Part 19 (1/2)

”No,” he stammered, ”I am not coming back to Hiram any more. Father says I have got education enough, and that he needs me to work on the farm; that education doesn't help a farmer along any.”

He was a bright boy--not a prodigy, by any means, but one of those strong, awkward, large-headed fellows, such as James Garfield had himself been.

”Is your father here?” asked the young president, affected by the boy's evident sorrow.

”Yes, father is here, and is taking my things home for good.”

”Well, don't feel badly. Please tell him Mr. Garfield would like to see him at his study before he leaves the college.”

”Yes, sir, I will.”

In half an hour the father, a st.u.r.dy farmer, entered the study and awkwardly sat down.

”So you have come to take Henry home, have you?” asked the president.

”Yes,” answered the farmer.

”I sent for you because I wanted to have a little talk with you about Henry's future. He is coming back again in the fall, I hope?”

”Wal, I think not. I don't reckon I can afford to send him any more.

He's got eddication enough for a farmer already, and I notice that when they git too much, they sorter git lazy. Yer eddicated farmers are humbugs. Henry's got so far 'long now that he'd rather have his head in a book than be workin'. He don't take no interest in the stock, nor in the farm improvements. Everybody else is dependent in this world on the farmer, and I think that we've got too many eddicated fellows settin'

'round now for the farmers to support.”

To this Garfield answered that he was sorry for the father's decision, since his son, if permitted to come the next term, would be far enough advanced to teach school, and so begin to help himself along. Teaching would pay better than working on the farm in the winter.

”Do you really think Henry can teach next winter?” asked the father, to whom the idea was a new one.

”I should think so, certainly,” answered Garfield. ”But if he can not do so then, he can in a short time.”

”Wal, I will think on it. He wants to come back bad enough, and I guess I'll have to let him. I never thought of it that way afore.”

The victory was won. Henry came back the next term, and after finis.h.i.+ng at Hiram, graduated at an Eastern college.

CHAPTER XX.

GARFIELD BECOMES A STATE SENATOR.

Probably Garfield considered now that he was settled in life. He had married the woman of his choice, set up a pleasant home, and was fully occupied with a cla.s.s of duties that suited him. Living frugally, he was able to lay by a portion of his salary annually, and saw the way open, if life and health continued, to a moderate prosperity. He seemed to be a born teacher, and his life seemed likely to be pa.s.sed in that pleasant and tranquil office.

Many years before, while still unmarried, his mother had been a teacher, and one of her experiences when so occupied was so remarkable that I can not forbear quoting it:

”About the year 1820 she and her sister were left alone in the world, without provision, so far as the inheritance or possession of property was concerned. Preferring to live among relatives, one went to reside with an uncle in Northern Ohio, and the other, Eliza, afterward Mrs.

Garfield, came to another uncle, the father of Samuel Arnold, who then lived on a farm near Norwich, Muskingum County, Ohio. There Eliza Ballou made her home, cheerfully helping at the house or in the field, as was then sometimes the custom in a pioneer country. Having something more than what at that day was an ordinary education, Eliza procured about twenty pupils, and taught a summer school.

”The school-house was one of the most primitive kind, and stood in the edge of dense and heavily-timbered woods. One day there came up a fearful storm of wind and rain, accompanied by thunder and lightning.