With these I can make you hose,
shirts, clothes, thread, rope; in short, give me flax, and make me a
loom and some frames, and I shall be at no loss for work when the rain
comes."
I could not help a smile at my wife's joy when she heard the name of
flax; for there was still much to do ere the leaves could take the
shape of cloth. But two of the boys set off at once to try to find some
more of the flax.
While they were gone, my wife, full of new life, and with some show of
pride, told me how I should make the loom by means of which she was to
clothe us from head to foot. In a short time they came back, and
brought with them a good load of the plant, which they laid at her
feet. She now said she would lay by all else till she had tried what
she could make of it. The first thing to be done was to steep the flax.
To do this we took the plant down to the marsh, tied up in small bales,
as they pack hemp for sale. The leaves were then spread out in the
pond, and kept down with stones, and left there in that state till it
was time to take them out and set them in the sun to dry, when they
would be so soft that we could peel them with ease. It was two weeks
ere the flax was fit for us to take out of the marsh. We spread it out
on the grass in the sun, where it dried so quick that we took it home
to The Nest the same day.
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