he was a pupil in the same
college. He was full of animal spirits, and used to run out on the green
every day and play cricket with his scholars. He was a tall, strong man,
but dreadfully awkward. Every now and then he would get a hit, and he
muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing.[A] He was
left-handed, too, and that made him seem all the clumsier. But he was
most powerful and very quick, and it was easy for us to understand how
it was that he had acquired the reputation of whipping all the other
mule-drivers on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that
thoroughfare, when he followed its tow-path, only ten years earlier.

[Footnote A: I have seen it somewhere stated that when a Congressman at
Washington he retained his interest in the game of base-ball, and always
was in attendance when it was possible, at a game between two
professional clubs.]

"No matter how old the pupils were, Garfield always called us by our
first names, and kept himself on the most intimate terms with all. He
played with us freely, and we treated him out of the class-room just
about as we did one another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian,
and enforced the rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and
confiding manner with respect for order in a most successful manner. If
he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approbation, he
would generally manage to get one arm around him, and draw him close up
to him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, giving a twist to
your arm, and drawing you right up to him. This sympathetic manner has
helped him to advancement. When I was janitor, he used sometimes to stop
me, and ask my opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising
with me. I can see now that my opinion could not have been of any value,
and that he probably asked me partly to increase my self-respect and
partly to show that he felt an interest in me. I certainly was his
friend all the firmer for it.

"I remember once asking him what was the best way to pursue a certain
study.

"'Use several text-books,' he answered. 'Get the views of different
authors as you advance. In that way you can plow a deeper furrow. I
always study in that way.'

"He tried hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He broke
out one day in the midst of a lesson with, 'Henry, how many posts are
there under the building down-stairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and
the question went around the cla