54

for his dexterous hands, and soon became known as the most industrious lad in all Orange. His life was a hard one; but James was patient and willing to "labor and wait" for the better times, that he knew would come, when he deserved them.

His popularity with the citizens of Orange was so great that they often put themselves out to do a favor for the youth, who was so firmly resolved to become a fully equipped man, and gave him employment mornings, evenings and Saturdays. In this way he earned enough to clothe and maintain himself, and also help the family a little. The summer vacation afforded him more time for work, and added largely to his earnings. He was sober and steady, a giant in labor, and never seemed even to give himself time for rest. The savings of his busy vacations, earned with jack-plane and hammer, filled the purse of the lad, whose previous supplies of money had been more than meagre.

From his earliest days, young Garfield had been fond of books. Before he could read, he loved to listen to what others would tell him, treasuring every word that his unpracticed memory could recall. When he was able to read, his mental appetite grew with every hour of his life. What he could obtain in the way of literature he devoured, not merely read, but re-read and re-read, until every word was more than "a twice told tale."

PIRATICAL ASPIRATIONS.

55

Books of adventure, tales of daring, and lives of freebooters seemed to fascinate his mind the most. The air of wild freedom and the absence of care, with which pirates lived, were very attractive to the boy's spirit, which equaled in its boldness that of the most daring freebooter the sea ever knew.

AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN, FROM A DAGUEREOTYPE.

It was perhaps fortunate at this juncture, that there were no opportunities for gratifying the wild fancies, the black shadows of which he hardly As it was, the "Pirate's Own Book," only

saw.

firing his ambition did no harm. He saw too that this ambition could be gratified only with money and upon a larger field of life than opened to him in the Cuyahoga wilderness, or was contained within the bounds of Orange.

One day he came to his mother and said: "Mother, I have engaged to chop a hundred cords of wood for twenty-five dollars."

"But are you sure you are quite strong enough for such an undertaking?" inquired the careful

woman.

"Oh, yes," replied James, laughingly, "I shall get through with it somehow."

He went bravely to work, but soon found that he had indeed undertaken a formidable task. His pride forbade him to give up. He had said that he could do it, and do it he would, let it cost what it might. The task was that of a man, and his boy's strength began to fail him, before it was half done; but he toiled on day after day. At every stroke of the axe he could look up and catch the sun's glimmer on the slaty-blue waves of Lake Erie. It prompted all the imaginings of his young heart so deeply stirred by the "Pirate's Own Book." He thought that the lake was the sea; and already he saw himself a bold rover with a gallant crew, commanding a staunch, black ship, that, proudly carrying the black flag at the peak, floated upon its restless bosom. And when he would lie down at night, his day-thoughts turned into

WANTS TO BE A SAILOR.

57

dreams of the sea and its life of wild attractiveness. In his dreams he was ever a sailor.

When his wood-chopping was done and his hundred cords were neatly piled, he went to the Newburg farmer, for whom he had worked, received the twenty-five dollars, and carried them straight to his mother. Mrs. Garfield looked at the pale boy, but, though proud of his manly achievements, she saw, with some apprehension, that he had over-tasked himself. She softly remonstrated with his ardor, urging caution for the future. It was precisely this future that was on the boy's mind; and still strong in his sailor-fancies, he had come to speak about this.

"Mother, I want to be a sailor, and I am going to sea," said he abruptly,

Mrs. Garfield turned pale, for she knew too well, alas! that this meant a separation for years, and, perhaps forever, from her son.

Nay, James," she replied gently; "why not be content with us at home? The sea is a hard life, and I fear that I could not part with you just yet. The haying season is at hand, and your brother will need your assistance on the farm, I pray you give up this sea-faring idea for the pres

ent."

James said not a word, but resumed his farm work. He assisted in the hay-fields and the gathering of the harvest; but, when the work was all done, he went again to his mother, and announced

to her, that he could no longer restrain his desire for a life on the wave. He had resolved to depart immediately. Then he packed a few clothes in a bundle; and, placing them on a stick across his shoulder, like all the boys in pictures he had ever seen, he set out on foot for Cleveland. Amid prayers and forebodings, the poor mother had bidden him good-bye; and he carried with him her kiss and her blessing, as his only fortune.

He plodded along cheerfully. His heart never failed him; his courage never sank. He was always in good spirits. After a tramp of several days, he reached Cleveland, and at once sought the harbor, that paradise, wherein he believed that he should find a career of indescribable happiness. There was but one ship in port. This he boarded, and not without some trepidation inquired for the captain.

His idea of a ship's captain had been formed from his reading, and then gilded with the honest goodness of his own nature. He imagined that any man, who was good enough and great enough to command a ship, must, at least, be a dashing, brave and gallant fellow, capable, when occasion required, of performing desperate deeds, but disposed to be, as a general thing, generous to a fault. To his question, where he could see the captain, a deck-hand replied: "The cap'n's below; he'll be up soon." Garfield, somewhat disturbed, waited the fulfillment of the deck-hand's information. The