From Canal Boy to President | Page 3

his work would be thrown upon her, but there was great lack of ready money and the twelve dollars were a powerful temptation.
"I need Thomas at home," she said slowly, "but I need the money more. He may go, if he likes."
"I will go," said Thomas promptly.
"How often can you let him come home?" was the next question.
"Every fortnight, on Saturday night. He shall bring his wages then."
This was satisfactory, and Thomas, not stopping to change his clothes, for he had but one suit, went off with his employer.
His absence naturally increased his mother's work, and was felt as a sore loss by Jimmy, who was in the habit of following him about, and watching him when he was at work. Sometimes his brother gave the little fellow a trifle to do, and Jimmy was always pleased to help, for he was fond of work, and when he grew older and stronger he was himself a sturdy and indefatigable worker in ways not dreamed of then.
The first fortnight was up, and Thomas was expected home. No one was more anxious to see him than his little brother, and that was why Jimmy had come out from his humble home, and was looking so earnestly across the clearing.
At last he saw him, and ran as fast as short legs could carry him to meet his brother.
"Oh, Tommy, how I've missed you!" he said.
"Have you, Jimmy?" asked Thomas, passing his arm around his little brother's neck. "I have missed you too, and all the family. Are all well?"
"Oh, yes."
"That is good."
As they neared the cabin Mrs. Garfield came out, and welcomed her oldest boy home.
"We are all glad to see you, Thomas," she said. "How have you got along?"
"Very well, mother."
"Was the work hard?"
"The hours were pretty long. I had to work fourteen hours a day."
"That is too long for a boy of your age to work," said his mother anxiously.
"Oh, it hasn't hurt me, mother," said Thomas, laughing. "Besides, you must remember I have been well paid. What do you say to that?"
He drew from his pocket twelve silver half-dollars, and laid them on the table, a glittering heap.
"Is it all yours, Tommy?" asked his little brother wonderingly.
"No, it belongs to mother. I give it to her."
"Thank you, Thomas," said Mrs. Garfield, "but at least you ought to be consulted about how it shall be spent. Is there anything you need for yourself?"
"Oh, never mind me! I want Jimmy to have a pair of shoes."
Jimmy looked with interest at his little bare feet, and thought he would like some shoes. In fact they would be his first, for thus far in life he had been a barefooted boy.
"Jimmy shall have his shoes," said Mrs. Garfield; "when you see the shoemaker ask him to come here as soon as he can make it convenient."
So, a few days later the shoemaker, who may possibly have had no shop of his own, called at the log-cabin, measured Jimmy for a pair of shoes, and made them on the spot, boarding out a part of his pay.
The first pair of shoes made an important epoch in Jimmy Garfield's life, for it was decided that he could now go to school.
CHAPTER II.
GROWING IN WISDOM AND STATURE.
The school was in the village a mile and a half away. It was a long walk for a little boy of four, but sometimes his sister Mehetabel, now thirteen years old, carried him on her back. When in winter the snow lay deep on the ground Jimmy's books were brought home, and he recited his lessons to his mother.
This may be a good time to say something of the family whose name in after years was to become a household word throughout the republic. They had been long in the country. They were literally one of the first families, for in 1636, only sixteen years after the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth rock, and the same year that Harvard College was founded, Edward Garfield, who had come from the edge of Wales, settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, less than four miles from the infant college, and there for more than a century was the family home, as several moss-grown headstones in the ancient graveyard still testify.
They did their part in the Revolutionary war, and it was not till the war was over that Solomon Garfield, the great grandfather of the future President, removed to the town of Worcester, Otsego County, N.Y. Here lived the Garfields for two generations. Then Abram Garfield, the father of James, moved to Northeastern Ohio, and bought a tract of eighty acres, on which stood the log-cabin, built by himself, in which our story opens. His wife belonged to a distinguished family of New England--the Ballous--and possessed the strong traits of her kindred.
But the little farm of eighty