Carl and the Cotton Gin

for the McGregor children an era of delight. The newly found relative, t

only used his own room to sleep in and stow away his luggage. Each morning just before breakfast his step would be heard on the stairs and off would race the children in merry rivalry to see who

from Mrs. McGregor; but when the little old man asserted that it was a treat to be inside a home and handle a mop and soap-shaker what could one say? So he mixed the foaming suds and dabbled in them up to his elbows, and when his sister witnessed the general

ey swarmed about his chair and perched on his knee. As for his namesake, James Frederick, there was not another such baby to be found in all the world, he declared. Often he would sit with the little

b chops, sweet potatoes, and oranges. And what a feast big and little McGregors had when such parcels made their advent in the kitchen! Or he would venture into the shopping district and appear with his pockets bu

ntil there was scarce a boy or girl to be found in all Mulberry Court who did not have tucked away in his mitten a golden disc with t

hut-ins with his tales of foreign lands. For he was a rare story-teller, was Uncle Frederick. Never was there a better. And with running here and running there was it to be wondered at that

uite his own he swept aside the preliminaries and by simple and direct methods made straight for the hearts of those he met. He reached them, too-there was no doubt about that. Had he chosen he could ha

the fifth floor of Mulberry Court! Carl, Mary, Tim, Martin, were no longer rated as little street Arabs; suddenly they became the nieces, nephews (probably the heirs) of Captain James Frederick Dillingham who commanded the Charlotte and had sailed to every port

in a halo of fascination? For Mulberry Court was dingy and dull. Probably not one of its toiling throng was destined ever to see much beyond the city's muddy streets, cr

ithout it costing them a cent, either. The Captain told Julie O'Dowd stories of China while she ironed Joey's dresses, and the tediousness of the task was forgotten in the enchantment of the tale. As for Grandfather Harling, after the stranger's first visit he strained his ea

agreed that the dapper littl

ulie O'Dowd to Mrs. Murphy. "I never saw such a man! And so kind withal. Simple as a child, too. You don't catch him prating about

s he certainly had at his tongue's end an astonishing amount of in

one day when he chanced to drop

catching up the phrase quickly. "And how,

er to

ld blush were we not better informed than poor Sir John Mandeville, who had no books to speak of. Had he been able to read Herodotus, for example, he would then have learned from that Greek writer who lived so many centuries ago that there was in India a wild tree having for its fruit fleeces finer than those of sheep; and that the natives spun cloth out of them and made cl

n wasn't new, after

easing variety of kinds the demand for material to make it increased. And old Herodotus is by no means the only early historian to mention cotton. Other writers went into even more details than he, describing the plant, its leaves and blossoms, and telling how it was set out in rows. Apparently as long ago as 519 B.C. the Persians were spinning an

o have something to shade them from the sun. I shoul

tched across certain parts of the structure to shade it. Even your friend Julius C?sar was not so toughened by battle that he fancied having the hot sun beat down on his head; he therefore ordered a screening of cloth to be extended from the top of his house to that

er country beside India, Uncle

d been transplanted to them it is impossible to say. We do know, however, that the ancient Egyptians depended chiefly on flax for their cloth and imported cotton from other countrie

rom Egypt now," declared Ca

llingham. "I have brought many a ba

jaculated h

and is obliged to ship it to England for manufacture afterward buying it back again-that Gandhi and his followers who are eager for India to be independent of England are raising little patches of cotton, weaving their own cloth on hand looms, and re

owing, Uncle Frederick?" as

le three or four-foot bushes. Still each grows into pyramid form, having the wider branches at the bottom. The leaves are not unlike the lilac; and there is a deep, cup-shaped pod having points that turn up like fing

otton just grew wild, Un

re given the root and if you wish a big cotton crop you must plant seeds, or better yet set out cuttings, cultivate and care for the plants. Every minute your mind must be on the thing you are trying to raise. You must watch, for instance, for pests of insects; diseases that will spoil your plants; blights caused by fungi; and above all for sudden changes in the weather. Should it turn scorching hot just when your cotton shoots are up and beginning to spread their roots the result will be fatal. Or an early frost will

otton raising was pretty

them will bore through the pods as if in pure spite and spoil the cotton fiber at the time it is just beginning to form-a detestable trick! Others, fattening on the tender green leaves near the top of the plant, will turn into caterpillars, creep down the stalk, and devour every leaf as they go along. This leaves the roots of the plant unprotected from t

have any cotton," remar

Should you live in a climate where cotton could be raised you would pitch in, fight the pests, and be as proud of your snowy fiel

a cotton field,

Brazil, Egypt, or the South Sea Islands then," Captain Dillingham responded. "

alike?" queried the

er; some seeds come out easily, some do not; some cotton is strong fibered, some is weak and snaps at a t

chorus from

hey have been removed only a small quantity of cotton remains and that makes it costly. Almost every other kind gives more lint (or picked cotton) than does this variety. The Egyptian cotton is somewhat on this same

his plant are long and some short. It is not a very good kind of cotton to cultivate because the long fibers get tang

myself get interested because I carry so much cotton in my ship-bales upon bales of it. Sometimes I take cotton out from America to countri

o we raise in the Unit

, here it is, and although we raise some little of other sorts we have far more of this than anything else. We can thank it, too, for much of the wealth of this country of ours for Texas, Georgia, Alabama, North and South Ca

ttle m

an, the cotton from which is used only for weaving cloth for the turbans of Hindoo priests! And think of still another exquisitely fine Indian cotton cal

it grown, Uncle Frederick, and that

stay at home and do not see it grown have your share i

ioned the wo

clothing, bedding, and no end of

--" faltered Tim.

d oil for cooking and to use on salads, you may not be aw

now that,"

ning is made into cotton wadding to pad quilts, skirts, and coat linings; and cotton waste is

rmured thoughtfully. "But I'm not sure," added she, with a mi