“On the whole, I am inclined to think you had better teach the school.”

“If I had an opportunity to teach a better school, you would not advise me to take the one at the Ledge: I understand you to mean this.”

“About that,” his uncle answered. Pausing a few moments, as if to reflect upon the matter, he continued:

“It is just here, James; you will begin that school as ‘Jim Garfield’; now, if you can leave it, at the close of the term, as Mr. Garfield, your reputation as a teacher will be established, and you will do more good than you can in any other school in Ohio.”

Uncle Amos was a very wise man, and James knew it. His opinion upon all subjects was a kind of rule to be followed in the Garfield family. In this case his counsel was wise as possible; its wisdom appeared in every word.

“I shall take the school,” said James, decidedly, as he rose to go.

“I think it will prove the best decision,” added his uncle.

The committee-man was notified according to agreement, and within two days it was noised over the district that “Jim Garfield” would teach the winter school. At first, remarks were freely bandied about, pro and con, and the boys, and girls too, expressed themselves very decidedly upon the subject, one way or the other. Before school commenced, however, the general opinion of the district, parents and pupils, was about as one of the large boys expressed it:

“Me like Jim: he’s a good feller, and he knows more’n all the teachers we ever had. I guess we better mind. He can lick us easy ’nuf if we don’t; and he’ll do it.”

This hopeful schoolboy understood that the committee-man had instructed James to keep order and command obedience, “if he had to lick every scholar in school a dozen times over.”

It was under these circumstances that James entered upon his new vocation. He dreaded the undertaking far more than he confessed; and when he left home, on the morning his school began, he remarked to his mother:

“Perhaps I shall be back before noon, through with school-keeping,” signifying that the boys might run over him in the outset.

“I expect that you will succeed, and be the most popular teacher in town,” was his mother’s encouraging reply. She saw that James needed some bracing up in the trying circumstances.

James had determined in his own mind to run the school without resorting to the use of rod or ferrule, if possible. He meant that his government should be firm, but kind and considerate. He was wise enough to open his labour on the first morning without laying down a string of rigid rules. He simply assured the pupils he was there to aid them in their studies, that they might make rapid progress; that all of them were old enough to appreciate the purpose and advantages of the school, and he should expect their cordial co-operation. He should do the best that he could to have an excellent school, and if the scholars would do the same, both teacher and pupils would have a good time, and the best school in town.

Many older heads than he have displayed less wisdom in taking charge of a difficult school. His method appeared to be exactly adapted to the circumstances under which he assumed charge. He was on good terms with the larger boys before, but now those harmonious relations were confirmed.

We must use space only to sum up the work of the winter. The bad boys voluntarily yielded to the teacher’s authority, and behaved creditably to themselves and satisfactorily to their teacher. There was no attempt to over-ride the government of the school, and former rowdyism, that had been the bane of the school,