Down North and Up Along 
ful and always interesting. They cover the 
otherwise bare floor of the parlour, where there 
is one, and make spots of warmth for the feet 
in kitchen and bedroom. They are made of 
rags " hooked " into a foundation of coarse 
cotton cloth. 
The women save their rags and colour them 
charmingly from the bark of trees and from 
plants which they gather in the forest and 
steep for the purpose. With these coloured 
rags they work through the long winters, creat- 
ing marvellous patterns of flower or bird, or 
merely of combinations of geometric figures, or 
of figures known to no science whatever. They 
vie with one another and willingly endure much 
weariness, for a large rug is a back-aching and a 
finger-aching task. One who has not seen 
these creations could hardly believe there were 
such possibilities in rags. They are to the 
women of Cape Breton what worsted work, 
wax flowers, and various forms of painting are 
to the country people of some other places. 
But here the occupation never changes, the craze 
of one season is the craze of the next. Often 
these rugs were more lurid than harmonious 
in their colours, but the most of them gave a 
