Carl and the Cotton Gin

s. Even Mulberry Court, shut in as it was, felt the impulse of the awakening season. The landlord came, looked over the premises, and after viewing the general shabbiness

omewhere could be was an enigma. Furthermore, to add to this difficulty there were the children-dozens of them tumbling over one another and surging in and out the doors, a fact that rendered painting a precarious undertaking. Youthful investigators exam

he rule for wherever calamity lurke

m as he started toward the door. "As, if buying you sweaters ain't enough without your leaning plumb up agains

paint on

ppose you had n

t-honest

wn neat as if the lines were ruled there's nothing the

lly sorry, Ma

weep no tears for that sweater needed washing anyway. You're that rough on your clothes that none of 'em keep clean more

Ma," the b

," his mother said kindly. "If you hadn't been getting into the paint you most likely would have

d, Carl

d many-" he hesitated, t

suppose it was a misfortune when you tumbled underneath the watering cart; and a misfortune when you sat down in the wet tar! A misfortune whe

creamcake was going

et you go into the cotton mills as you are always begging to do you'd have every machine ther

subject for instantly, with flam

might let me try it. Ever so many boys no older than I are working

ing into any mill so long as we can keep body and soul together without your doing it. You are going to get an education-you and Mary too-if

soberly. "But that doesn't make me

"The chief thing is that you exercise your mind and learn how to use it. The Latin itself amounts to nothing. It is like

face br

who had done great things in the world and explaining how long and how hard they had to work at them. The inventors, for instanc

ot look up from her sewin

ball told us that Whitney went through Yale and then started down South to be a tutor in somebody's family without any idea of ever being an inventor. B

abby

in the South and he was feeling rotten. You know how sore your arm gets and how sick you are sometimes. Remember Martin? Well, anyhow, Mrs. Greene either knew what it meant to be vaccinated or else she was kind of ashamed of the way her part of

ar

ach," went on Carl, passing serenely over the reproof. "She was mig

tain

king his home at Mrs. Greene's he began to read all the law books he cou

d w

Carl, at being interrupted.

that to do

had learned to use tools. But of course Mrs. Greene didn't know that. All she knew was that he made a corking job of her embroidery frame and so one day when some Georgia gentlemen were there at dinner and

d w

trying to tell you a story," Carl complained

er," was th

ad gr

ber from the seeds. And then the cotton planters went on to tell how there was lots and lots of land in the South where you couldn't raise rice but could raise cotton if it wasn't such a chore-" (a warning glance from his mother cau

did

was useless.) "He had, as I told you, made wheels and canes and knives and nails in his father's workshop at home. He had

d Mrs. McGregor

e knew he could

shook her h

to give you an education!" she

g you nothing at all about Eli Whitney if I hadn't

od old Scotch sense of humor and when her flashing

anguage of an orang-outang," she answered. "Whe

let myself go. I've been holding in because of you. I could have had you so locoed you couldn't have understood a thing I meant if I h

with all the other boys talking like barbarians. Now go on about Mr. Wh

inst, and the first thing he had to do was to scurry round and get specimens of cotton with the seeds in it. It wasn't so easy to do just then, either, because it was not the season for cotton-gathering and he had to hunt and hunt to get some of the last season's crop. I believe he finally got what he needed from a warehouse in New Orleans. Anyhow, he got the cotton pods somewhere and

id have a puzz

e sort of contrivance that would do what he wanted it to. It was no great shakes of a machine. Any blacksmith or wheelwright could have made it i

tented?" inquired Mrs. McGregor, la

Whitney and Mr. Miller who was helping him got wise to the fact, they locked the new cotton gin up. But do you s'pose that did any good? Not on your life! The cotton raisers were crazy to get the machine because everybody needed it so badly. On the plantations there wasn't enough work to keep the negro slaves busy and it cost a lot to feed them. The planters figured that if something profitable could be found for them to do they would earn their keep. They certainly could not do this picking the seeds out of cotton because it took them such an age to pick enough

O

. Instead, the model of the cotton gin got abroad and all the Sout

n't a very business-like ma

pick up the pieces. Mr. Whitney went home to New Haven and set about making cotton gins on a larger scale than he could make them at Mrs. Greene's; but even then he could not m

inly did

d about ninety thousand dollars; but the lawsuits he had been compelled to go through to get it ate up a good slice of the receipts. Besides, some more had to go for the factory that got burned and other expenses. So he didn't get much out of the deal, I guess. But the South did. The Whitney gin whooped up their cotton trade in great style. Every year the planters grew more and more cotton because now that they could get the seeds out it paid to raise it, and by an

o help the worl

tory. So I can get some cash to help out here at home. S'pos'n we didn't have Uncle Frederick Dillingham or your sewing money?

work for a living and s

flu

those silly dresses all the time. Well, no matter. You just wait until I get through schoo

ure gathered in Mr

th you. All this palaver about Mr. Whitney has almost made you late for school, and left me hardly knowing

rn belief that she must not flatter her children. Therefore to cut short the danger of

Put your mind on it, now. If you remembered the errands I ask you to do half as we

n Mrs. McGregor had she not uttered it. All this Carl understood a

top into the Harlings on your way," su

stop there a minu

the Harlings. Well, since you are going that way anyhow, you can carry over a bowl of broth. I made it yes