prettier sight in all my life! It seems like a pity to press it up into bales.
But then, everybody wants cotton clothes to wear, so I will do my part."
Then the ginhouse man raked the cotton into the deep bale holes,
and the heavy presser was placed on top, which packed the cotton into
neat bales — all wrapped and tied with strong bands — while the gin
wheels turned faster and faster, singing as they whirled :
"Over and over and over we go,
Picking the seeds from the cotton, you know,
Picking, picking all the day long.
And pressing the bales as we sing our song."
"Well, your cotton is ginned. Farmer Green," said the busy gin-
house man, as he stopped his engine. "You'll find your cotton seed in
the wagon waiting for you — enough to plant another year, and some
left for meal and oil, if you choose to make them."
"Thank you very much," said Farmer Green, as he paid the gin-
house man for his work; "I am very glad people do not have to pick seeds
out of cotton with their hands these days. If they did, why, I'm afraid
there would not be many cotton clothes."
The Cotton At The Warehouse
Thursday
FARMER GREEN and Dick left the ginhouse with their bale of
cotton in one end of the wagon and a pile of cotton seed in the
other. They drove down the big road until they came to a long,
low brick house, with a wide platform all the way around it, and large
double doors. All the platform was crowded with bales and bales and
46 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
bales of cotton, and if you looked inside of the warehouse you would
see other bales of cotton piled almost to th'e ceiling. And still wagons
loaded with the great, heavy bales came and went, while the ware-
house man was busy all the day long weighing and buying cotton from
the farmers.
So, when Farmer Green drove up to the platform with his bale
of cotton the warehouse man was there to meet him.
"Good morning. Farmer Green," he said, "just roll the bale of cot-
ton down here on my scales and let me weigh it. I am buying all the
good cotton I can find today, because the factory men are waiting for it
to weave their cloth, and I shall send them a big car load as soon as I
can buy it. Is yours good cotton?"
"The very best there is," said Farmer Green. "Dick and I picked
that cotton ourselves and we saw it ginned, and it is as clean and white
and soft as can be!"
"Let me look at a sample of it," said the warehouse man. So he
cut a hole in one end of the bale and pulled out some of the cotton,
pressing it in his fingers and pulling it apart to see if it was strong and
good.
"Yes, yes, Farmer Green," he said, "this is fine cotton — the very
best I have seen. I will buy this bale from you to send to the factory,
and just as many more like it as you will bring me. Do you want to
sell your cotton seed, too?"
"No," said Farmer Green, "I shall keep those to plant next year,
and now that I have sold my cotton I must hurry back to the farm, for
there is always work there for Dick and myself."
So away went Dick and Farmer Green, leaving their cotton behind
them.
The Cotton At The Factory
Friday
WELL, the next thing seen of the little sister cotton seeds' bale
of cotton was on the freight train ! And the engine was puffing
and blowing as it pulled out of the depot with its long string of
cars loaded with cotton. Of course, you know where it was going —
straight to the factor}^ to be spun into thread and woven into cloth. And
that was just what the little sister cotton seed wanted, you know — only
they wanted Mrs. Gipsy to buy some of it and make it into dresses for
Joe-Boy. And maybe she will — we don't know!
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 47
There were many wheels in the ginhouse, you remember, but, my
me! when the cotton got mto the big factory, why, there were more
wheels than ever — rows and rows of them, and such a hum and buzz
I'm sure you never heard as those wheels whirled swiftly round, singing
as they worked :
"Over and over and over we go,
Spinning the cotton as white as the snow,
Weaving the cloth for dresses and gowns
For all of the children in all of the towns;
So, over and over and over we go,
Spinning the cotton as white as the snow."
And it did not take them long to make the cloth either, because there
were many workmen there to help — men, women and even little chil-
dren. They stood at the looms ever ready to mend the fine cotton
threads when they became tangled or broken while crossing and re-
crossing in the cloth. And so it was that Farmer Green's bale of cot-
ton was woven into cloth — beautiful, soft and white. Just the thing
for a wee baby's dress, and I am sure if the little sister cotton seeds had
only seen it, they would hardly have believed their eyes. But there it
was, all finished and wrapped into bolts, ready to send off to the mer-
chants who would buy it to sell in their stores. And, only think! one
day the factory man was fixing up a box of cloth to send to the very
town where Joe-Boy lived, and he put a bolt of the little sister cotton
seeds' cloth right in the middle of that box and nailed it up and sent it
off! So there it was up on the store man's shelf, waiting for some one
to buy it. Now, don't you hope Mrs. Gipsy will find it when she goes
to buy Joe-Boy's dresses?
