In 1913, Robert suffered a severe illness in the Spring, and for a few months his life was despaired of, but he quickly recovered. Soon after his recovery, his father took him on a fishing trip to Spirit Lake. The old darky of slavery days went along, and while he was putting worms on Robert's hook, told the story about this lake and why it was named "Spirit Lake." The old darky said that the spirit of a beautiful lady walked on the waters of the lake at night and that was why they called it Spirit Lake.
Long, long years ago, the daughter of a wealthy planter fell in love with a poor but honest boy and after many years of courtship, in which they spent many moonlight nights rowing on the beautiful lake, the time came when they felt that they could no longer be separated. The young man pleaded with her father to consent to their marriage, but he stubbornly refused and threatened to kill the young man if he ever called at his home again. They then planned to elope one night, and as her sweetheart was placing a ladder under the window and helping her to get down, her father shot her lover and killed him. When she found that he was dead, she ran to the lake and drowned herself. They searched for days for her body and one moonlight night they saw her walking on the water. They rowed out on the lake and found her body floating on the water. He said that the fish would always bite better at full moon, but the darkies were afraid to fish there because the spirit of this beautiful young lady walked on the water.
Bobbie came home very much interested and excited and told his mother all about the fish they caught at Spirit Lake and about the story old Moses told him about the spirit walking on the water. He told his mother that the Sunday School teacher had read in the Bible where Christ walked on the water, and he wanted her to explain how this could happen. She told him that all of those things happened in the days of miracles which had passed and no longer happened in these days. Bobbie had a great desire to walk or ride upon the water, and was enthusiastic about bicycles. He told his mother that he intended to build a bicycle some day that he could ride on the water.
In 1914, when war broke out, Capt. Gordon, who had once served in the Spanish-American War, became very much interested in the conflict and followed it very closely, reading the papers daily and talking about it. Robert soon began to take great interest in the war and asked his father and mother many questions about the foreign countries which were involved in the great struggle. He would sit for hours, listening to his mother read the Bible, from the Book of Revelation, the prophecies of the Great War, where it says that nation shall rise against nation.
Robert's mother told him of his grandfather who distinguished himself in the Civil War, and the great hardships her mother had to go thru during the war days; how her great-grandfather fought in the War of 1812. She talked of his grandfather, Colonel Robert Gordon, for whom he was named, and how he became famous during the Civil War, and how later Robert's own father went with Colonel Roosevelt and became a Captain in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Robert's oldest brother, Herbert, was born in 1894, and his second brother, Ralph, was born in 1898 after his father went to the war. His mother spent many anxious months and worried with the children while Capt. Gordon was away at war. She prayed that war would be ended for all time.
She said, "Bobbie, you come from a generation of fighters on both sides, but I hope that you will be a minister and preach against war. While the tragic death of your brother Herbert in San Francisco was a shock that I have never fully recovered from, yet I had rather know that he went that way than to have him go to war and lose his life. I remember well the many sleepless nights that I have passed thru while your father was away at war and how happy I was when he returned. I prayed to God then that war might be ended and that none of my sons would ever have to go to war."
"Mother," said Bobbie, "when I get to be a man, I will be a preacher and tell the people to be peaceful and stop fighting, but why doesn't God stop the war?"
"My son, war is the work of the devil, not of God, and the Bible tells us that the old dragon has to be loosed for a little season, but in the Book of Revelation, we read that Satan is bound for a thousand years. I hope I live to see that day and I feel sure you will. A few nights before you were born I had a very strange dream. I thought I saw San Francisco and Los Angeles destroyed in two days by some war machine, and that one of my sons came near losing his life there, but was saved and afterwards he saved his country and made peace with the world. I suppose I dreamed about San Francisco because Herbert lost his life there but, somehow, I feel that it was more than a dream, and that you are born to be a peacemaker."
Bobbie was greatly impressed with his mother's dream and her hopes and ambitions for him, but his brother would quarrel and try to fight with him. Bobbie would tell him that Dad wanted him to be peaceful and that his mother wanted him to be a peacemaker and that he would not fight. His brother called him "Cottonhead" because his hair was so white, and accused him of being a white-livered coward, but Bobbie was patient and did not lose his temper. His mother would commend him for this and tell him that the Bible said to control your temper and not let your angry passions rise.
About this time some of the prejudice which little Robert had inherited from his grandfather and from his father, began to show forth. Unfavorable conditions thruout the country and the low price of cotton left Capt. Gordon practically penniless, causing him and all of his children to labor hard in order to support themselves. He tried to force young Robert to work in the fields and help cultivate the cotton, but he stubbornly rebelled. He would play around the house, use his father's tools and talk about the great inventions that he was going to make. His mother was always in sympathy with Robert and tried to encourage him, but she could never get him to take an interest in working on a farm. He talked of being a preacher, talked of great inventions and discoveries, but would not work at hard labor.