“But you are not disposed to return to the canal, or to follow a seafaring life?” inquired his mother, surprised at his frank avowal. She had began to think that he had abandoned all thoughts of the sea.

“I should like it if I thought it was best,” he answered.

“It is not best, James; I can see that plainly.”

“Since I have got better, my desire for the sea has returned, in a measure,” added James, “causing me to ask myself if I shall not be disappointed if I abandon the purpose altogether.”

“Not at all,” responded Mrs. Garfield. “When you once get engaged in study, you will like it far better than you can the sea, I am sure; and teaching school is a business that will bring you both money and respect. I think we can manage to scrape together money enough for you to start with.”

“I will think it over,” added James; “I shan’t decide in a hurry.”

“If you work on the canal, or become a sailor on the lake, you will have work only part of the year,” continued his mother. “You will find little to do in the winter. How much better it will be for you to go to school, and qualify yourself for a teacher! Then you can sail in the summer, and teach school in the winter.”

Mrs. Garfield feared that a total abandonment of the idea of going to sea would be quite impossible for James at present; and so her policy was to lure him into the way of knowledge by degrees. She suggested sailing in summer and teaching in winter, hoping that, when he had qualified himself to teach, he would be so much in love with books as to banish all thoughts of a ship.

There was a sort of mystery in James’s strong desire for a seafaring life, to his mother. And yet there was no mystery about it. Many are born with an adventurous, daring spirit, which the reading of a book may set strongly in a given direction. There is no doubt that the books James read at the black-salter’s were the spark that kindled his adventurous spirit into a flame. We have seen a sailor who enjoys life on the ocean with the keenest relish, and his attention was first turned in that direction by a book presented to him by his uncle.

It is related of a traveller, that he sought lodgings one night at a farm-house in Vermont. He found an aged couple, well-to-do in this world’s goods, living there alone. In the course of the evening he learned that they had three sons following the sea. It was an inexplicable affair to them, that their sons, living far away from the sea, should have so strong a desire to be sailors, from boyhood. One after the other, when they attained the age of twelve or fifteen, an almost incontrollable desire for the sea had taken possession of them. In each case, too, the parents gave their consent to entering upon a seafaring life not until they feared the sons would go without it. While the father was rehearsing the story of their lives, the traveller was observing a painting on the ceiling, over the mantel-piece. It was an ocean scene—a ship sailing over a tranquil sea—painted after the manner of the olden times. When the father ceased his remarks, the traveller said:

“There is the cause of your sons’ sailor-life (pointing to the painting). From infancy they have had that painting before their eyes, and it has educated them for the sea. In the earliest years, when their hearts were most impressible, that ocean scene set them in that direction; and finally their hearts were made to burn with unconquerable desire.”

This explanation was perfectly satisfactory to the aged couple, and, no doubt, it was the correct one. The fact shows that there is no mystery about such a love for the ocean as James possessed. Such a fervent nature as his would readily be ignited by a random spark from a glowing book or a glowing speech. Nor did he ever outgrow this delight in the sea. Although more than thirty years had elapsed since his conflict with the ague, he once said: “The sight of a ship fills me with a strange fascination. When upon the water, and my fellow-men are suffering sea-sickness, I am as tranquil as when walking the land in serenest weather. The spell of ‘Jack Halyard’ has not yet worn off.’