ing its wonderful knowledge, and making himself familiar with its inspiring contents. This was before the lad was five years old; and he was scarcely six years old when he had committed to memory a great portion of that "Reader." Other volumes, too, occupied much of his attention, though none to such an extent as the "English Reader." Such was his childish devotion to books that his mother could scarcely refrain from prophesying, even then, an intellectual career for him. She knew not how it could be done, -all the surroundings of the family were unfriendly to such an experience, but somehow she was made to feel that there was a wider, grander field of action for that active, precocious mind.

CHAPTER IV.

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS.

E can have a school-house nearer to us," remarked Mrs. Garfield to Mr. Boynton. "For the sake of my James, I wish we could have."

"There are scarcely enough families yet to make such a change," replied Mr. Boynton; "some of them would have to go as far as they do now."

"That is very true; but more families would have a shorter distance to go than they have now. I think that fact is worth considering."

Mrs. Garfield was giving utterance, for the first time, to thoughts that had been in her mind for several months. In her own mind she had numbered the families which might be induced to unite in erecting a log school-house upon one corner of her farm. She continued:

"Suppose you inquire of Mr. Collins and others, and learn what they think about it. If eight or ten families will unite, or even eight families, we can have a school nearer home. I will give the land on which to build the house; and three days' labor by seven or eight men will complete the building. It is not a

long or expensive job, and it is just the time to start now, if the thing is to be done."

"Perhaps it can be done," Mr. Boynton answered thoughtfully. "The more I look at it, the less diffi cult it seems. I will consult the neighbors you mention, and others, too. I should be as pleased as anybody to have it done." And as he spoke the last sentence he turned towards home.

Without recording the details of this new enterprise, we need only say, that it was very easily accomplished; and before winter set in, a log school-house stood on the Garfield farm. Neighbors welcomed the project, especially because it would be an advantage to Widow Garfield, whom they very much respected, and to whom their warmest sympathies had always been tendered in her affliction.

"Now you can go to school by your own conveyance," said Thomas to Jimmy, one day after the school-house was finished. "You won't have to make a beast of burden of Hit any longer. You will like that, won't you?"

James assented; when his mother added:

"Your master is coming from New Hampshire, where I was born. You will like him; and he is to

board here to begin with."

Mrs. Garfield had four children, and Mr. Boynton six, to go to school, ten in all from two families.

It was through Mrs. Garfield's influence that the school-house was built; and then, it was through her influence that a school-master was imported from New Hampshire. The school-house was twenty feet square, with puncheon floor, slab roof, and log benches with

out backs, five scholars.

large enough to accommodate twentyTeachers always "boarded round,” dividing the time equally among the families; and it was considered quite an advantage to a family of children to have the "master" board with them.

By hard labor, assisted by his mother and sisters, Thomas harvested the crops in the autumn, cut and hauled wood, and did other necessary work, so that he could attend the winter term of school with his sisters and James. He had everything about the farm in fine order when December and the school-master, whose name was Foster, arrived. They came together, and one was about as rough as the other. The "master" was a young man of twenty years, uncouth in his appearance, large and unwieldy, but a sensible sort of a Yankee, who had picked up considerable knowledge without going to school or reading much. On the whole, he was full as much of a man as pioneers could expect for the small wages they were able to pay. He was kind-hearted, of good character, and was really influenced by a strong desire to benefit his pupils.

He took up his abode at the beginning of school with Mrs. Garfield, and slept in the loft with Thomas and James. At once his attention was drawn to James, as a very precocious child. Good terms were established between them; and when they started off together for the school-house, on the first day of school, the teacher said to him, putting his hand. kindly on his head :

"If you learn well, my boy, you may grow up yet and be a general."

James did not know exactly what a general was, but then he concluded that a general must be some great affair, or a school-master would not speak so favorably of him. The remark fastened upon the lad's mind; somehow he felt, all through the day, that he was beginning just then to make a general, whatever that might be. It was not out of his mind for a minute and he labored somewhat upon the point, how long a time it would take to make him into a general. However, he knew that there was one being who stood between him, and all learning, and all the future, and that being was his mother. What he did not know, she would know. As soon as he reached home, after school, he inquired:

"Ma, what's a gen'ral?"

"What's what?" his mother answered, not comprehending his question.

"What's a gen'ral?" James repeated, somewhat more distinctly.

"Oh, I see now a general!" she answered; "that is what you want to know."

"Yes; the master said I might make a genʼral if I learn."

"That is what put it into your head, then," continued his mother, laughing, "You don't know whether you would like to be one or not, I suppose : is that it?"

"I want to know what it is," James replied.

"Well, I will tell you, my son, for your great-grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War under a general. You ought to know something about that, and something about your ancestors, too, as well as about a general."