two spinnerets in the mouth, from which 

 the silk issues as if one thread, but it is 

 easily separated into two threads. A 

 single fiber is often eleven hundred feet 

 in length." 



''What a curious Httle machine he is," 

 said John ; "but I should like to ask how 

 people ever come to think of raising silk- 

 worms ?" 



"The word silk, you must know, is 

 from sericum, so called from the coun- 

 try of the 'Seres' or China. More than 

 two thousand years before Christ, in the 

 reign of Hoang-Ti the Queen, Si-Ling- 

 Chi, first discovered and utiHzed the 

 product of the silk-worm. She prose- 

 cuted her researches until she learned 

 how to breed and rear the worms; so 

 the world is indebted to a woman for one 

 of its best industries. But although Si- 

 Ling-Chi taught the women the whole 

 process, even to the reeling of the silk, 

 yet China kept the secret from other na- 

 tions for two thousand years." 



"How pleased the Chinese must have 

 been with so wise a Queen !" 



"Indeed they were pleased, as is shown 

 by the fact that she has ever since been 

 worshipped as the 'goddess of silk- 

 worms.' " 



"Did a woman tell the secret at last?" 

 asked Howard, slyly. 



"No. Men 'let the cat out of the bag.' 

 Some monks took hollow bamboo staffs, 

 or canes, and filled them with silk-worm 

 eggs, and thus, unsuspected, they suc- 

 ceeded in carrying the precious eggs out 

 of the country, and, in this way, a be- 

 ginning in silk-worm culture was made 

 in Europe, from whence it slowly spread 

 over various countries." 



"How long have silk-worms been 

 raised in America?" Alice inquired. 



"Since the early days of colonial his- 

 tory," Aunt Jane replied. "The South- 

 ern States are well adapted to the silk 

 industry. As early as 1759 the export 

 of raw silk from Georgia exceeded ten 

 thousand pounds per year. Our govern- 

 ment is so anxious to make this a pro- 

 ductive resource in the United States that 

 of late years Congress has appropriated 

 many thousands of dollars for the en- 

 couragement of the silk industry." 



"I should like to know," said Howard, 

 "how much trouble silk-worm raising 

 will be before I go into the business. 



How hard would one have to work, and 

 how about the profits?" 



"Let me see," said Aunt Jane, medi- 

 tatively. "The worms from one ounce 

 of eggs will produce cocoons that will 

 weight, after they are choked, twenty- 

 three to thirty-one pounds, which will 

 sell at eighty cents to one dollar a pound. 

 The worms require close attention for 

 six or eight wrecks, must be fed several 

 times a day, and will consume one thou- 

 sand six hundred pounds of food." 



"Hear, hear, children, why don't you 

 listen ? Aunt Jane says these worms will 

 eat one thousand six hundred pounds of 

 leaves ! Now, look out — that means 

 work for us, and when she sells them, 

 she will not, very likely, get over twen- 

 ty-five dollars for all her trouble, to say 

 nothing of ours ! We can't have the face 

 to even ask her to treat on such profits! 

 As sure as my name is Howard, I'm 

 not going to join the 'Cocoon Firm.' " 



"But we will have fun gathering the 

 leaves, besides getting acquainted with 

 the worms," Edith insisted. "I'll be sure 

 to help you. Auntie, even if Howard will 

 not. Do tell us more about the silk- 

 worm." 



"Did I tell you," she responded, "that 

 I heard a slight clicking sound in the 

 turnip-seed-like eggs, just before the 

 eggs hatched?" 



"No; but I suppose the little fellows 

 were trying to get out. How long after 

 they hatch before they begin to spin?" 



"From thirty to forty days." 



"Well, good-bye," said Howard. "I'll 

 come back here in a month to see them 

 spin." 



"The naughty boy," exclaimed Alice. 

 "He wants to get out of the task of gath- 

 ering leaves for the worms. I mean to 

 write the history of 'Our Japanese Pets,' 

 and when I read it he shall not hear a 

 word of it." 



"Good," cried the sympathetic chil- 

 dren : "Howard shan't know anything we 

 learn about the silk-worms. We'll go up 

 in the barn loft when Alice reads her his- 

 tory." 



"That won't do," John objected. 

 "Howard will hide in the hay, or sit on 

 the ladder and make fun ; we must come 

 to the cocoonery and lock the door." 



This arrangement was decided upon, 

 and so a few weeks later. Aunt Jane and 



