Three generations

"THE BLOOD OF MURDERED TIME" 213
me long to express fully what an era the experience
made in our lives, how fascinated we were, and how
we gave ourselves up to the fascination, far beyond
the possibilities of criticism.
But it was not only books that we read in common ;
we were interested in the same work, especially needle-
work, plain sewing, or fancy work, which, when
other work was not called for, was pursued in all
Scotch households of the class and the time from
breakfast to early dinner, from dinner to dark, and
beyond dark, by whatever artificial light could be pro-
cured — so many busy bees stitching, stitching, netting,
knitting, embroidering, with no thought of murmur or
revolt. Of the economy and usefulness of the plain
sewing there can be no question. One word as to the
fancy work. In a sense it was not work, it was an
acknowledged and cherished pleasure. The habit has
grown of ridiculing and censuring such fancy needle-
work, extending from the severe condemnation of
Robert Hall that it was " red with the blood of
murdered time," down to the mocking laughter spent
on the hapless mortal who remarked with satisfaction
that she had done her duty — she had completed so
many yards of tape-trimming. Why not ? I cannot
say I am an enthusiast for tape-trimming, but, as I
understand the matter, the value of the work depended
on the motive which called it forth and the fidelity with
which it was carried out.
I freely grant the grotesque ugliness of some
examples of fancy work — I cannot call it art needle-
work. These were to be found mostly in the depart-
ment of Berlin-wool work, and were produced almost
universally by the deterioration of both patterns and
materials. But even in that much-scoffed-at quarter