From Canal Boy to President - Or the Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield by Horatio Alger
page 95 of 236 (40%)
page 95 of 236 (40%)
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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. |
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