Part 8 (1/2)

As he spoke he led the way into a long roo heaps of cocoons that were either piled high on tables or massed upon squares of canvas on the floor The roo in it was spotless

”We try to keep the cocoons fro soiled, you see,” explained Henri

”Is the sorting done by girls?” questioned Pierre, astonished

”Since the war, yes We have had to train theone to be soldiers It is not, of course, heavy work, but it requires skill and judgment since the many varieties of cocoons need different treatment Here, for example, are dupions, or double cocoons, which as you doubtless already know have more floss on the outside than do others, andcan be made Often they cannot be run off at all because the two caterpillars that worked together to le cocoon have intertwined the threads until they break all to bits e try to separate them Here is another species of cocoon” Henri pointed to a pile on the next table ”These are of beautiful texture, smooth and satiny But they ood proportion of the others, and the accuum mixed with the filaive you an idea howSoive off their silk too easily, and unless put into cool water will snarl; others fail to give off the thread at all and insteadit Another difficulty we sometimes encounter is that the reelers cannot catch the end of the thread to begin their work; this usually indicates that the water into which the cocoons have been put is too cool On the other hand if the silk ruffs up and comes off in snarls upon the brush, the matted masses indicate that the water is too hot All this the reelers must learn by experience, and they eneral laws underlie this feature of silk-reeling: hot water makes the silk run faster, and cold water retards its progress Your problem is to see which treatment your cocoons require”

”Of course those who sort the cocoons can tell nothing of that,”

ventured Pierre

”Oh, no The sorters simply put into one place those cocoons that are of the same kind The way the cocoons behave in the water is the business of the reeler We have tanks or basins of a graduated temperature, and the operators soon learn into which one to put a cocoon of a certain type”

”I did not dream one had to know so much just to reel off the silk,”

murmured Pierre ”I had always supposed it would be an easy hed

”But I have not told you half our troubles yet,” he answered mischievously ”Thus far I have spoken only of the cocoons In addition there is the water to consider That et it, both cheh te the silk off the cocoons will cause any sandy sediment there may be in it to rise to the surface and cut the filaency as well as the others And now to return to the sorting of the cocoons Do you see that pile over there? Those are e call perfect ones The thread froo into the finest quality silks and satins, as the filament has neither spots nor flaws”

”But those cocoons are very small,” objected Pierre

”Yes The best cocoons are not always the largest, by any means It is quality, not size, that counts” Henri passed on ”Here now,” he continued as he paused before another lot, ”are some more pointed at one end than at the other We know from bitter experience that they will reel badly, because the silk which runs s will prove to be weak in some places and break We toss them aside and reel them separately These _cocalons_, as we call this other kind, are also thrown out because they are hard to wind”

”They are ht Nevertheless they have no er is because the worm spun them less cole and mat when reeled”

”And that next lot?”

”_Soufflons_? They are the most imperfect cocoon made The silk is so loosely spun that it cannot be wound at all, and is good only for floss”

Pierre shook his head despairingly

”I thought I knew quite a lot about cocoons,” he said ”But by the ti Why, I never could learn to sort all those kinds if I kept trying for years”

”Only those who have handled thousands of cocoons can,” returned his guide consolingly ”I couldn't begin to do it Here is a pile now! They have a hole in the end and cannot be reeled because every time the thread comes to the perforation it is broken Probably the moth was allowed to escape and injured the filaood for nothing else”

The boys wandered on down the rooood choquettes_,” resumed Henri ”I must tell you about them, for the species is peculiar The wor its work and stuck onto the inside of the cocoon” He took one from the heap and shook it ”It does not rattle, you see Nevertheless the fila, perhaps, but of fine texture In contrast to these good choquettes is this tableful of _bad choquettes_ Like the others the silkwor, but this ti the cocoon black and mottled”

”Healthy worms make the best cocoons, of course,” Pierre rejoined

”Not at all,” contradicted Henri ”Here is what is known as a calcined cocoon made by a hich had a peculiar disease that turned it to powder You would not think that such a creature could spin the best quality of silk there is, would you? Yet it is so Listen to the queer rattle the cocoon has”