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diff --git a/26442-h/26442-h.htm b/26442-h/26442-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb9bfbe --- /dev/null +++ b/26442-h/26442-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11930 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of True to His Home, by Hezekiah Butterworth. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + img {border: 0;} + .tnote {border: dashed 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: justify;} + + .bbox {border: solid 2px; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .unindent {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + .right {text-align: right;} + .poem {margin-left: 30%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: left;} + .sig {margin-right: 10%; text-align: right;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + .cap:first-letter {float: left; clear: left; margin: -0.2em 0.1em 0; margin-top: 0%; + padding: 0; line-height: .75em; font-size: 300%; text-align: justify;} + .cap {text-align: justify;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + .hang1 {text-indent: -3em; margin-left: 3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of True to His Home, by Hezekiah Butterworth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: True to His Home + A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin + +Author: Hezekiah Butterworth + +Illustrator: H. Winthrop Pierce + +Release Date: August 27, 2008 [EBook #26442] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRUE TO HIS HOME *** + + + + +Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 339px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="339" height="500" alt="Cover" title="Cover" /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h1>TRUE TO HIS HOME</h1> + +<h3>A TALE OF THE BOYHOOD OF FRANKLIN</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><div class='bbox'> +<h3>Books by Hezekiah Butterworth.</h3> + + +<div class='center'><b>Each, 12mo, cloth, $1.50.</b></div> + + +<div class='unindent'><b>The Log School-House on the Columbia.</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot'>With 13 full-page Illustrations by <span class="smcap">J. Carter Beard</span>, +<span class="smcap">E. J. Austen</span>, and Others.</div> + +<p>"This book will charm all who turn its pages. There are few +books of popular information concerning the pioneers of the great +Northwest, and this one is worthy of sincere praise."—<i>Seattle Post-Intelligencer.</i></p> + + +<div class='unindent'><b>In the Boyhood of Lincoln.</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot'><i>A Story of the Black Hawk War and the Tunker +Schoolmaster.</i> With 12 full-page Illustrations and +colored Frontispiece.</div> + +<p>"The author presents facts in a most attractive framework of fiction, +and imbues the whole with his peculiar humor. The illustrations +are numerous and of more than usual excellence."—<i>New Haven +Palladium.</i></p> + + +<div class='unindent'><b>The Boys of Greenway Court.</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot'><i>A Story of the Early Years of Washington.</i> With 10 +full-page Illustrations by <span class="smcap">H. Winthrop Peirce</span>.</div> + +<p>"Skillfully combining fact and fiction, he has given us a story +historically instructive and at the same time entertaining."—<i>Boston +Transcript.</i></p> + + +<div class='unindent'><b>The Patriot Schoolmaster;</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot'><i>Or, The Adventures of the Two Boston Cannon, the +"Adams" and the "Hancock."</i> A Tale of the Minute +Men and the Sons of Liberty. With Illustrations by +<span class="smcap">H. Winthrop Peirce</span>.</div> + +<p>The true spirit of the leaders in our War for Independence is pictured +in this dramatic story. It includes the Boston Tea Party and +Bunker Hill; and Adams, Hancock, Revere, and the boys who +bearded General Gage, are living characters in this romance of +American patriotism.</p> + + +<div class='unindent'><b>The Knight of Liberty.</b></div> + +<div class='blockquot'><i>A Tale of the Fortunes of Lafayette.</i> With 6 full-page +Illustrations.</div> + +<p>"No better reading for the young man can be imagined than this +fascinating narrative of a noble figure on the canvas of time."—<i>Boston +Traveller.</i></p> + +<div class='center'>——————<br /> + +New York: <span class="smcap">D. Appleton & Co.</span>, 72 Fifth Avenue.</div> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 268px;"> +<img src="images/illus-005.jpg" width="268" height="400" alt="Little Ben's adventure as a poet.(See page 113.)" title="Little Ben's adventure as a poet.(See page 113.)" /> +<span class="caption">Little Ben's adventure as a poet.</span><br /> +<div class='right'>(See <a href="#Page_113">page 113</a>.)</div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>TRUE TO HIS HOME</h1> + +<h3>A Tale of the Boyhood of Franklin</h3> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH</h2> + +<div class='center'><small>AUTHOR OF</small><br /> +<small>THE WAMPUM BELT, IN THE BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN, ETC.</small></div> + +<div class='poem2'><br /><br /> +The noblest question in the world is, What good may I do in it?<br /> +<div class='sig'> +<span class="smcap">Poor Richard</span></div> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><br /><i>ILLUSTRATED BY H. WINTHROP PEIRCE</i><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;"> +<img src="images/title.png" width="250" height="241" alt="Young Franklin working" title="Young Franklin working" /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /> +<b>NEW YORK</b><br /> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br /> +1897<br /></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span></p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='copyright'> +<span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1897,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By</span> D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.