Friday noon
As Mary had never doubted for a moment , the women of New Bethel proved themselves capable of doing anything that the women of Europe had done ; and it was n't long before lines of feminine figures in Turkish overalls were bending over the repetition tools in the Spencer shops -- starting , stopping , reversing gears , oiling bearings -- and doing it all with that deftness and assurance which is the mark of the finished workman . Indeed , if you had been near-sighted , and watching from a distance , you might have been pardoned for thinking that they were men -- but if you looked closer you would have seen that each woman had a stool to sit on , when her work permitted , and if you had been there at half past ten and again at half past three , you would have seen a hand-cart going up and down the aisles , serving tea , coffee , cake and sandwiches . Again at noon you would have seen that the women had a rest room of their own where they could eat their lunch in comfort -- a rest room with couches , and easy chairs , and palms and flowers , and a piano , and a talking machine , and a floor that you could dance on , if you felt like dancing immediately before or after lunch . And how the eight Josiahs would have stared at that happy , swaying throng in its Turkish overalls -- especially on Friday noon just after the pay envelopes had been handed around ! Meanwhile the school was adding new courses of study . The cleverest operators were brought back to learn how to run more complicated machines . Turret lathe hands , oscillating grinders , inspectors were graduated .