After that there was no more question about going to sea.  He deliberately decided to become a scholar, and then follow where Providence led the way.

He would have liked a new suit of clothes, but this was out of the question.  All the money he had at command was the seventeen dollars which his mother had offered him.  He must get along with this sum, and so with hopeful heart he set out for Geauga Seminary.

He did not go alone.  On hearing of his determination, two boys, one a cousin, made up their minds to accompany him.

Possibly my young readers may imagine the scene of leave-taking, as the stage drove up to the door, and the boys with their trunks or valises were taken on board, but if so, imagination would picture a scene far different from the reality.  Their outfit was of quite a different kind.

For the sake of economy the boys were to board themselves, and Mrs. Garfield with provident heart supplied James with a frying-pan, and a few necessary dishes, so that his body might not suffer while his mind was being fed.  Such was the luxury that awaited James in his new home.  I am afraid that the hearts of many of my young readers would sink within them if they thought that they must buy an education at such a cost as that.  But let them not forget that this homespun boy, with his poor array of frying-pan and dishes, was years after to strive in legislative halls, and win the highest post in the gift of his fellow-citizens.  And none of these things would have been his, in all likelihood, but for his early struggle with poverty.

So far as I know, neither of his companions was any better off than James.  All three were young adventurers traveling into the domains of science with hopeful hearts and fresh courage, not altogether ignorant of the hardships that awaited them, but prepared to work hard for the prizes of knowledge.

Arrived at Geauga Seminary, they called upon the principal and announced for what purpose they had come.

“Well, young men, I hope you mean to work?” he said.

“Yes, sir,” answered James promptly.  “I am poor, and I want to get an education as quick as I can.”

“I like your sentiments, and I will help you as far as I can.”

The boys succeeded in hiring a room in an old unpainted building near the academy for a small weekly sum.  It was unfurnished, but they succeeded in borrowing a few dilapidated chairs from a neighbor who did not require them, and some straw ticks, which they spread upon the floor for sleeping purposes.  In one corner they stowe their frying-pans, kettles, and dishes, and then they set up housekeeping in humble style.

The Geauga Seminary was a Freewill Baptist institution, and was attended by a considerable number of students, to whom it did not, indeed, furnish what is called “the higher education,” but it was a considerable advance upon any school that James had hitherto attended.  English grammar, natural philosophy, arithmetic, and algebra—­these were the principal studies to which James devoted himself, and they opened to him new fields of thought.  Probably it was at this humble seminary that he first acquired the thirst for learning that ever afterward characterized him.