Capt. Gordon had been very successful during the war growing cotton. Prices had gone very high and he had accumulated quite a little money. But in 1920 cotton prices declined rapidly and his cotton brought very little, which again reduced them to poor circumstances. Robert became very ill again from malaria during the Spring and Summer of 1920, so that he was unable to work even if he wanted to. Up to this time he had shown no ambition for any kind of work, except to try to make something with his father's tools; talk about inventions and some of the great things he was going to do in the years to come. His mother had always petted him because of his severe illnesses and accident, and his father often referred to him as his mother's burden or his mother's problem. But she had great faith in young Robert because he clung so strongly to religion, believing in the Bible. Robert would spend days and hours reading the Bible and talking to his mother and asking her questions about it and its meaning. He had a great desire to travel and see the world and was always planning to visit strange places. While he showed great affection for his mother, his desire was to get away and see the world. CHAPTER III In the Spring of 1921, Robert began to make greater progress in his studies, which greatly encouraged his chum, Walter Kennelworth. Robert would study and read early and late. Walter would often call on him in his room and find him there deeply engrossed reading the Bible and puzzling over the interpretation of the meaning of many parts of the Scriptures. One Sunday in the early part of June, Robert and Walter went to church and the minister took for his text 1 Cor. 13:2, "And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing." Then the minister read from the 7th verse, "Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things," and again from the 11th verse, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." The minister further read from the 13th verse, "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." Again he read from 2 Cor. 5:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight," and concluded the reading of the text from Gal. 5:14, "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."