110 
NATURE’S CRAFTSMEN 
placed it may be. It was the Empress Si- 
Ling-Chi who discovered the secret of making 
cloth from the silk of the silkworms, in the reign 
of the third Emperor of China, 2,700 years be¬ 
fore Christ was born. For centuries the Chinese 
guarded the secret with jealous care, and the 
work of rearing the worms was considered fitting 
labor for queens and the nobly born. The pen¬ 
alty for carrying the eggs out of China was 
death.” 
“ I know,” said Mabel. “ I was reading just 
the other day how two Persian monks managed 
to learn the secret, and finally escaped to their 
own realm with a quantity of silkworm eggs safe 
in the hollow handle of a bamboo cane. Shortly, 
then, the exacting demands of the Oriental silk 
merchants were broken; for the industry once it 
had escaped bounds spread like wild-fire. Silk 
was first manufactured in England in the reign 
of Edward III, and for long years ‘ the mystery 
of the silkwomen ’ was protected by an Act of 
Parliament. France, who later came to excel in 
silk-making, did not establish her silk industries 
until 1564.” 
“ Tell us about the little craftsmen themselves, 
Auntie,” Tommy requested, bobbing up from a 
corner where he had been poring over a book. “ I 
wonder, could I grow ’em? ” 
“ To be sure you could,” Miss Merryhew re- 
