"There must be some profit, madam, you see," explained the clerk; "but if we could make these garments by machine, as a young man in the next room says he can, we could afford to sell them for almost nothing."
"We have heard of that young man and his machine. Will it be possible for us to watch him sew with it?" replied Mrs. Wheeler.
Howe's First Sewing Machine
"Certainly, madam. Just step this way, if you please." And he ushered the Wheelers into an adjoining workshop, well filled with men and women, many of the men, as Jonathan found out later, being dealers in ready-made clothing in the larger towns near Boston.
"Oh, mother, there he is!" whispered Jonathan excitedly, and he hurried forward to see better.
A kindly-faced young man, not more than twenty-five years old, sat at a table before what seemed to Jonathan a sort of little engine without wheels. With one hand he was turning a crank and with the other he was guiding a seam on a pair of overalls. A bright needle flashed in and out of the blue cloth till it reached the end of the seam. Then the sewer stopped the machine, cut the thread, and handed the garment about for inspection.
"That took just one minute, Mr. Howe," announced a man who stood near, watch in hand.
"One minute!" echoed a woman standing beside Jonathan. "I could not sew that seam in fifteen minutes."
"How long would it take thee, mother?" whispered Jonathan, aside.