“Here the school opened at the time Garfield was closing his studies at Chester.  It had been in operation two terms when he offered himself for enrollment.  Hiram furnished a location, the Board of Trustees a building and the first teacher, the surrounding country students, but the spiritual Hiram made itself.  Everything was new.  Society, traditions, the genius of the school, had to be evolved from the forces of the teachers and pupils, limited by the general and local environment.  Let no one be surprised when I say that such a school as this was the best of all places for young Garfield.  There was freedom, opportunity, a large society of rapidly and eagerly opening young minds, instructors who were learned enough to instruct him, and abundant scope for ability and force of character, of which he had a superabundance.

“Few of the students who came to Hiram in that day had more than a district-school education, though some had attended the high schools and academies scattered over the country; so that Garfield, though he had made but slight progress in the classics and the higher mathematics previous to his arrival, ranked well up with the first scholars.  In ability, all acknowledged that he was the peer of any; soon his superiority to all others was generally conceded.”

So James entered upon his duties as janitor and bell-ringer.  It was a humble position for the future President of the United States; but no work is humiliating which is undertaken with a right aim and a useful object.  Of one thing my boy-reader may be sure—­the duties of the offices were satisfactorily performed.  The school-rooms were well cared for, and the bell was rung punctually.  This is shown by the fact that, after the two weeks of probation, he was still continued in office, though doubtless in the large number of students of limited means in the institute there was more than one that would have been glad to relieve him of his office.

It will hardly be supposed, however, that the position of janitor and bell-ringer could pay all his expenses.  He had two other resources.  In term-time he worked at his trade of carpenter as opportunity offered, and in the winter, as at Chester, he sought some country town where he could find employment as a teacher.

The names of the places where he taught are not known to me, though doubtless there is many an Ohio farmer, or mechanic, or, perchance, professional man, who is able to boast that he was partially educated by a President of the United States.

As characteristic of his coolness and firmness, I am tempted to record an incident which happened to him in one of his winter schools.

There were some scholars about as large as himself, to whom obedience to the rules of the school was not quite easy—­who thought, in consideration of their age and size, that they might venture upon acts which would not be tolerated in younger pupils.

The school had commenced one morning, when the young teacher heard angry words and the noise of a struggle in the school-yard, which chanced to be inclosed.  The noise attracted the attention of the scholars, and interfered with the attention which the recitation required.