Program for Fourth Week — Clothing
Farmer Green's Cotton Seed
Monday
Circle talk, songs and games: Do you know what your dress is made
of? Your waist? etc. Would you like to see a plant that helps to
make our clothes? Show cotton stalk with boll of cotton.
Tell story for the day.
Game: "Plowing and Planting." (Use children for cotton seed.)
48 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
Gift: Third and fourth: Let each child take his choice. Build a barn.
Occupation: Folding and cutting. — Barn. Or, Draw the swallow
flying home, and the basket of seed in the barn.
Farmer Green Picks The Cotton
Tuesday
Circle talk, songs and games: Call for the reproduction of the story
used Monday.
Game: Cotton picking. Let some children represent cotton stalks.
Place in their hands real cotton bolls. Let others pick cotton.
Song: "Baby's Cotton Gown."
Gift: Second Gift beads, sticks, and small pieces of cotton. Represent
a cotton field, ready to be picked.
Occupation: Water color. Cotton boll.
Note : Illustrate at circle the use of scales and suction pipe of gin.
The Cotton At The Ginhouse
Wednesday
Circle talk, songs and games: Do you remember our ride to the cot-
ton gin last fall? What did we see there? Would you like to
hear how the "little sister cotton seed" went to the ginhouse, too?
(Show a miniature cotton bale.)
Game: An imaginary ride to the cotton gin.
Gift: Fifth. A gin house.
Occupation: Modeling, — Bales of cotton. Or, Press real cotton into
small bales, fastened with wire.
The Cotton At The Warehouse
Thursday
Circle talk, songs and games: Do you have a place in your house where
jelly and preserves are kept? Well, after the cotton was ginned, it
too was sent to a big warehouse to be kept, and I will tell you
about it today.
Game: Horses and wagons, to carry cotton to the warehouse.
Gift: Fifth. Warehouse, platform and scales.
Occupation: Construct a wagon. Use an inverted box top for body,
and milk bottle tops for wheels.
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 49
The Cotton At The Factory
Friday
Circle talk, songs and games: Show a piece of loosely woven cotton
cloth. Let children trace the threads, and discover the over and
under way in which they are woven.
Game: "Freight train."
Gift: Third and fourth. Let children take choice. Build a freight
train.
Occupation: Weaving (without needles).
Fifth Week— Clothing
Joe-Boy's Birthday Dresses
Monday
WELL, I don't know which grew the faster, Joe-Boy or the little
sister cotton seed, but he was growing very fast, and one morn-
ing Mrs. Gipsy said :
"Come here, Father Gipsy, and let Joe-Boy give you a birthday
kiss, he is one year old today. And fat? Why, he is just like a cater-
pillar and has popped through every one of his dresses. Whatever are
we to do with such a fat boy, and what shall we give him for a birthday
gift?"
"Why, we'll make him a present of some new dresses," said Father
Gipsy, "won't that be a fine birthday present? Surely, with so much
cotton growing around us here, and ginhouses and factories and stores
close by, Joe-Boy ought not to be a 'raggety-taggety' baby! Let us buy
him some birthday dresses today."
"All right," said Mother Gipsy, "I am sure that will be a very nice
present, for he has needed new dresses quite a long time, but I did not
buy them because our house and furniture cost so much money, and I
was afraid you had spent all of your nickels."
"No," said Father Gipsy, "I still have some nickels left, and I
guess by this time the farmers have planted cotton, and it has been
ginned, spun and woven into cloth, so Joe-Boy will have fresh, new
cloth for his birthday dresses. When can you go and buy them?"
"I will go this morning," said Mother Gipsy, "and maybe I can
50 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
get back in time to make him a new dress today, and when he takes his
afternoon ride he can wear his new birthday dress."
"That will be fine," said Father Gipsy, "and when you do your
shopping, go to the big dry goods store on the corner. I saw the mer-
chant there opening a box of cotton cloth yesterday, and it looked very
pretty."
So Mother Gipsy went to town that very morning, and she passed
by all the stores until she came to the big store on the corner, and she
went in that one and asked the clerk to show her some pretty cotton
cloth for dresses.
"All right," said the clerk, "we have the very best cloth in town,
right here in this store. It came from the factory only yesterday, and it
is very beautiful! Just let me show it to you."
