But it had been their home for a long time, and doubtless many happy days had been spent beneath its humble roof.
While the house was being built, Jimmy learned one thing--that he was handy with tools, and was well fitted to become a carpenter.

When the joiner told him that he was born to be a carpenter, he thought with joy that this unexpected talent would enable him to help his mother, and earn something toward the family expenses.

So, for the next two years he worked at this new business when opportunity offered, and if my reader should go to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, he could probably find upon inquiry several barns in the vicinity which Jimmy helped to build.
He still went to school, however, and obtained such knowledge of the mysteries of grammar, arithmetic, and geography as could be obtained in the common schools of that day.
But Jimmy Garfield was not born to be a carpenter, and I believe never got so far along as to assist in building a house.
He was employed to build a wood-shed for a black-salter, ten miles away from his mother's house, and when the job was finished his employer fell into conversation with him, and being a man of limited acquirements himself, was impressed by the boy's surprising stock of knowledge.
"You kin read, you kin write, and you are death on figgers," he said to him one day.

"If you'll stay with me, keep my 'counts, and 'tend to the saltery, I'll find you, and give you fourteen dollars a month." Jimmy was dazzled by this brilliant offer.

He felt that to accept it would be to enter upon the high-road to riches, and he resolved to do so if his mother would consent.