CHAPTER IV.

HABITS AND INCIDENTS OF HIS BOYHOOD.

NOT PRECOCIOUS. -HIS PLAYS. -HIS GARDEN.

THE PETTED YOUNGEST CHILD. -HIS EARLY TASKS. — ABSENCE OF A FATHER'S DISCIPLINE. -HIS ABSOLUTE TRUTHFULNESS. COULD NOT LIE TO HIS MOTHER. - ASHAMED TO BE CALLED A COWARD. HIS UNCLE AMOS. WHOLESOME FEAR. - LOVE OF POETRY. -NAMES THE TREES AND ROCKS AFTER HEROES AND HEROINES. THE APPLE ORCHARD.-AMBITION TO BE A SAILOR, - CARELESS USE OF TOOLS. -READING AT HOME. COUNTRY LYCEUM. MOTHER'S WATCHCARE.

THE boyhood of James is interesting and encouraging to the youth of our land, inasmuch as it lacks those extraordinary and unusual features which would adorn a romance or a fable. It was so much like the life of many other boys, and so little varied from the common experience, that it shows the possibility that goodness, greatness and fame are within the reach of many other poor country lads. The hardihood and intelligence of his mother may have contained a blessing which is exceptional in such circumstances; but the life he led in his earlier years was, in its daily routine, very similar to that of other fatherless farmers' boys. He brought in at night the wood for the morning fire; his bare feet made solid the often trodden path down to the

spring; and he was not unusually precocious in his desire for knowledge or in his willingness to work.

He constructed mud dams and set up rude toy mills at the little stream in the ravine below the spring. He sought out the shady nooks in the near woodland for summer shade, and made caves in the woodpile in winter, to secure a sheltered playhouse. He planted his little garden in the spring, and often lost his interest in it after the wonderful resurrection of the beans and cucumbers had ceased to astonish him. He was the pet of his mother and the pride of his brother and sisters, but poverty prevented anything like a dangerous indulgence. Yet its tendency was to make him less inclined to work either in school or in the field. But he often entered into the sports of the boys in the neighborhood with enthusiasm, and sometimes with unhealthy zeal. If he was given a job of work to do, and a certain time was allotted him in which to perform the task, his whole soul engaged in the work, and the job was pushed to completion with startling vigor.

His early life lacked, however, that energy and promptness which is ever the result when a boy loses the discipline of a father's presence and example. It is a surprise that he was so active. Many boys have been led away into laziness and its consequent vices and crimes, for the lack of a father's stern and dignified commands.

But there was one feature of little James's character which will account for his final triumph under all these discouraging circumstances of his life. His

mother's training, his inherited disposition, and the habits of the rather remarkably religious neighborhood of Orange at that time, kept his boyhood life in the way of the most scrupulous truthfulness. He did not and would not lie. While that anchor held, his character and future were safe. No boy or man can be selfish, self-indulgent, or lazy, without being dishonest. He cannot steal, nor cheat, nor play truant, nor indulge in vicious habits, unless he will lie. Absolute truthfulness and a useless or vicious life are incompatible and impossible.

His uncle,

A traditional incident, illustrating his love of truth, is related of him, which may or may not be exact in its details, yet which is an apt illustration of his whole character in that early day. Thomas Garfield, lived three or four miles from his mother's house, and the road led through a lonely country, a part of which was thickly wooded. It often happened that he was sent on errands, to and fro, over this road. One evening, while he was at his uncle's, there came up a sudden shower which turned into a storm, and darkness came on suddenly. He had probably heard the usual ghost and Indian stories which terrified the youth of his time and was somewhat timid. He disliked to traverse the road alone in the night, yet he felt that he must go home. His cousins and aunt tried to persuade him to stay all night, but he would not. He started boldly out into the night. It was wet, cold, and pitchy dark. The wind groaned among the maples, and the great beech trees cracked and creaked ominously. It was

too much for his boyish courage, and, after going a half mile, he turned back.

But on reaching his uncle's house he felt ashamed of his weakness and determined to start again.

'I would not try it again, James," said a work

man.

“But mother will worry about me," said the little fellow.

"O stay all night, and tell her the mud was too deep to get home," said the workman.

"I shall not tell her that, and I won't tell her I was afraid," said James. And off he started a second time. This time he went bravely through the dark woods to his home, and it may be that his mother never knew how much he endured that night rather than tell her a falsehood or confess that he was afraid.

That tradition is in accord with many others and shows that truthfulness requires a brave spirit and a self-sacrificing life. The truth was his good angel. It kept him from everything which he would be ashamed to confess. It overcame his indisposition to labor. It guided him safely over the dangerous bar of a petted boyhood. Inasmuch as he was more true in his speech and actions than other boys, just that much was his boyhood nobler and more promising than theirs, and no more In all other things he was like the multitude. The determination and habit of speaking the simple truth was a badge of honor, more honorable and more respected than the kingly ermine on the heraldic shields of his ancestors.

Wild and rough oftentimes, rude in his sports and awkward in the presence of visitors, often in rags and dust he had carelessly made, with no other title or claim to respect and no other capital to begin life upon, he found in his truth-telling an infallible guide to nobility and human greatness. This was the only very remarkable thing about his young life, and we shall see how curiously and surely it guided him upward.

Romances have been constructed about the boyhood of James, in which he has figured as the heroic representative of Ohio boys. But the dress of fiction adds nothing to the moral of his noble life. He was no more of a hero, loved his books no better, enjoyed hard labor no more than the hardy boys of his neighborhood. There was nothing in his boyhood, save that single characteristic of honesty in speech, which could be said to be indicative of superior gifts.

Fortunately for James, his uncle, Amos Boynton, had a heart broad enough to take in more than his own family; and the uncle's example, precepts and threats were most efficacious in keeping the children of the Garfield family decorous and respectful. James was not always good-natured nor always in the mood for immediate obedience to his mother's commands. But when he was inclined to mischief or willfulness, his mother had but to say, "I will tell Uncle Amos," and he was as meek as the lambs.

Uncle Amos was a valuable man in the community, and appears to have had, in his eccentric way, a most excellent influence over the young people of