how to get the indigo out of the plant.

The man tried not to show Miss Lucas how to make the indigo. He did
not wish the people in South Carolina to learn how to make it. He was
afraid his own people would not get so much for their indigo.

So he would not explain just how it ought to be done. He spoiled the
indigo on purpose.

But Miss Lucas watched him closely. She found out how the indigo ought
to be made. Some of her father's land in South Carolina was now
planted with the indigo plants.

[Illustration: Indigo Plant.]

Then Miss Lucas was married. She became Mrs. Pinck-ney. Her father
gave her all the indigo growing on his land in South Carolina. It was
all saved for seed. Some of the seed Mrs. Pinck-ney gave to her
friends. Some of it her husband sowed. It all grew, and was made into
that blue dye that we call indigo. When it is used in washing clothes,
it is called bluing.

In a few years, more than a million pounds of indigo were made in
South Carolina every year. Many people got rich by it. And it was all
because Miss Lucas did not give up.