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The Globe Trotting Gordons

By Elia W. Peattie.

(Copyright, 1900 By Daily Story Publishing Company)

Home Hill is an inconveniently located suburb of Chicago, but the Fordons lived in it because they could not afford to live in the city They would not have objected to a mansion on the Lake Shore drive, but they managed fairly well in a six-room cottage at the rear of a village lot, and they had the pleasure of looking out upon a timid lawn and a dozen straggling oaks which the drainage had not yet succeded in killing off They had also one arboreant treassure in the way of a mullberry tree of wide-spreading branches, which had been sociably incorporated into the front porch it furnished the main support of the porch, in fact, and gave to the house a look of great primitiveness When Father Gordon came home at night and ant him down under its whispering branches, he would remark to Mother Gordon and the children.

'Really if we were in Jamaica, instead of this accursed climate, we couldn't have anything finer than this."

'We never could have a tree we would be so fond of." Annabel would say 'but we might have a tree which would give us shade all the year 'round If we were in Jamaice we could build a palmetto hut around a bananna tree and' -

"And have little skylight in the roof" broke in Pierpont "And reach-through them for our breakfast"

'If it wan't for the cost of trasportation" said Father Fordon, "we really wouldn't find it very difficult to go to Jamaica, and once there we would be sure to make our living some way."

'Oh, we could live upon next to nothing" broke, the Mother Gordon enthusiasitically "I could braid the girls hats out of sea grass and we could save all our millinery bills"

The Gordons it will be perceived, did not feel settled The truth is, they had the qualities which go to make up an old family, and they were irritatingly young They would have liked what they were pleased to term "associations," and these were among the many things which they had never been able to collect Moreover, they felt that when they did establish themselves it outght to be in a land of sunshine For when the winds of winter began to blow, and the lake, which had smiled upon them in kindly fashion, assured a sullien frown, then the Gorstoves and dreams of the south, with its glorious sunshine haunted both waking and sleeping moments But by the time the Fordones had paid last weeks grocery bill, and purchased shors for some needy member of the family, and settled about the coal and laid by odd chanage for the church, and loaned a dollar to a friend, they had hardly money enough left to take them as far as Lincoln park.

"I have thought at times that father might be able to secure a position as light housekeeper on one of the Floridian keys" said mother one evening

'Don't we have light housekeeping enough?' asked Annabel

"We could have alittle arable land." went on her mother. Ignoring the interuption, "and every member of the family could make a specialty of some ore thing Say I took pineapples and Annabel sweet potatoes, and Christians peanuts, and the boys'-

"Oh, never mind us mother" broke in the boys "We'd just as soon youd did all the work"

'Moreover." continued mother. "we could raise sisal hemp and do our own spinning The girls would look lovely spinning"

But I have apland" said Nixon gravely It seems very practical to me It is ducks"

'Ducks; cried the family with one voice.

"Why not" asked Nixon with dignity "We can purchase some of those cheap lands in Alabama or Louisiana, selecting some that are plentifully intersected with creeks so that our water fowl will thrive and raise birds for the northern market"

"Thats a good idea," said Annabel with decisions"And of course we would felt the trees to build your house. Lets have the house in two parts with an open fallery between She had a drawer full of 'elevations' which she had drawn as the different enthusiasms of the nomadic Hodous presented themselves.

'Horses are absurdly cheap," continued Nixon 'And we would raise alfalfa for todder.' Of course we would have cattle and goats The voung kids could be sold for their skins In certain sections of that southern country are great deposits of time We might move in where there are the ruins of an old kiln. Indeed I know of such a place in Alabama with a house drew it from his pocket, 'showing the exact location of the place I have also been to see the railway company about reduction or rates for immigrants

"you seem to have looked into the matter quite thoroughly," said father Gordon in a respectfil tone of voice He was very tired that night and he had a cold in his head The thought of the piney woods was [?]

So it came about that this paricular fantasia of the Fordons grew to be a serious matter-or so nearly a serious matter that they could not tell the difference No native Alabamian was ever so well posted concerning the products of his state as were the Gordons who had never seen it They knew statistics-and went to far as to quote them-concerning ducks, turkys, chickens, hogs, pears, grapes, wine, melons and apples They talked about callcarious loam they had theories concerning fodder In brief, the Gordons were prepared to ender the old state, slate with impertinent energy and to revolutionze-almost everything!

As the gray sky scowled and the water pipes froze, and nature treated all inhabitant of the temperate zone like stepchildren the impatience of the Gordons intrased They were deterred by two things-lack of money and inability to realize a dream They had indulged so ling in dreams that it seemed like effrontery to enter with the bold striede of actuality into the pleasing land of fairy

The friends of the Gordons groaned They had made imaginary journeys with the Gordons to the pecan lands of Texas, to the sheep country of California, to the silk worm district of Southern France-may, they had even consented to talk about the resources of South Africa. But they had not hitherto been asked to entertain one idea or more than three or four weeks, during which time they acquired an amount of interesting data upon each subject But Alabama would not down, and when they saw the Gordons actually bring home packing boxes they felt that something ought ot be done

'Why, if the dear things got what they watned they wouldn't have any more fun," said a neigbor.

'Mere material means of trasportation would never suit the Gordons," said another, "They were made to travel in swapboats"

March weny by, wild and cruel

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