Few boys at his age would have taken the matter so seriously, yet in the light of after events shall we not say that James was right, and that God did have some work for him to perform?

This work, the boy decided, was not likely to be the one he was at present engaged in.  The work of a driver or a bowman on a canal is doubtless useful in its way, but James doubted whether he would be providentially set apart for any such business.

It might have been this deliverance that turned his attention to religious matters.  At any rate, hearing that at Bedford there was a series of protracted meetings conducted by the Disciples, as they were called, he made a trip there, and became seriously impressed.  There, too, he met a gentleman who was destined to exert an important influence over his destiny.

This gentleman was Dr. J.P.  Robinson, who may be still living.  Dr. Robinson took a great liking to the boy, and sought to be of service to him.  He employed him, though it may have been at a later period, to chop wood, and take care of his garden, and do chores about the house, and years afterward, as we shall see, it was he that enabled James to enter Williams College, and pursue his studies there until he graduated, and was ready to do the work of an educated man in the world.  But we must not anticipate.

Though James was strong and healthy he was not proof against the disease that lurked in the low lands bordering on the canal.  He was attacked by fever and ague, and lay for some months sick at home.  It was probably the only long sickness he had till the fatal wound which laid him on his bed when in the fullness of his fame he had taken his place among kings and rulers.  It is needless to say that he had every attention that a tender mother could bestow, and in time he was restored to health.

During his sickness he had many talks with his mother upon his future prospects, and the course of life upon which it was best for him to enter.  He had not yet given up all thoughts of the sea, he had not forgotten the charms with which a sailor’s life is invested in Marryatt’s fascinating novels.  His mother listened anxiously to his dreams of happiness on the sea, and strove to fix his mind upon higher things—­to inspire him with a nobler ambition.

“What would you have me do, mother?” he asked.

“If you go back to the canal, my son, with the seeds of this disease lurking in your system, I fear you will be taken down again.  I have thought it over.  It seems to me you had better go to school this spring, and then, with a term in the fall, you may be able to teach in the winter.  If you teach winters, and work on the canal or lake summers, you will have employment the year round.”

Nevertheless Mrs. Garfield was probably not in favor of his spending his summers in the way indicated.  She felt, however, that her son, who was a boy like other boys, must be gradually weaned from the dreams that had bewitched his fancy.