<br /></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> volume is an historical fiction, but the plan of it was +suggested by biography, and is made to include the most interesting +and picturesque episodes in the home side of the life +of Benjamin Franklin, so as to form a connected narrative or +picture of his public life.</p> + +<p>I have written no book with a deeper sympathy with my +subject, for, although fiction, the story very truthfully shows +that the good intentions of a life which has seemed to fail do +not die, but live in others whom they inspire. Uncle Benjamin +Franklin, "the poet," who was something of a philosopher, +and whose visions all seemed to end in disappointment, +deeply influenced his nephew and godson, Benjamin Franklin, +whom he morally educated to become what he himself had +failed to be.</p> + +<p>The conduct of Josiah Franklin, the father of Benjamin +Franklin, in comforting his poor old brother in England by +naming his fifteenth child for him, and making him his godfather, +is a touching instance of family affection, to the memory +of which the statesman was always true.</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin Franklin had a library of pamphlets that +was very dear to him, for in the margins of the leaves he had +placed the choicest thoughts of his life amid great political<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +events. He was very poor, and he sold his library in his old +age; we may reasonably suppose that he parted with it among +other effects to get money to come to America, that he might +give his influence to "Little Ben," after his brother had remembered +him in his desolation by giving his name to the +boy. The finding of these pamphlets in London fifty years +after the old man was compelled to sell them was regarded +by Benjamin Franklin as one of the most singular events of +his remarkable life.</p> + +<p>Mr. Parton, in his Life of Franklin, thus alludes to the +circumstance:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A strange occurrence brought to the mind of Franklin, in +1771, a vivid recollection of his childhood. A dealer in old +books, whose shop he sometimes visited, called his attention +one day to a collection of pamphlets, bound in thirty volumes, +dating from the Restoration to 1715. The dealer offered them +to Franklin, as he said, because many of the subjects of the +pamphlets were such as usually interested him. Upon examining +the collection, he found that one of the blank leaves +of each volume contained a catalogue of its contents, and the +price each pamphlet had cost; there were notes and comments +also in the margin of several of the pieces. A closer scrutiny +revealed that the handwriting was that of his Uncle Benjamin, +the rhyming friend and counselor of his childhood. Other +circumstances combined with this surprising fact to prove that +the collection had been made by his uncle, who had probably +sold it when he emigrated to America, fifty-six years before. +Franklin bought the volumes, and gave an account of the circumstance +to his Uncle Benjamin's son, who still lived and +flourished in Boston. "The oddity is," he wrote, "that the +bookseller, who could suspect nothing of any relation between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span> +me and the collector, should happen to make me the offer of +them."</p></div> + +<p>It may please the reader to know that "Mr. Calamity" +was suggested by a real character, and that the incidents in +the life of "Jenny," Franklin's favorite sister, are true in +spirit and largely in detail. It would have been more artistic +to have had Franklin discover Uncle Benjamin's "pamphlets" +later in life, but this would have been, while allowable, unhistoric +fiction.</p> + +<p>Says one of the greatest critics ever born in America, in +speaking of the humble birth of Franklin:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>That little baby, humbly cradled, has turned out to be the +greatest man that America ever bore in her bosom or set eyes +upon. Beyond all question, as I think, Benjamin Franklin +had the largest mind that has shone on this side of the sea, +widest in its comprehension, most deep-looking, thoughtful, +far-seeing, the most original and creative child of the New +World.</p> + +<p>For the last four generations no man has shed such copious +good influence on America, nor added so much new truth to +popular knowledge; none has so skillfully organized its ideals +into institutions; none has so powerfully and wisely directed +the nation's conduct and advanced its welfare in so many respects. +No man has so strong a hold on the habits or the +manners of the people.</p></div> + +<p>"The principal question in life is, What good can I do +in the world?" says Franklin. He learned to ask this question +in his home in "beloved Boston." It was his purpose to +answer this all-important question after the lessons that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +had received in his early home, to which his heart remained +true through all his marvelous career.</p> + +<p>This is the seventh volume of the Creators of Liberty +Series of books of historical fiction, based for the most part on +real events, in the purpose of presenting biography in picture.</p> + +<p>The former volumes of this series of books have been very +kindly received by the public, and none of them more generously +than the last volume, The Wampum Belt. For this +the writer is very grateful, for he is a thorough believer in +story-telling education, on the Pestalozzi and Froebel principle +that "life must be taught from life," or from the highest ideals +of beneficent character.</p> + +<div class='sig'> + +H. B.<br /> +</div> + +<p>28 <span class="smcap">Worcester Street, Boston, Mass.