, So he reached up to the top shelf and took down three bolts of
cloth for Mrs. Gipsy to see which one she liked best. And Mrs. Gipsy
held them up to the light and rubbed them in her fingers to see if they
were soft and white and very strong. Then, only guess ! She placed her
hand on the very bolt made from the cotton of the little sister cotton
seeds — the very same — and then she said :
"Oh, isn't this beautiful! So spft and white, and the very thing
I wish. Please give me ten yards of this bolt for Joe-Boy's birthday
dresses — it is the prettiest I ever saw!"
Now, aren't you glad? And don't you wish the little sister cotton
seeds knew about it ? So, the clerk cut the cloth and wrapped it up for
Mrs. Gipsy, who paid him for it, and then she thanked him and went
home with the bundle.
"Now," said Mrs. Gipsy, "I will sit here by the machine and make
Joe-Boy's dress before I do another thing."
So she cut and sewed and stitched away as busy as busy could be, un-
til the little dress was finished — such a pretty, pretty birthday dress, with
ruffles on it! And Joe-Boy wore it that very afternoon when he went
to ride and the sunbeam fairies danced around his carriage and kissed
him on the cheeks and hair — they surely knew about the little sister
cotton seeds, and meant to tell them some day about the birthday dress,
but Mrs. Gipsy only smiled and said :
"See, Joe-Boy, the sunbeams have come to wish you a happy birth-
day — you are one year old today."
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 51
Joe-Boy's Linen Picture Book
Tuesday
JOE-BOY got another birthday present besides his new dresses, and
it wasn't a ball or a top or a tin horn, either — I'm sure you can
not guess.
It came by express in a big box, tightly nailed down, and when
Mother Gipsy read what was written on the box her eyes got verj' bright
and she said :
"Oh, Father Gipsy, only see, this box came from Joe-Boy's grand-
mother, all the way across the big ocean ! I have written and told her all
about Joe-Boy and the new house, and how nicely we had furnished it for
him, so I am sure she, too, has sent something nice to go in the house. Do
open the box quickly and let us look inside!"
So Father Gipsy got his hammer and drew out the strong nails,
while Joe-Boy and Mother Gipsy stood close by to catch the very first
peep.
"It is something white," said Mother Gipsy, "because I see it
through the cracks. It looks like cotton cloth, too, only it is prettier —
what can it be?"
"I hope it is linen sheets and pillow cases for our beds," said Father
Gipsy, "and maybe it is, because Joe-boy's grandmother lives on a flax
farm, j^ou know, and raises flax for linen cloth, just as Farmer Green
raises cotton for cotton cloth."
"That is just what it is," said Mother Gipsy, as the top came open,
"a whole box full of linen! Only see the sheets and pillowcases and
beautiful linen towels and tablecloths — so soft and white, and just the
thing we needed for our house. Aren't they beautiful, and isn't that a
dear, good grandmother to think of us and our new home? And here,
too, is a fine linen dress for Joe-Boy, made by this very same grandmother,
so Joe-Boy has cotton dresses and linen dresses both."
"Yes," said Father Gipsy, "and here is something else Joe-Boy has
pulled out of the bottom of the box by himself, and it has his name
written on it."
"Well, well," said Mother Gipsy, "it is a very pretty picture book,
made on linen, and can not tear — the very kind of a book for Joe-Boy
now, because he tries to pull everj'thing to pieces to see how it is made.
Come, Joe-Boy, and let us look at the pictures in your birthday book."
52 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
So Joe-Boy and Mother Gipsj' cuddled down in the deep window
seat and looked at all the pretty pictures. On the very first page there
was a farmer planting flax seed — the very same that grew to make the
linen sheets and tablecloths. The next picture showed where the flax
seed had come up and grown straight and tall in long, even rows, and
there were pretty blue flowers on every stalk, and some of them had tiny
seeds tucked away to be planted another year. The next picture showed
the farmers working with the flax stalks to change them into linen — soak-
ing them in water, spreading them on the grass to dry and pulling apart
the long, slender threads. Then, another picture showed the large fac-
tory where the linen threads were woven into soft, fine cloth — very much
prettier than cotton cloth — and the factory wheels, turning swiftly
around, sang the song that the cotton had sung:
"Over and over and over we go,
Spinning the flax into linen, you know,
Weaving the cloth for sheets and gowns
For all of the children in all of the towns;
So over and over and over we go.
Spinning the flax into linen, you know."
The last picture was the one Joe-Boy liked best — a big steamship
laden down with bolts of linen cloth and sailing across the great ocean
to bring it to the American shores.
