Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/166

 160 warp, which appeared all on the right side, of fine wool coarsely spun; and the weft, of very coarse wool, combed like fine wool, and spun in a thick, compact thread. The second piece was begun, upon this new and successful plan, just two months after I received the family into my house. The one piece of twenty yards, which was all that we had to show for our labor, sold for threepence a yard, but we did not tell any one how long we had been employed in making it.

I kept an exact account of all that I had expended in these fruitless attempts and the small proceeds resulting from the sale of the first piece made my inmate very discreet and considerate in his expenses. He never asked me for any money that he could possibly do without.

By degrees he became more expert in the work. He was soon able to make half-a-yard a-day, then a yard, and after more practice several yards. When the second piece was taken out of the frame it appeared really handsome, and was as strong and substantial as the Norwich Calimanco; but there was great disappointment when it came home from the mill where it had been pressed, it looked no better than a coarse coverlet, for it had great strong hairs sticking out in all directions. I recollected that when I was at school I had often gone to warm myself in a hatter's shop opposite to the school, and I used to watch the process of burning off the long hairs from the hats with a wisp of straw, so I thought that a similar plan might be adopted for remedying the defect in my Calimanco.

A hat can easily be turned round in the hand to apply the flame to all sides, not so a long piece of stuff. A machine would be required to apply it with certainty and regularity. I was too impatient to wait for the production of a machine,