</span>, <i>June, 1897</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='right'><small>CHAPTER</small></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>I.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The first day</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>II.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Uncle Benjamin, the poet</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>III.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Benjamin and Benjamin</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>IV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Franklin's story of a holiday in childhood</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>V.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The boy Franklin's kite</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Little Ben's guinea pig</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Uncle Tom, who rose in the world</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>VIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Little Ben shows his handwriting to the family</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>IX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Uncle Benjamin's secret</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>X.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The stone wharf, and Lady Wiggleworth, who fell asleep in church</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Jenny</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">A chime of bells in Nottingham</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_74">74</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The elder Franklin's stories</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The treasure-finder</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—"<span class="smcap">Have I a chance?</span>"</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XVI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—"<span class="smcap">A book that influenced the character of a man who led his age</span>"</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XVII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Benjamin looks for a place wherein to start in life</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_102">102</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XVIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Little Ben's adventure as a poet</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XIX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Leaves Boston</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Laughed at again</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">London and a long swim</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">A penny roll with honor.—Jenny's spinning-wheel</span></div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Mr. Calamity</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXIV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Franklin's struggles with Franklin</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The magical bottle</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXVI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'electrifield'">electrified</ins> vial and the questions it raised</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXVII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The great discovery</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXVIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Home-coming in disguise</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_200">200</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXIX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—"<span class="smcap">Those pamphlets</span>"</div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">A strange discovery</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Old Humphrey's strange story</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The eagle that caught the cat.—Dr. Franklin's English fable.—The doctor's squirrels</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Old Mr. Calamity again</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXIV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Old Mr. Calamity and the tearing down of the King's Arms</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_242">242</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXV.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Jenny again</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXVI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The Declaration of Independence.—A mystery</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXVII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Another signature.—The story of Auvergne sans tache</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXVIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Franklin signs the treaty of peace.—How George III receives the news</span> </div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XXXIX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">The tale of an old velvet coat</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_287">287</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XL.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">In service again</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XLI.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Jane's last visit</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XLII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">For the last time</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_307">307</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>XLIII.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">A lesson after school</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right' valign='top'>APPENDIX.