he rooms and ring the bell. He held this office
for one year, and during the whole of that time it was said that never
once did his bell ring behind the time.

From the humble position of janitor he was promoted at the end of the
session to the more honourable one of assistant tutor. It seemed as if
his experience was to be a continual example of the possibility, and
even the advantage in some respects, to a healthy lad, of combining
great success in study with great industry in manual labour.

His pay as a teacher was little more than nominal, and it was still
necessary that he should work to live, therefore he engaged his
mornings and evenings, as at Geauga, to a local carpenter, and thus
supported himself.

Such perseverance as this of course attracted the attention of both his
fellow-students and his professors. By the former he was voted "a
brick," by the latter he was mentally designated for a future professor
and principal of the Institute; while in the minds of both young men
and old there was a feeling, slowly shaping itself into a prophecy,
that such ability and courage and character could have but one end, and
that Garfield was destined to become President of the United States.

When he entered the Geauga Seminary, it was probably with no
expectation of proceeding farther on the road of learning than the
limited resources of that little country college could carry him. His
success there had sent him on to the Hiram Institute, and now it was a
matter of course that he should go to a university and take his degree.
But once more the money difficulty faced him, and once more the
devotion of one of the best brothers in the world opened the way.
Thomas was doing fairly well as a farmer; he had saved a little money,
and this he offered as a loan to his brother. James accepted the loan
gladly; and, to secure his generous brother against loss in case of his
own death, he insured his life for one hundred pounds.

Garfield had acquired none of the outward graces of fashionable young
men when he entered upon his career at Williams' University. He was
tall, big-limbed, and rather lanky. His garments were of the homeliest
manufacture, and his speech was somewhat broad and provincial. In
mental stature, however,--in scholarship and reading and judgment,--he
was a man, every inch of him. His fine face and magnificent head and
sparkling eyes gave promise of rare powers, and once more, and with
perfect ease, he