58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY 



In addition to the instruments for preparing the 

 flax there was much other machinery : a rope-yarn 

 wheel, for my father made all the rope used on the 

 farm which was not a little ; a tow and flax wheel ; 

 the large wheel for spinning wool; the swifts for 

 forming the yarn into skeins ; and the quill wheel. 

 In my time most of the weaving was done by pro- 

 fessional weavers at their homes at a stipulated 

 price per yard. In later years the wool prepared 

 for the cards was sent to the factory where it was 

 transformed either into yarn for stockings and 

 mittens or into cloth. At a still later period the 

 unprepared wool was traded for cloth and yarn. 



In the fall, my mother would go to Seneca Falls 

 and purchase cloth for the grown-ups and buttons 

 and linings. Then with a great roll of sheep's 

 gray and a sleigh or wagon-load of children she 

 proceeded to the nearest approved tailor where 

 we were all measured for our outside winter cloth- 

 ing. Then there came to the house two or three 

 seamstresses who would make up the cut-out gar- 

 ments in from two to four weeks. Sometimes they 

 were directed to cut off some of the old trousers 

 legs above the knee, rip the seams and re-sew them 

 with the fronts of the legs behind and the backs in 

 front. That deferred the time when someone had 