</td><td align='left'><div class='hang1'>—<span class="smcap">Franklin's famous proverb story of the old auctioneer</span></div></td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2> + + + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='right'><small>FACING PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Little Ben's adventure as a poet</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_ii"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Uncle Benjamin's secret</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>"Are you going to swim back to London?"</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>A strange discovery</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>The destruction of the royal arms</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Franklin's last days</td><td align='right' valign='bottom'><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> +<h2>TRUE TO HIS HOME.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST DAY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was the Sunday morning of the 6th of January, 1706 +(January 17th, old style), when a baby first saw the light in +a poor tallow chandler's house on Milk Street, nearly opposite +the Old South Church, Boston. The little stranger came +into a large and growing family, of whom at a later period he +might sometimes have seen thirteen children sit down at the +table to very hard and simple fare.</p> + +<p>"A baby is nothing new in this family," said Josiah Franklin, +the father. "This is the fifteenth. Let me take it over +to the church and have it christened this very day. There +should be no time lost in christening. What say you, friends +all? It is a likely boy, and it is best to start him right in life +at once."</p> + +<p>"People do not often have their children christened in +church on the day of birth," said a lusty neighbor, "though +if a child seems likely to die it might be christened on the day +of its birth at home."</p> + +<p>"This child does not seem likely to die," said the happy +tallow chandler. "I will go and see the parson, and if he does +not object I will give the child to the Lord on this January<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +day, and if he should come to anything he will have occasion +to remember that I thought of the highest duty that I owed +him when he first opened his eyes to the light."</p> + +<p>The smiling and enthusiastic tallow chandler went to see +the parson, and then returned to his home.</p> + +<p>"Abiah," he said to his wife, "I am going to have the +child christened. What shall his name be?"</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin, the chandler, who had emigrated to Boston +town that he might enjoy religious freedom, had left a +brother in England, who was an honest, kindly, large-hearted +man, and "a poet."</p> + +<p>"How would Benjamin do?" he continued; "brother's +name. Benjamin is a family name, and a good one. Benjamin +of old, into whose sack Joseph put the silver cup, was a +right kind of a man. What do you say, Abiah Folger?"</p> + +<p>"Benjamin is a good name, and a name lasts for life. But +your brother Benjamin has not succeeded very well in his many +undertakings."</p> + +<p>"No, but in all his losses he has never lost his good name. +His honor has shown over all. 'A good name is rather to be +chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver +or gold.' A man may get riches and yet be poor. It is he +that seeks the welfare of others more than wealth for himself +that lives for the things that are best."</p> + +<p>"Josiah, this is no common boy—look at his head. We +can not do for him as our neighbors do for their children. +But we can give him a name to honor, and that will be an +example to him. How would Folger do—Folger Franklin? +Father Folger was a poet like your brother Benjamin, and he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +did well in life. That would unite the names of the two +families."</p> + +<p>John Folger, of Norwich, England, with his son Peter, +came to this country in the year 1635 on the same ship +that bore the family of Rev. Hugh Peters. This clergyman, +who is known as a "regicide," or king murderer, and who +suffered a most terrible death in London on the accession of +Charles II, succeeded Roger Williams in the church at Salem. +He flourished during the times of Cromwell, but was sentenced +to be hanged, cut down alive, and tortured, his body +to be quartered, and his head exposed among the malefactors, +on account of having consented to the execution of +Charles I.</p> + +<p>Among Hugh Peters's household was one Mary Morrell, +a white slave, or purchased serving maid. She was a very +bright and beautiful girl.</p> + +<p>The passengers had small comforts on board the ship. The +passage was a long one, and the time passed heavily.</p> + +<p>Now the passengers who were most interesting to each +other became intimate, and young Peter Folger and beautiful +Mary Morrell of the Peterses became very interesting to each +other and very social. Peter Folger began to ask himself the +question, "If the fair maid would marry me, could I not +purchase her freedom?" He seems somehow to have found +out that the latter could be done, and so Peter offered himself +to the attractive servant of the Peterses. The two were betrothed +amid the Atlantic winds and the rolling seas, and the +roaring ocean could have little troubled them then, so happy +were their anticipations of their life in the New World.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<p>Peter purchased Mary's freedom of the Peterses, and so he +bought the grandmother of that Benjamin Franklin who was to +"snatch the thunderbolts from heaven and the scepter from +tyrants," to sign the Declaration of Independence which +brought forth a new order of government for mankind, and +to form a treaty of peace with England which was to make +America free.</p> + +<p>Peter Folger and his bride first settled in Watertown, +Mass., where the young immigrant became a very useful citizen. +He studied the Indian tongue.