don't bring tea with them, they may get it there, and bread and butter too, for three-pence. But they cannot buy any beer or spirits; that is not allowed, for fear they should get tipsy, for that would be doing wrong. "Then in the Easter holidays there comes a fiddler, and the people all dance, that is, all those who like it, and know how. There is a large flat piece of grass like a bowling green, on purpose for them to dance on." THE FACTORY. "Pray," said Willy, going on with the conversation, "tell me something about the factories, where you say so many of these people work." Johnny replied, "that as he worked in a farm, and not in a factory, he did not understand much about it; but," said he, "I once went to see the mills at Milford, a few miles from Derby, for I have an uncle who works there, and one day he took me all over them, and showed me every thing." "Are mills and a factory the same thing?" asked Willy. "I know no difference," replied Johnny. "And what did you see there?" "All sorts of things. There were great wheels and little wheels, and spindles which turned round like wheels, and large rollers that turned round too, and many other things; and uncle told me it was all called machinery." "But what do they do with all this machinery?" "They spin cotton wool; but do you know what cotton wool is?" "Yes," replied Willy, "it is what mamma puts to my ear to keep it warm when I have the ear-ache; but that is not at all like thread. I am sure you could never thread a needle with it." "No, not before it is spun; but then it makes all the nice cotton-thread that is wound on little bobbins to sew with." "Then, I dare say," said Willy, "that the wheels and spindles at the factory are like grandmamma's spinning-wheel; she turns the wheel with her foot, and the wheel turns the spindle, and she twists the flax with her fingers; for she does not spin cotton, but flax." "That is much the same," observed Betsey, "only flax makes stronger thread; we all know the difference at school well enough. When we sew with cotton it often breaks, but thread made of flax very seldom does." "Then, if I was a girl, I would always sew with flax," said Willy. "When you are at school you must sew with what the school-mistress gives you, and that is almost always cotton, because it is cheaper."