"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.

Let us look in upon the three boys a night or two after they have
commenced housekeeping.

They take turns in cooking, and this time it is the turn of the one in
whom we feel the strongest interest.