and the remark was common, 'He will fill the White House yet.' In the
Lyceum he early took rank far above the others as a speaker and debater.

"During the month of June the entire school went in carriages to their
annual grove meeting at Randolph, some twenty-five miles away. On this
trip he was the life of the party, occasionally bursting out in an
eloquent strain at the sight of a bird or a trailing vine, or a
venerable giant of the forest. He would repeat poetry by the hour,
having a very retentive memory.

"At the Institute the members were like a band of brothers and sisters,
all struggling to advance in knowledge. Then all dressed plainly, and
there was no attempt or pretence at dressing fashionably or stylishly.
Hiram was a little country place, with no fascinations or worldly
attractions to draw off the minds of the students from their work."

Such is an inside view--more graphic than any description I can give--of
the life of James Garfield at Hiram Institute.




CHAPTER XV.

THREE BUSY YEARS.


Among the readers of this volume there may be boys who are preparing for
college. They will be interested to learn the extent of James Garfield's
scholarship, when he left the Geauga Academy, and transferred himself to