[Illustration: PRIVATE RESIDENCE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD, MENTOR, OHIO.] CHAPTER XXII. After the Ordeal.--Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of Ohio.--Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.--Purchase of the Farm at Mentor.--Description of the New House.--Life at Mentor.--The Garfield Household.--Longing for Home in his Last Hours. As gold is tried in the fire, so General Garfield passed through the distressing ordeal of slander and fierce opposition. In January, 1880, he was elected by a unanimous vote United States Senator from Ohio. In his speech of acceptance, he says,-- "I do not undervalue the office that you have tendered to me yesterday and to-day; but I say, I think, without any mental reservation, that the manner in which it was tendered to me is far more desirable than the thing itself. That it has been a voluntary gift of the General Assembly of Ohio, without solicitation, tendered to me because of their confidence, is as touching and high a tribute as one man can receive from his fellow-citizens." Three years previous to his election as Senator, Garfield was spending his summer vacation near Cleveland, Ohio. Driving one day along the stage-road that skirts the shores of Lake Erie, he came to the pretty town of Mentor. His old fascination for the sparkling, blue waters returned--he was a boy again, chopping wood in his uncle's forest and counting the sails with every stroke! Why not make his summer home just here? Upon inquiry, he found in Mentor, waiting a purchaser, a fine farm of a hundred and twenty acres. The little cottage upon the ground would accommodate his family for awhile, and when they went back to Washington, a larger and more convenient house could be built in its place. So the farm was purchased, and "Lawnfield," the pleasant Mentor home, established. The new house, built upon the foundation of the old one, suggests comfort rather than elegance. It is two and a half stories high, with two dormer windows and a broad veranda in front. The wide, airy hall contains a large writing table, in addition to the other furniture, and piles of books and papers greet you in every corner. The first floor has a parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, wash-room and pantry, planned with every convenience by Mrs. Garfield, to whom the architect's papers were submitted. Two of the pleasantest rooms on the second floor are fitted up especially for "Grandma Garfield;" one of these has a large, old-fashioned fire-place, and is conceded to be the brightest, cheeriest room in the whole house. In the ell is a small room, thirteen and a half by fourteen feet, called by the children "papa's snuggery." It is not the library, but the walls are covered with book-shelves, and the little room seems to have been used by the busy statesman as a sort of "sanctum sanctorum."