"That is a very pretty picture book," said Mother Gipsy, as she
closed the book. "Joe-Boy's grandmother knew we did not have linen
factories near our town, so she sent us the pretty linen cloth and the book
to show how it was made. When we write to thank her for it we must
tell her about the cotton plants that grow near us and what pretty cloth
it makes for aprons and jackets and dresses."
Father Gypsy's Surprise
Wednesday
AFTER Joe-Boy's birthday. Father Gipsy had to go off on a long
business trip. He did not like to leave Mother Gipsy and Joe-
Boy at all, but then all fathers have to work, you know, for if they
didn't, where would clothes and food and houses come from, I'd like to
know. So, Mother Gipsy packed his big traveling valise and then she
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND 53
and Joe-Boy stood on the porch and threw Father Gipsy kisses until he
was out of sight. After a vvhile, when the whistle blew, Mother Gipsy
looked at Joe-Boy and said, "Gone," and then Joe-Boy said, "g-o-n-e,"
too, right after her, so plainly that Mother Gipsy could not help but
squeeze him just a little bit, it sounded so cute, and she was very anxious
for Joe-Boy to learn to talk so that he could talk to her when Father
Gipsy was away. But, only guess! One morning, while Father Gipsy
was away, Joe-Boy learned to walk. He walked all the way from the
door across the floor to Mother Gipsy's arms. And, bless you, when Joe-
Boy found out he could walk, why, he was so proud he wanted to walk
all the time ! And up and down the hall and across the room he trotted,
until Mother Gipsy was afraid he would get sick. So she had to
catch him and hold him tight while he rested some.
"Well, well, well," said Mother Gipsj', laughing, "won't that be
a fine surprise for Father Gipsy when he comes home? I shall not tell
him one word about it in my letters, and then when he comes I'll let
Joe-Boy run to the gate to meet him, and I know Father Gipsy will be
surprised!" And then Mothey Gipsy laughed again. But let me telL
you something else about Joe-Boy that Mother Gipsy thought most
dreadful! After he learned to walk and to get down the steps by him-
self, he began to run away! And one day Joe-Boy got away down the
street before Mother Gipsy found him, and my! Mother Gipsy didn't
like that one bit, because she didn't want any runaway boy, you know, so
she got a tight button and put it on the gate and then Joe-Boy couldn't
get out any more, and he stopped running away. Well, Mother Gipsy
thought the time never would come for Father Gipsy to come home, but
one morning the postman brought her a letter and it was from Father
Gipsy, and he said he was coming home that very day, and he was going
to bring something beautiful in his "alise for Mother Gipsy and Joe-
Boy — a surprise.
"And I have a surprise for him, too," said Mother Gipsy, "a great
big surprise!"
So that afternoon, just before train time, she dressed Joe-Boy in his
fresh linen dress, and when she saw Father Gipsy turn the corner, she
put Joe-Boy down the steps and then hid him behind the vines to watch.
And you know what happened next just as well as I do, for when
Father Gipsy opened the gate Joe-Boy stretched out both arms and trot-
ted down the walk to meet him — and laughing every step of the way !
54 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
Father Gipsy almost smothered him with kisses and threw him up
high — one, two, three times, and then Mother Gipsy came from behind
the vines and they all went into the house together.
But I can't tell you what was in the valise for them, yet — because
it wasn't unpacked, you know — so how could I ? But I will by and by,
of course, just as soon as I find out. Just you wait and see.
Joe-Boy's Silk Present
Thursday
i Q IV T OW," said Mother Gipsy, when Fathey Gipsy had bathed his
N
face and hands and had something nice to eat, "Joe-Boy and I
are ready for our surprise — let us see what you brought us."
"Well," said Father Gipsy, "listen while I tell you about it, and
maybe 5^ou can guess. One day while I was away I went to see a man
who had a very queer farm — not at all like Farmer Green's, or even
Joe-Boy's grandmother's, for instead of planting cotton and flax seed,
or raising sheep and chickens, this Chinese farmer raised some very queer
little caterpillars, hundreds and hundreds of them. He kept them in
great, long boxes under the mulberry trees, and though the trees were
full of fine white berries, those caterpillars did not eat a single one, but
they ate the leaves instead — every one they could get, and they looked
very fat and happy crawling over the twigs in the long boxes, eating,
eating, eating. Some of the caterpillars ate so many leaves and got so
very fat they would pop through their coats and a new skin would have
to grow."
"My!" said Mother Gipsy, "and is that what you brought uS' —
some little worms?"
