The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield

First Earnings.-His Thirst for Knowledge.

w months with seventy-five dollars in gold,

exclaimed; and it was not many days after, th

es. Before the house was completed he had learned

hand," laughed the good-natured mechanic, as he notice

he trade," exclaimed the bo

d of three rooms below and two above, Thomas went back to his

er field. If he could only earn a little money

boards at the door waiting to be planed. He stepped ins

rd," said the carpenter, "for

u want them don

nswered the carpenter; "ta

rly to-morrow morning, just as soon as I

a hundred boards, and each

o come and count them, l

ow like you," exclaimed the astonished man; "but

, and it was with a proud, happy heart he emptied h

ards in a day was just the sort of help the enterprising carpenter wanted. Not long after

c that puzzled his teachers, and could repeat by heart the greater part of his reading books. A copy of "Josephus

d a wider sphere of labor. The blood of his old Welsh ancestors was burning in his veins. He had often looked at the old Garfield coat of arms, which his father had kept with loyal pride, and wondere

s," he said one day to his mother, as the

of Gaerfili Castle. But that is going a long way back. I know your father used to say he was more proud of having

s to be a soldier!

many grand victories won in the world

is mother is a descendant of Maturin Ballou, a French Huguenot, who joined the colony of Roger Williams, and settled in Cumberland, Rhode Isla