That was "religion," mamma said. Aunt Betsy would cry,
and say:
"Get up, Sarah, you make me ashamed of myself."
Yes, she would go to Mam' Sarah at the loom-house. It was considered a
great treat by Roberta to go down to the loom-house. That was where the
wool, cotton, and flax was carded, spun, and wove, then manufactured into
winter and summer clothes for the negroes on the place. Yard upon yard of
beautiful red and black flannel, blue and brown linseys, and blue and
white striped cottonades, for the women, jeans for the men, and that
coarse fabric called tow-linen made from the refuse of flax. The
wonderful counterpanes, I have mentioned before, were manufactured there
and the linen for sheets and towels. Let me tell you something curious
while I am on the subject of the loom-house: Roberta's grandmother raised
silk-worms in the room adjoining. She fed them on mulberry leaves. Mam'
Sarah told Roberta they made a noise like wind while they were feeding.
Those worms spun fluffy balls of silk, called cocoons, that the old lady
reeled her silk thread from. She had all the silk thread and embroidery
floss she needed.
There were no silk-worms raised in Roberta's time, and the room was given
up to other uses.
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