ed to get, so there he was, stranded far from home,
with nothing to do and with little money in his purse. By good fortune
he found an excellent friend. Mrs. Greene, the widow of the famous
General Greene of the Revolution, lived near Savannah, and took quite a
fancy to the poor young man. She urged him to stay in Georgia and to
keep up his studies, saying that he could have a home in her house as
long as he pleased.

This example of Southern hospitality was very grateful to the friendless
young man, and he accepted the kindly invitation, trying to pay his way
by teaching Mrs. Greene's children, and at the same time studying law.
But he was born for an inventor, not a lawyer, and could not keep his
fingers off of things. Nothing broke down about Mrs. Greene's house that
he did not soon set working all right again. He fitted up embroidery
frames for her, and made other things, showing himself so very handy
that she fancied he could do anything.

One day Mrs. Greene heard some of the neighboring planters complaining
of the trouble they had in clearing the cotton of its seeds. They could
manage what was called the long-staple cotton by the use of a rough
roller machine brought from England, which crushed the seeds, and then
"bowed" or whipped the dirt out of the lint. But this would not work
with short-staple cotton, the kind usually grown, and there was nothing
to do but to pick the hard seeds out by hand, at the rate of a pound a
day by the fastest workers. The planters said it would be a splendid
thing if they only had a machine that would do this work. Mrs. Greene
told them that this might not be so hard to do. "There is a young man at
my house," she said, "who can make anything;" and to prove it, she
showed them some of the things he had made. Then she introduced them to
Eli Whitney, and they asked him if he thought he could make a machine to
do the work they so badly wanted.

"I don't know about that," he replied. "I know no more about cotton than
a child knows about the moon."

"You can easily learn all there is to know about it," they urged. "We
would be glad to show you our fields and our picker-houses and give you
all the chance you need to study the subject."

Mr. Whitney made other objections. He was interested in his law studies,
and did not wish to break them off. But a chance to work at machinery
was too great an attraction for him to withstand, and at length he
consented to look over the matter and see