followed that when the officers of Emperor Alexander's army returned
from the East they brought back to Greece tales of the cotton plant,
and Greeks and Romans alike began to use the material for awnings much
as we do now."

"How funny!" smiled Carl. "I'll bet they were glad to have something to
shade them from the sun. I shouldn't relish spending the summer in
Greece or Italy."

"I guess you wouldn't. Baileyville may be hot in July but it is nothing
to what Rome must have been. The stone seats of the Forum were like
stove covers; and because the rich old Romans enjoyed comfort quite as
much as anybody else, lengths of cotton cloth were stretched across
certain parts of the structure to shade it. Even your friend Julius
Caesar 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 of the Capitoline Hill so
when he rode hither he could be cool and sheltered. Oh, the Romans knew
a good thing when they saw it--never fear! In the meantime Greeks and
Romans alike were using the newly discovered material for tents, sails,
and gay-colored coverlets."

"Didn't cotton grow in any other country beside India, Uncle
Frederick?" interrogated Mary.

"We do not really know about that," was her uncle's reply. "Certainly
it was found in other places--Egypt, Africa, Mexico, and America; but
whether it was native to these lands or had 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 countries, so although the plant did grow there they could
not have had much of it. The little they had was cultivated, I believe,
almost entirely as a shrub and used merely for decoration."

"But loads of cotton come from Egypt now," declared Carl. "The teacher
told us so."

"Indeed it does," nodded Captain Dillingham. "I have brought many a
bale of it back in my ship, so I know."

"Really!" ejaculated his listeners.

"Yes; Egypt, India, and the United States are the great
cotton-producing countries of the world. India comes first on the list;
then we ourselves, with our vast southern crops; then Egypt. And it is
because India raises such great quantities of cotton 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