</p> + +<p>About 1660 the family removed to Martha's Vineyard with +Thomas Mayhew, of colonial fame, where Peter was employed +as a school teacher and a land surveyor, and he assisted Mr. Mayhew +in his work among the Indians. He went to Nantucket +as a surveyor about 1662, and was induced to remove there +as an interpreter and as land surveyor. He was assigned by +the proprietors a place known as Roger's Field, and later +as Jethro Folger's Lane, now a portion of the Maddequet +Road. Their tenth child was Abiah, born August 15, 1667. +She was the second wife of Josiah Franklin, tallow chandler, +of the sign of the Blue Ball, Boston, and the mother of +the boy whom she would like to have inherit so inspiring a +name.</p> + +<p>Peter Folger, the Quaker poet of the island of Nantucket, +was a most worthy man. He lived at the beginning of the dark +times of persecution, when Baptists and Quakers were in danger +of being publicly whipped, branded, and deported or banished +into the wilderness. Stories of the cruelty that followed +these people filled the colonies, and caused the Quaker's heart<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +to bleed and burn. He wrote a poem entitled A Looking-glass +for the Times, in which he called upon New England to +pause in her sins of intoleration and persecution, and threatened +the judgments foretold in the Bible upon those who do +injustice to God's children.</p> + +<p>"Abiah," said the proud father, "I admire the character +of your father. It stood for justice and human rights. +But, wife, listen:</p> + +<p>"Brother Benjamin has lost all of his ten children but +one. I pity him. Wife, listen: Brother Benjamin is poor +through no fault of his, but because he gave himself and all +that he was to his family.</p> + +<p>"Listen: It would touch his heart to learn that I had +named this boy for him. It would show the old man that I +had not forgotten him, but still thought of him.</p> + +<p>"I can not do much for the boy, but I can give Brother +Benjamin a home with me, and, as he is a great reader, he +can instruct the boy by wise precept and a good example. If +the boy will only follow brother's principles, he may make +the name of Benjamin live.</p> + +<p>"And once more: if we name the boy Benjamin, it will +make Brother Benjamin feel that he has not lost all, but that +he will have another chance in the world. How glad that +would make the poor old man! I would like to name him as +the boy's godfather. I do pity him, don't you? You have +the heart of Peter Folger."</p> + +<p>There was a silence.</p> + +<p>"Abiah, what now shall the boy's name be?"</p> + +<p>"Benjamin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You have chosen that name out of your heart. May that +name bring you joy! It ought to do so, since you have given +up your own wish and breathed it out of your heart and conscience. +To give up is to gain."</p> + +<p>He took up the child.</p> + +<p>"Then we will give that name to him now, and I will take +the child and go to the church, and I will name Brother Benjamin +as his godfather."</p> + +<p>"It is a very cold day for the little one."</p> + +<p>"And a healthy one on which to start out in the world. +There is nothing like starting right and with a good name, +which may the Lord help this child to honor! And, Abiah, +that He will."</p> + +<p>He wrapped the babe up warmly, and looked him full in +the face.</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin was a genial, provident, hard-sensed man. +He probably had no prophetic visions; no thought that the +little one given him on this frosty January morning in the +breezy town of Boston by the sea would command senates, +lead courts, and sign a declaration of peace that would make +possible a new order of government in the world, could have +entered his mind. If the boy should become a good man, with +a little poetic imagination like his Uncle Benjamin, the home +poet, he would be content.</p> + +<p>He opened the door of his one room on the lower floor +of his house and went out into the cold with the child in his +arms. In a short time he returned and laid little Benjamin in +the arms of his mother.</p> + +<p>"I hope the child's life will hold out as it has begun,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +he added. "<i>Benjamin Franklin, day one; started right. May +Heaven help him to get used to the world!</i>"</p> + +<p>As poor as the tallow chandler was, he was hospitable on +that day. He did not hold the birth of the little one—which +really was an event of greater importance to the world than +the birth of a king—as anything more than the simple growth +of an honest family, who had left the crowded towns and a +smithy in old England to enjoy freedom of faith and conscience +and the opportunities of the New World. He wished +to live where he might be free to enjoy his own opinions and +to promote a colony where all men should have these privileges.</p> + +<p>The house in which Franklin was born is described as +follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Its front upon the street was rudely clapboarded, and the +sides and rear were protected from the inclemencies of a New +England climate by large, rough shingles. In height the house +was about three stories; in front, the second story and attic +projected somewhat into the street, over the principal story +on the ground floor. On the lower floor of the main house +there was one room only. This, which probably served the +Franklins as a parlor and sitting-room, and also for the family +eating-room, was about twenty feet square, and had two windows +on the street; and it had also one on the passageway, so +as to give the inmates a good view of Washington Street. In +the center of the southerly side of the room was one of those +noted large fireplaces, situated in a most capacious chimney; +on the left of this was a spacious closet. On the ground floor, +connected with the sitting-room through the entry, was the +kitchen. The second story originally contained but one chamber, +and in this the windows, door, fireplace, and closet were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +similar in number and position to those in the parlor beneath +it. The attic was also originally one unplastered room, and +had a window in front on the street, and two common attic +windows, one on each side of the roof, near the back part +of it.