SEA FEVER AND WHAT IT LED TO


"Jim, you've too good a head on you to be a wood chopper or a
canal driver," said the captain of the canal boat for whom young
Garfield had engaged to drive horses along the towpath.

"Jim" had always loved books from the time when, seated on his
father's knee, he had with his baby lips pronounced after him the
name "Plutarch." Mr. Garfield had been reading "Plutarch's Lives,"
and was much astonished when, without hesitation or stammering,
his little son distinctly pronounced the name of the Greek
biographer. Turning to his wife, with a glow of love and pride,
the fond father said, "Eliza, this boy will be a scholar some
day."

Perhaps the near approach of death had clarified the father's
vision, but when, soon after, the sorrowing wife was left a widow,
with an indebted farm and four little children to care for, she
saw little chance for the fulfillment of the prophecy.

Even in his babyhood the boy whose future greatness the father
dimly felt had learned the lesson of self-reliance. The familiar
words which so often fell from his lips--"I can do that"--enabled
him to conquer difficulties before which stouter hearts than that
of a little child might well have quailed.