"So you have come to take Henry home, have you?" asked the president.
"Yes," answered the farmer.
"I sent for you because I wanted to have a little talk with you about Henry's future. He is coming back again in the fall, I hope?"
"Wal, I think not. I don't reckon I can afford to send him any more. He's got eddication enough for a farmer already, and I notice that when they git too much, they sorter git lazy. Yer eddicated farmers are humbugs. Henry's got so far 'long now that he'd rather have his head in a book than be workin'. He don't take no interest in the stock, nor in the farm improvements. Everybody else is dependent in this world on the farmer, and I think that we've got too many eddicated fellows settin' 'round now for the farmers to support."
To this Garfield answered that he was sorry for the father's decision, since his son, if permitted to come the next term, would be far enough advanced to teach school, and so begin to help himself along. Teaching would pay better than working on the farm in the winter.
"Do you really think Henry can teach next winter?" asked the father, to whom the idea was a new one.
"I should think so, certainly," answered Garfield. "But if he can not do so then, he can in a short time."
"Wal, I will think on it. He wants to come back bad enough, and I guess I'll have to let him. I never thought of it that way afore."
The victory was won. Henry came back the next term, and after finishing at Hiram, graduated at an Eastern college.