The teaching of his good mother, that "God will bless all our
efforts to do the best we can," became a part of the fiber of his
being. "What will He do," asked the boy one day, "when we don't do
the best we can?" "He will withhold His blessing; and that is the
greatest calamity that could possibly happen to us," was the
reply, which made a deep impression on the mind of the questioner.

In spite of almost constant toil, and very meager schooling,--only
a few weeks each year,--James Garfield excelled all his companions
in the log schoolhouse. Besides solving at home in the long winter
evenings, by the light of the pine fire, all the knotty problems
in Adams' Arithmetic--the terror of many a schoolboy--he found
time to revel in the pages of "Robinson Crusoe" and "Josephus."
The latter was his special favorite

Before he was fifteen, Garfield had successfully followed the
occupations of farmer, wood chopper, and carpenter. No matter what
his occupation was he always managed to find some time for
reading.

He had recently read some of Marryat's novels, "Sindbad the
Sailor," "The Pirate's Own Book," and others of a similar nature,
which had smitten him with a virulent attack of sea fever. This is
a mental disease which many robust, adventurous boys are apt to
contract in their teens. Garfield felt that he must "sail the
ocean blue." The glamour of the sea was upon him. Everything must
give way before it. His mother, however, could not be induced to
assent to his plans, and, after long pleading, would only
compromise by agreeing that he might, if he could, secure a berth