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"Which is it? Are you sure," said Harry, laughing.

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"Quite sure," said Lucy. They are really better; they wear much longer, and bear wetting and crumpling. They are infinitely better."

"You know best. I am satisfied," said Harry. "That is settled; they are dearer because they are better. Go on."

"And they must be much dearer than the common straw bonnets, which are made in England, you know, because they are brought from a great distance, from Italy." Aye, from Leghorn, I suppose, from

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their name," said Harry.

"Yes, at Leghorn first, I believe, and for a long, long time, hundreds of years, I dare say ever since such hats have been worn, people never thought of its being possible to make them anywhere but in Italy. The straw is plaited differently, and they thought that sort of straw could be got nowhere but there. In short, they never thought of looking or trying what

they could do till lately. But now people have found out, first in America, I believe, then in England, and at last in Ireland

poor Ireland! they have found a sort of grass, the straw of which will do, and they have learned how to plait it as well as they plait it in Italy. That lady showed us two bonnets, her own and her daughter's; her own she brought from Italy, and her daughter's was made in Ireland, and, as well as I could see, the Irish one was the finest of the two. And much better judges than I am, and people who looked through spectacles, and held magnifying glasses to them, said the same. Several ladies in Ireland, as she told us, have taken a great deal of pains to teach poor girls this straw manufacture. One lady, who learned how to do it herself, from some directions in a common newspaper, set to work, and tried experiments,"

"Sensible woman!" said Harry.

"And good," said Lucy, " for it was to do good. And, after a great many trials,

she made a bonnet from the very beginning, with her own hands, from the first preparing the straw to the finishing; and she won the prize for this, the best that ever was made, I believe."

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"Oh! now, Lucy, do not go too far. How do you know?" said Harry.

"I tell you just what was told me, my dear; that a person who saw it, and compared it with one which had been sent from Italy, to some French princess, declared that the Irish hat was full as good as the finest of fine Leghorn hats, which cost fifty guineas. And this Irish hat was made of a very common grass, called crested dogs-tail*, which grows even on bad ground. flower stalks are so remarkably harsh and tough, that cattle will not touch them, though they will eat the dry stalks of many other sorts of grass. But these remain all winter in the fields useless; and they are called in Irish trawnyeens. When a thing

* Cynosurus cristatus.

Its

is worth nothing, the Irish say it is not worth a trawnyeen. But now trawnyeens are made good for something, and for a great deal too."

"Would you know the grass if were to see it?" said Harry.

you

"I know it very

Yes," said Lucy, well, and I will show it to you the next time we are in any field where it is."

"Do," said Harry. "I like the woman who stuck to the bonnet till she had succeeded."

"She succeeded in doing a great deal more than making one fine bonnet. That would have been no great matter, only ingenious," said Lucy; "but I will tell you much more, and much better. This kind lady taught several poor Irish girls to make these hats; and two, not older than fourteen, working in their own cottages (cabins they called them), made in one year twelve bonnets, and besides they did all the work that was wanted in the house as usual. Their twelve bonnets were sold

for a guinea a piece. piece. A great many such have been bespoken, and are to be sent over to London. The children of those poor Irish, who, as you know we heard, were almost starving last winter, have now one good way, by which they may earn guineas for their fathers and mothers."

"That is good indeed," said Harry. "I am sure that woman who made the first bonnet, and taught them all, must be glad."

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Yes, I am sure I should, if I were in her place," said Lucy. "And, Harry, mamma told me, that if I can learn to do this plaiting, I may teach it to our poor widow Wilson's daughters. To-day I saw a little bit of it, which the lady, who told us all this, brought in her work-bag. She let me undo a bit of it, to see how it was done, and she gave us some straw, and we began to try.

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"Now I know," said Harry, "why you were all plaiting straw so eagerly. I could not think what had seized you, when

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