lost.

When a large quantity of these old woollen pieces was collected, it
was a custom in the country to invite all the neighbors to come in,
and aid the family in cutting these fragments up into narrow strips,
about an eighth of an inch wide, and then sewing the strips
together, and winding them up into large balls. This was used for
what the weavers call the warp or the filling of the carpet. The
woof was made of yarn, spun usually in the house from wool taken
from the backs of their own sheep, and colored with a dye made from
the roots of the barberry bushes, or the poke weed, with the aid of
a little foreign indigo, or perhaps logwood. A sufficient variety of
colors could be manufactured to produce a very decent-looking
carpet.

The weaving of this homemade carpet was done also in the
neighborhood. There were always looms enough to weave, for a
moderate price, all the carpets required in the place. At that time,
there was usually a carpet only in what was called the sitting room,
or, as the country people called it, "the settin room." The rest of
the house had bare floors; perhaps, in the houses of the richest of
the country people, a bit of carpet by the bed side.

But I must tell you what else the tea-kettle said. "I went, or
rather was carried," said she, "to the rag party. The good lady who
borrowed me, I must say for her, did brighten me up famously.
"There," said she, as she gave me the last touch with her rubbing
cloth, "ef it ain't as bright as our Lijah's cheeks a Sabberday
mornins!"