their food would cost if they had no luxuries at all and boarded themselves on the very cheapest food, such as hasty pudding, and corn bread. They were compelled to add the cost of some stout cloth for a suit of clothes, with a cap and a pair of boots for each. How provokingly it did count up! How great were the difficulties in the way of those young

men!

If they boarded themselves, how many dishes would it take, how many knives and forks, how many towels, and how many kettles? All those must be borrowed from home to save the expense of purchasing new. Yes, that could be arranged; but yet the project seemed very distant.

It was not until some months after the matter was first talked of, that a way opened for James. He had an opportunity to earn a few dollars on an unusually profitable job of carpentering, and, although the sum seemed a mere pittance for one in his circumstances to begin such an undertaking, he resolved to make a beginning and trust the future to open the way to further advancement.

In 1849, that year made memorable by the discovery of gold in California, and which witnessed the departure of so many young men for the gold fields, James began his course of instruction at Chester. It was the humblest beginning that could be made, and it must have most severely wounded his pride to be associated with scholars more advanced and so much more favored in worldly possessions. He was too brave to exhibit any misgivings, or let people

know that he noticed the distinctions which are always, but often unconsciously, made between the rich and poor by the best of men and women.

A description of their style of living at the Geauga Seminary has been given to the author by one of his room-mates who attended the school the second term of James's stay at Chester. There were three of them in one room-James, his cousin, Henry Boynton, and Orren Judd. The room was about ten feet wide and twelve feet long, and was in a small farm-house near the academy. They selected that room because it was cheaper than those which were let in the academy building, and for the same reason the three boys occupied but one room. With the two narrow beds, their cook-stove, boxes, and three chairs, there was but little room for themselves. They divided up the work, and each alternately prepared the meals for a day. When the fire was burning in the old box-stove, which had but one cover, the heat often drove out all but the cook.

They were at the

Their meals, however, were often cold, and for many weeks their only diet consisted of mush and milk. When the bread from home gave out, the supply being renewed nearly every week, they returned invariably to their hasty pudding, or to their hot corn-cakes and molasses. academy to study, and not to cook. was the only object in eating at all; they were compelled to eat, they did it with dispatch, and returned to their books. Near the end of their second term, the boys became very much dissatisfied

To keep alive and whenever

with their board, and made up their minds that boarding themselves was not a successful enterprise. James is said to have thrown down his spoon one day as he finished his dish of pudding and molasses, saying,

"I won't eat any more of that stuff, if I starve!"

But all their drawbacks did not appear to hinder their progress in their studies. James worked very hard, and made such masterly strides upward that he soon had reason to feel proud of his achievements. His hard fare, hard work, and close application made no impression upon the hardy constitution which had been disciplined by chopping wood, planting crops, and drawing the plane; and while his classmates and room-mates faltered and weakened under the strain and the privations, he kept steadily pulling onward, with his health and strength unimpaired.

How few successful men have spent their entire youth in school. The keenest intellects and the greatest minds of earth have almost universally been found with those whose youth was inured to hardships, and whose early years were spent in physical hard work. With a healthy body, no man need despair of getting an education, even if he must begin in middle age. A college education is such a very small part of the learning necessary, in this day, to entitle a person to a position among scholars or men of letters, that it is universally regarded by cultivated men as only a beginning. No man with a rugged body and a thoughtful mind need lack a college edu

cation. The knowledge of mathematics, of science, of the languages, or of history is no more valuable because it has been learned inside the halls of a college building. They can all be learned elsewhere; and to be a leader among men, much that is more difficult and more profound must be acquired away from them. The boy who has graduated from a college has only just begun, if he really hopes for success; and this after-education cannot be acquired in the rough contact with the cares of life, without a sound body to draw upon. Many men who never heard a college lecture, and never darkened the doors of the humblest university, have started late in life, with vigorous health, and acquired a fund of learning beyond that of college professors, and performed great deeds, which precocious students had not the strength to execute. All schools and colleges are a help, but they are not an absolute necessity. Health is always a necessity. It gives the late scholar a strong advantage over an early one. It gives the power to become learned and great to him, who may have passed a score of years in ignorance. It is an inestimable blessing to any one, and worth the sacrifice of early school-days. Experience, as in the case of James, has taught that a neglected early education is no loss, if the young man possesses the moral courage to acknowledge his ignorance, and vigorously sets himself at the task of making up his deficiencies. It often requires more fortitude than to fight a battle. But he who wins in that contest will conquer in all others. James lost nothing in the

end by being poor and out of school in his boyhood, and others need not.

Even the delay in his progress, caused by his absence for the purpose of earning money enough to pay his way, seems to have been easily made up. Having an opportunity to teach a school in his native town, he eagerly accepted the position, and was absent from the academy the entire winter.

That school was a difficult one to control, and was noted for its unruly boys. James was an enthusiast then, on the subject of learning, and took the most eager interest in all the lessons of the school. He was also a believer in good order, and in his ability to maintain it. It is told of him that several of the boys, led by a stubborn young giant, attempted to conduct themselves unseemly during the school hours, and engaged in open rebellion. When the rebellion was crushed, which was not long after the teacher set about it, there were several sore heads, a giant with a lame back, and the most perfect decorum throughout the school-room.

During these academic days, James took an active and permanent interest in religious matters. His free spirit and strong independence of character inclined him toward the Church of the Disciples, the creed of which, if it may be said to have had any in that day, was untrammeled by traditions and unfettered by any laws, save the words of the Bible, without change or comment. They formed a religious community, in which all were supposed to have an equal share, and in which every one could preach, if he so de