About this time he received a letter from his brother.

“Dear James,” he wrote, “I shall be glad to hear how you are getting along.  You took so little money with you that you may need more.  If so, let me know, and I will try to send you some.”

James answered promptly:  “Don’t feel anxious about me, Thomas.  I have been fortunate enough to secure work at a carpenter’s-shop, and my expenses of living are very small.  I intend not to call upon you or mother again, but to pay my own way, if I keep my health.”

He kept his word, and from that time did not find it necessary to call either upon his mother or his good brother, who was prepared to make personal sacrifices, as he had been doing all his life, that his younger brother might enjoy advantages which he had to do without.

At length the summer vacation came.  James had worked hard and won high rank in his respective studies.  He had a robust frame, and he seemed never to get tired.  No doubt he took especial interest in composition and the exercises of the debating society which flourished at Geauga, as at most seminaries of advanced education.  In after-life he was so ready and powerful in debate, that we can readily understand that he must have begun early to try his powers.  Many a trained speaker has first come to a consciousness of his strength in a lyceum of boys, pitted against some school-fellow of equal attainments.  No doubt many crude and some ludicrous speeches are made by boys in their teens, but at least they learn to think on their feet, and acquire the ability to stand the gaze of an audience without discomposure.  A certain easy facility of expression also is gained, which enables them to acquit themselves creditably on a more important stage.

James early learned that the best preparation for a good speech is a thorough familiarity with the subject, and in his after-life he always carefully prepared himself, so that he was a forcible debater, whom it was not easy to meet and conquer.

“He once told me how he prepared his speeches,” said Representative Williams, of Wisconsin, since his death.  “First he filled himself with the subject, massing all the facts and principles involved, so far as he could; then he took pen and paper and wrote down the salient points in what he regarded their logical order.  Then he scanned these critically, and fixed them in his memory.  ‘And then,’ said he, ’I leave the paper in my room and trust to the emergency.’”

When the vacation came James began to look about for work.  He could not afford to be idle.  Moreover, he hoped to be able to earn enough that he might not go back empty-handed in the fall.

Generally work comes to him who earnestly seeks it, and James heard of a man who wanted some wood cut.

He waited upon this man and questioned him about it.

“Yes,” he answered, “I want the wood cut.  What will you charge to do it?”