“I shall be glad, James, to have you accomplish your purpose,” remarked his mother, after listening to his rehearsal, in which she was deeply interested. “I think, however, that you had better go with me, and enter the Eclectic Institute at the opening of the fall term.”

“It will be wasting a good deal of time, it seems to me,” said James.

“I don’t mean that you shall go there to idle away your time. Take your books along with you. You can find work there, too, I have no doubt. Perhaps you can find a school there to teach.”

“Well, if I can be earning something to help me along, perhaps I had better go. It will give me an opportunity to see more of the world—”

“And some of your relations, also,” interrupted the mother.

It was settled that James should accompany his mother on her visit; and they started as soon as they could get ready. The journey took them to Cleveland first, where James was sensibly reminded of his encounter with the drunken captain, and his providential connection with the canal boat. The Cleveland and Columbus railroad had just been opened, and James and his mother took their first ride in the cars on that day. James had not seen a railroad before, and it was one of the new things under the sun, that proved a real stimulus to his thoughts. He beheld in it a signal triumph of skill and enterprise.

The State capitol had been erected at Columbus, and the legislature was in session. It was a grand spectacle to James. He had scarcely formed an idea of the building, so that the view of it surprised him. He visited the legislature in session, and received his first impressions of the law-making power. It was a great treat to him, and the impressions of that day were never obliterated.

From Columbus they proceeded by stage to Zanesville. On their way James remarked:

“I never should have made an objection to this trip, if I had expected to see the capitol, or the legislature in session. That alone is equal to a month’s schooling to me. It has given me an idea about public affairs that I never had before.”

“It is fortunate that you came,” replied Mrs. Garfield. “It does boys who think much good to see things which set them to thinking.”

“I guess that it is so,” replied James, with a roguish smile, as if he thought his mother had exerted herself to compliment him. “Thinking is needed in this world about as much as anything.”

“Right thinking,” suggested his mother.

Mr.Branch, says a young man had better think erroneously than not think at all,” responded James.

“I don’t think I should agree with Mr. Branch. It is safer not to think than to think wrong,” said Mrs. Garfield.

“I suppose that Mr.Branch meant to rebuke dull scholars, who never think for themselves, and take every assertion of the books as correct, without asking why,” added James.

James and his mother thus discussed the scenes and the times on their way to Zanesville, enjoying the change and the scenery very much. From the latter place they floated down the Muskingum River, in a skiff, to their destination, eighteen miles distant. Here they found their relatives the more rejoiced to see them because their visit was unexpected.

As soon as they were fairly settled among their relations, within four or five days after their arrival, James began to cast about for something to do.