</p></div> + +<p>Soon after this unprophetic event Josiah Franklin and +Abiah his wife went to live at the sign of the Blue Ball, on +what was then the southeast corner of Hanover and Union +Streets. The site of the birth of Franklin was long made +notable as the office of the Boston Post, a political paper whose +humor was once proverbial. The site is still visited by +strangers, and bears the record of the event which was to contribute +so powerful an influence to the scientific and political +history of the world.</p> + +<p>Wendell Phillips used to say that there were two kinds +of people in the world—one who went ahead and did something, +and another, who showed how that thing ought to have +been done in some other way. The boy belonged to the former +class.</p> + +<p>But I doubt if any reader of this volume was ever born to +so hard an estate as this boy. Let us follow him into the story +land of childhood. In Germany every child passes through +fairyland, but there was no such land in Josiah Franklin's +tallow shop, except when the busy man sometimes played the +violin in the inner room and sang psalms to the music, usually +in a very solemn tone.</p> + +<p>There were not many homes in Boston at this period that +had even so near an approach to fairyland as a violin. Those +were hard times for children, and especially for those with lively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +imaginations, which gift little Benjamin had in no common +degree. There were Indians in those times, and supposed +ghosts and witches, but no passing clouds bore angels' chariots; +there were no brownies among the wild rose bushes and the +ferns. There was one good children's story in every home—that +of "Joseph" in the Bible, still, as always, the best family +story in all the world.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>UNCLE BENJAMIN, THE POET.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Franklin</span> has said that she could hardly remember +the time in her son's childhood when he could not read. He +emerged almost from babyhood a reader, and soon began to +"devour"—to use the word then applied to his habit—all the +books that fell within his reach.</p> + +<p>When about four years old he became much interested +in stories told him by his father of his Uncle Benjamin, the +poet, who lived in England, and for whom he had been named, +and who, it was hoped, would come to the new country and +be his godfather.</p> + +<p>The family at the Blue Ball was quick to notice the tendencies +of their children in early life. Little Benjamin Franklin +developed a curious liking for a trumpet and a gun. He +liked to march about to noise, and this noise he was pleased +to make himself—to blow his own trumpet. The family wrote +to Uncle Benjamin, the poet, then in England, in regard to +this unpromising trait, and the good man returned the following +letter in reply:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span></p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>To my Namesake, on hearing of his Inclination to Martial<br /> +Affairs. July 7, 1710.</i><br /> +</div> +<div class='poem'> +"Believe me, Ben, it is a dangerous trade;<br /> +The sword has many marred as well as made;<br /> +By it do many fall, not many rise—<br /> +Makes many poor, few rich, not many wise;<br /> +Fills towns with ruin, fields with blood beside;<br /> +'Tis sloth's maintainer, and the shield of pride;<br /> +Fair cities, rich to-day in plenty flow,<br /> +War fills with want to-morrow, and with woe;<br /> +Ruined estates, victims of vice, broken limbs, and scars<br /> +Are the effects of desolating wars."<br /> +</div> + +<p>One evening, as the tallow chandler was hurrying hither +and thither in his apron and paper cap, the door opened with +a sharp ring of the bell fastened by a string upon it. The paper +cap bobbed up.</p> + +<p>"Hoi, what now?" said the tallow chandler.</p> + +<p>"A letter from England, sirrah. The Lively Nancy has +come in. There it is."</p> + +<p>The tallow chandler held the letter up to the fire, for it +had been a <i>melting</i> day, as certain days on which the melting +of tallow for the molds were called. He read "Benjamin +Franklin," and said: "That's curious—that's Brother Ben's +writing. I would know that the world over." He put the +letter in his pocket. He saw Dame Franklin looking through +the transom over the door, and shook his head.</p> + +<p>He sat down with his large family to a meal of bread and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +milk, and then took the letter from his pocket and read it +over to himself.</p> + +<p>"Ben," said he, "this is for you. I am going to read it. +As I do so, you repeat after me the first letter of the first and +of every line. Are you ready? Now.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Be to thy parents an obedient son.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"B," said little Ben.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Each day let duty constantly be done.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"E," the boy continued.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Never give way to sloth, or lust, or pride.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"N, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Just free to be from thousand ills beside.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"J, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Above all ills be sure avoid the shelf.