From Canal Boy to President | Page 5

gathered by his daughter,
prominent among which were Marryatt's novels, and "Sinbad the
Sailor." They opened a new world to his young accountant, and gave
him an intense desire to see the world, and especially to cross the great
sea, even in the capacity of a sailor. At home there was no library, not
from the lack of literary taste, but because there was no money to spend
for anything but necessaries.
He had not been long at home when a neighbor, entering one day, said,
"James, do you want a job?"
"Yes," answered James, eagerly.
"There's a farmer in Newburg wants some wood chopped."
"I can do it," said James, quietly.

"Then you'd better go and see him."
Newburg is within the present limits of Cleveland, and thither James
betook himself the next day.
He was a stout boy, with the broad shoulders and sturdy frame of his
former ancestors, and he was sure he could give satisfaction.
The farmer, dressed in homespun, looked up as the boy approached.
"Are you Mr. ----?" asked James.
"Yes."
"I heard that you wanted some wood chopped."
"Yes, but I am not sure if you can do it," answered the farmer,
surveying the boy critically.
"I can do it," said James, confidently.
"Very well, you can try. I'll give you seven dollars for the job."
The price was probably satisfactory, for James engaged to do the work.
There proved to be twenty-five cords, and no one, I think, will consider
that he was overpaid for his labor.
He was fortunate, at least, in the scene of his labor, for it was on the
shore of Lake Erie, and as he lifted his eyes from his work they rested
on the broad bosom of the beautiful lake, almost broad enough as it
appeared to be the ocean itself, which he had a strange desire to
traverse in search of the unknown lands of which he had read or
dreamed.
I suppose there are few boys who have not at some time fancied that
they should like "a life on the ocean wave, and a home on the rolling
deep." I have in mind a friend, now a physician, who at the age of
fifteen left a luxurious home, with the reluctant permission of his
parents, for a voyage before the mast to Liverpool, beguiled by one of

the fascinating narratives of Herman Melville. But the romance very
soon wore off, and by the time the boy reached Halifax, where the ship
put in, he was so seasick, and so sick of the sea, that he begged to be
left on shore to return home as he might. The captain had received
secret instructions from the parents to accede to such a wish, and the
boy was landed, and in due time returned home as a passenger. So it is
said that George Washington had an early passion for the sea, and
would have become a sailor but for the pain he knew it would give his
mother.
James kept his longings to himself for the present, and returned home
with the seven dollars he had so hardly earned.
There was more work for him to do. A Mr. Treat wanted help during
the haying and harvesting season, and offered employment to the boy,
who was already strong enough to do almost as much as a man; for
James already had a good reputation as a faithful worker. "Whatever
his hands found to do, he did it with his might," and he was by no
means fastidious as to the kind of work, provided it was honest and
honorable.
When the harvest work was over James made known his passion for the
sea.
Going to his mother, he said: "Mother, I want above all things to go to
sea."
"Go to sea!" replied his mother in dismay. "What has put such an idea
into your head?"
"It has been in my head for a long time," answered the boy quietly. "I
have thought of nothing else for the last year."
CHAPTER III.
IN QUEST OF FORTUNE.
James had so persuaded himself that the sea was his vocation, and was

so convinced of the pleasures and advantages it would bring, that it had
not occurred to him that his mother would object.
"What made you think of the sea, James?" his mother asked with a
troubled face.
"It was the books I read last year, at the black salter's. Oh, mother, did
you ever read Marryatt's novels, and 'Sinbad the Sailor'?"
"I have read 'Sinbad the Sailor,' but you know that is a fairy story, my
son."
"It may be, but Marryatt's stories are not. It must be splendid to travel
across the mighty ocean, and see foreign countries."
"A sailor doesn't have the chance to see much.