"You wait until the end of my story," said Father Gipsy, laughing;
"those little worms were the smartest things I've seen lately. When they
had eaten and eaten and eaten all the leaves they could, why, they began
to spin a wonderful silk thread, that came from one side of their mouths
— 3^ards and j^ards and j^ards of it, and what do you suppose they did
as they spun?"
"I can't imagine," said Mother Gipsy, "unless they wrapped up in
it and went to sleep. I should think they would be very sleepy after eat-
ing so much."
"Well, that is just exactly what those worms did," said Father
LITTLE FOLKS' LAND. 55
Gipsy. "I watched them, and as they spun they wrapped the silken
thread round and round and round their little doubled-up bodies, until
after a while they looked just like a pretty bird egg. But the Chinese
farmer did not call them eggs — no, indeed! They were cocoons, he
said, and when I put one of the cocoons to my ear I could hear the little
caterpillar spinning, spinning, spinning away, and wrapping itself closer
and tighter within the silken bed, and then, by and by, all was still, and
the little worm was fast asleep. 'Now,' said the Chinese farmer, 'that
little worm has finished its work, and the wonderful silken thread that it
has spun will be carried to the silk factory, carefully unwound and woven
into beautiful cloth — softer and finer than any cloth made either in the
cotton or linen factories, though the wheels whirl round the same, sing-
ing gaily : —
"Over and over and over we go.
Weaving the silk into cloth, you know.
Spinning the threads for mits and caps,
Socks and ties and ribbons and hats.
In colors blue and red and brown —
Enough for all of the people in town ;
So, over and over and over we go,
Spinning the silken threads, you know."
"Dear me," said Mother Gipsy, "it must have been a pretty sight.
I wonder if the factory men did not find it very hard work to unwind the
long silk thread from the cocoon?"
"Not a bit," said Father Gipsj\ "They were first dropped into hot
water and that helped them to find the end of the thread, which was
washed and cleaned nicely, and then the wheels did the rest. But you
needn't think the Chinese farmer sent all of his cocoons to the factory,
because he had to save some for 'seed,' you know, so the best cocoons
were put away on a large white sheet and after a few weeks the little
caterpillar inside changed itself, and, boring a tiny hole through one end
of the cocoon, came out with wings — changed into a beautiful moth,
and the first thing it did was to lay hundreds of wee, wee eggs all over
that sheet, and out of those wee, wee eggs crawled ever so many wee,
wee silk worms — just like what their mother had been, and they went
straight to eating mulberry leaves, just as she had done! So, those were
the Chinese farmer's seeds — not a bit like Farmer Green's, were they?
56 LITTLE FOLKS' LAND
And now my story is ended," laughed Father Gipsy, "and here in the
valise is the surprise for you and Joe-Boy."
Of course, you know what it was?
To be sure, a silk dress for Mother Gipsy and a silk cap with a
pair of mits to match for Joe-Boy.
The Woolen Balls' Story
Friday
F YOU were a moonbeam fairy, now, and could peep into Joe-Boy's
toy cabinet every night, as they did, you would see all of his play-
things, for that is where he kept them, you know. But instead of
the little red ball he used to play with and rock to sleep you would see
six now, dressed in the brightest woolen dresses — a red ball, an orange
ball, a yellow ball, a green ball, a blue ball and a violet ball. There they
sat in a row on the top shelf. Then there was a wooden ball on another
shelf with two other blocks, one that looked like a box, and one like a
barrel, and down on the bottom shelf there was a rubber doll and a
drum and the new linen picture book. I think Joe-Boy loved his balls
best of all because he and Mother Gipsy had such merry games with
them, playing, tossing and rolling across the low table. Sometimes they
played the balls were ponies or dogs or sheep or kittens or birds, and
always before putting them away they rocked them to sleep, Joe-Boy
trying hard to hold his hands like a wee nest cradle, and walking on
tip-toe as he placed them in the cabinet.
Away in the dark night after the clock had struck twelve, and
when Joe-Boy and Mother Gipsy and Father Gipsy were sound asleep,
then, the toys in the toy cabinet would talk together — but only the moon-
beam fairies could hear them and not you nor me, nor Joe-Boy nor
Father Gipsy nor Mother Gipsy, because we were not there, you know.
And one night the wooden ball said, "Let us tell tales about where we
came from — last go!"
"All right," said the woolen balls, "we like to tell tales. It seems
very funny to think about it now, but the first things we can remember,
we were growing on a sheep's back — soft, fleecy wool to keep them
warm, you know. The sheep belonged to Farmer Green, and he had