4. That the Holy Spirit is the Divine agent in the conversion of sinners, and in guidance and direction. 5. That the Old and New Testament Scriptures are inspired of God.

6. That there is future punishment for the wicked, and reward for the righteous.

7. That God hears and answers prayer. 8. That the Bible is the only creed.

With such decided opinions, of course their cabin home was dedicated to God, and the Bible was the counsellor and guide of their life. The voice of prayer was heard daily in the rude abode, and the children were reared under the influence of Christian instruction and living.

It has taken us so long to relate the history of this -family previous to Jimmy's first day at school, that we must now hasten to meet the children, on their return, as told in the next chapter.

M

III.

GETTING ON.

RS. GARFIELD was making her spinning-wheel hum when the children came home. She was obliged to economize her time in order to clothe her family with goods of her own manufacture. The spinningwheel and loom were just as indispensable to pioneers, at that time, as a "Dutch oven was. The age of factories had not come, certainly not in that part of the country. In New England, even, factories were in their infancy then, small affairs.

"Oh, such a good time as we have had!" exclaimed Mehetabel, as she came rushing into the cabin with James and her sister.

"Twenty-one scholars," added her sister, under considerable excitement. "Mr. Sander's children were there, and they have twice as far to go as we have. They have to walk over three miles."

"And how did Jimmy get on at school?" inquired their mother, as soon as there was a place for her to put in a word.

"He liked it," answered Mehetabel; "he said his letters; and he asked the master how he knew that letter was R.”

"Just like him," ejaculated Thomas, laughing outright. Thomas had just come in, leaving his work when he saw the children return. "The master will have enough to do to answer all his questions. What did the master tell him?"

"He told him that he learned it was R at school, when he was about as old as he was," replied Mehetabel. And Thomas was giving Jimmy a toss in the air, by way of sport, while she was relating the facts, and Jimmy himself was making a most vigorous attempt to embellish the occurrences of the day from his imperfect vocabulary.

"How did you like your ride, Jimmy?" inquired Thomas.

"Me like it," was the child's answer, uttered in a gleeful way.

"You liked it better than Hit did, I guess."

"I liked it well enough," responded Mehetabel. "Wa'nt you awful tired?"

"I wa'nt tired much."

"Did you carry him all the way?"

"Pretty much. He walked a little of the way home. He isn't much of a load.”

"Did he sit still in school?"

Pretty still. He left his seat once, and went over to scrape the acquaintance of another boy opposite."

"He took him by the hand and led him back, looking at us, and smiling; and he told him that each boy and girl had his own seat in school, and he must keep it."

"You are a great one, Jimmy," exclaimed Thomas, tossing the little midget into the air again. "You will make music for them in school."

"Well, children, I am glad that you like your school so well," remarked their mother, who had been listening to the prattle with maternal interest. "You must make the most of it, too, for we can't expect many school advantages in these woods. Poor opportunities are better than none."

Ohio schools were of the poorest class then, short and miserable. The teachers knew but little to begin with, and children had to travel so far to school that their attendance was limited to certain parts of the year. In many schools reading, spelling, and writing were the only branches taught. Geography and arithmetic were added to the studies in some schools. All of these branches were pursued in the school which which the Garfield children attended. Teachers in the new settlements, at that time, were usually males; it was not supposed that females could teach school well. That females make the best teachers, as a class, is a recent discovery.

The books used in the best pioneer schools of Ohio were Webster's Spelling-book, the English. Reader, Pike's and Adams' Arithmetic, and Morse's (old) Geography. The Garfields possessed all of these. They had, also, the Farmer's Almanac, and

a copy of Davy Crockett's Almanac, which was found, at one time, in almost every cabin of the West. Reading-books were scarce then throughout the country, in comparison with the present time; in the wilds of Ohio they were not so plenty as panthers and wolves. Many of the few books found there related to exciting adventures with beasts of prey, hair-breadth escapes on perilous waters, and the daring exploits of pirates and rascals; and they were illustrated with very poor pictures. Three or four volumes, besides the Bible and school-books, constituted the whole literary outfit of the Garfields. They had more brains than books, as the sequel will abundantly prove.

The village where the school was located was not much of a village after all. In addition to the log school-house, eighteen by twenty feet, there was a grist-mill, and a log-house, in a part of which was a store, the other part being used for a dwelling. The place is now known by the name of Chagrin Falls, and derived its singular name from the following fact. A bright Yankee began the settlement, attracted thither by the stream of water. He removed to the place in the winter time, when the stream was swollen and swift, and he erected a saw-mill. But when the summer came the stream dried up, and his hopes dried up with it. His chagrin was so great over his dry enterprise that he named the locality as above, in order to warn his Yankee relations against repeating his folly.

We cannot delay to rehearse much that transpired