194 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
men's clothing and the "linsey cloth" for her own 
are regarded by her with affectionate pride, for has 
she not created them out of nothing, you might 
say? To convert a long thread into a piece of stout 
cloth might well make any heart thrill with pride. 
Besides this, she weaves towels and blankets and, 
most prized of all, coverlets of elaborate design for 
the beds. 
"We used to have great gangs of sheep," the 
people say, " but now we have to buy all our wool, 
and it don't pay to weave noway." " I 'd rather card 
and spin and weave than anything in my life," the 
older women who did this work in their youth tell 
you. It was the stock laws that drove away the 
sheep, for they had to be inclosed and this made 
raising them unprofitable — so the people explain, 
but one suspects it is really the cheap machine-made 
cloth, to be had at every country store, that has 
conquered the loom. 
There are not many looms within easy reach of 
the larger places, prosperity and contact with the 
outside world, be it ever so slight, soon retiring the 
loom. Yet there are a few looms even there, and in 
the remoter regions, far from railways and summer 
visitors, they are still in common use. With what 
pleasure one recalls certain high valleys where under 
the shadow of blue domes and green slopes one finds 
in every second house a great loom taking up half 
the room ! And those quaint log cabins whose beds 
are spread with blue and white coverlets such as are 
cherished in old New England farmhouses! 
