"I need a new suit of clothes badly," he said in the evening, "but I
can't afford to buy one. See how I have torn my trowsers."

"Oh, that is easy enough to mend," said Mrs. Stiles, cheerfully.

"But I have no other pair to wear while they are being mended," said
James, with a blush.

"Then you must go to bed early, and send them down by one of the boys. I
will darn the hole so that you will never know it. You won't mind such
trifles when you become President."

It was a jocose remark, and the good lady little dreamed that, in after
years, the young man with but one pair of pantaloons, and those more
than half worn, would occupy the proud position she referred to.




CHAPTER X.

A COUSIN'S REMINISCENCES.


During his school-life at Geauga Seminary James enjoyed the
companionship of a cousin, Henry B. Boynton, who still lives on the farm
adjoining the one on which our hero was born. The relationship between
the two boys was much closer than is common between cousins; for while
their mothers were sisters, their fathers were half-brothers. Henry was