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"A, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Man's danger lies in Satan, sin, and self.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"M, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>In virtue, learning, wisdom, progress make.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"I, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Ne'er shrink at suffering for thy Saviour's sake.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"N, father. I know what that spells."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Benjamin."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Fraud and all falsehood in thy dealings flee.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"F," said the boy.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Religious always in thy station be.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"R, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Adore the Maker of thy inward heart.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"A, father."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'<i>Now's the accepted time, give him thy heart.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"N, father; and now I can guess the rest."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Keep a good conscience, 'tis a constant friend.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"K, father."</p> + +<p>"'<i>Like judge and witness this thy acts attend.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"L."</p> + +<p>"'<i>In heart with bended knee alone adore.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"I."</p> + +<p>"'<i>None but the Three in One forever more.</i>'"</p> + +<p>"N."</p> + +<p>"And to whom are all these things written?"</p> + +<p>"'To <span class="smcap">Benjamin Franklin</span>,' sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, my boy, if you will only follow the advice of your +Uncle Benjamin, the poet, you never will need any more instruction.—Wife, +hear this: Brother Ben writes that he is +coming to America as soon as he can settle his affairs, and +when he arrives I will give over the training of little Ben to +him. He is his godfather, and he takes a great interest in a +boy that he has never seen. Sometimes people are drawn +toward each other before they meet—there's a kind of sympathy +in this world that is felt in ways unseen and that is prophetic. +Your father was a poet, and Uncle Ben, he is one, +after a fashion. I wonder what little Ben will be!"</p> + +<p>He put on his paper cap and opened the door into the +molding-room. The fire was dying out on the hearth, and +the candles in the molds were cooling and hardening. He +opened the weather door, causing the bell attached to it to +ring. He stood looking out on the bowery street of Boston +town.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the hill rose the North Church in the shadows near +the sea. A horn rent the still air. A stage coach from +Salem came rolling in and stopped at the Boston Stone, not +far away. A little girl tripped down the street.</p> + +<p>"A pound of candles, sir."</p> + +<p>"Hoi, yes, yes," and he took some candles out of a mold +and laid them in the scales. The girl courtesied, and the tallow +chandler closed the door with a ting-a-ling.</p> + +<p>Then Josiah sat down with his family and played the violin. +He loved his brother Benjamin, and the thought of his +coming made him a happy man.</p> + +<p>One day the old man came. Soon after there happened a +great event in the family.</p> + +<p>It was a windy night. The ocean was dashing and foaming +along the sea wall on the beach where Long Wharf, Lewis +Wharf, and Rowe's Wharf now are. The stars shone brightly, +and clouds flew scudding over the moon.</p> + +<p>Abiah Franklin opened the weather door and looked out. +She returned to her great chair slowly with a cloud in her +face.</p> + +<p>"It is a bad night for those on the sea," she said. "It is +now nine years since Josiah went away. Where he found an +ocean grave we shall never know. It is hard," she added, "to +have hope leave you in this way. It is one long torture to live +in suspense. There hasn't been a day since the first year after +Josiah left us that my ear has not waited to hear a knock on +the door on a night like this.</p> + +<p>"Josiah, you may say that I have faith in the impossible, +but I sometimes believe that I shall hear that knock yet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +There is one Scripture that comforts me when I think that; +it is, 'Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and +he shall bring it to pass.'"</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin sat silent. It was now indeed nine years +since his son Josiah had left home against his will and gone +to sea—"run away to sea," as his departure was called. It +was a kind of mental distemper in old New England times +for a boy "to run away and go to sea."</p> + +<p>There had been fearful storms on the coast. Abiah Franklin +was a silent woman when the winds bended the trees and +the waves broke loudly on the shore. She thought then; +she inwardly prayed, but she said little of the storm that was +in her heart.</p> + +<p>"I shall never see Josiah again," at last said Josiah Franklin. +"It is a pity; it is hard on me that the son who bears +my name should leave me, to become a wanderer. Boys will +do such things. I may have made his home too strict for him; +if so, may the Lord forgive me. I have meant to do my best +for all my children.—Ben, let Josiah be a warning to you; +you have been having the boy fever to go to sea. Hear the +winds blow and the sea dash! Josiah must have longed to be +back by the fire on nights like these."</p> + +<p>Josiah went to the window and tapped upon the pane. He +did that often when his mind was troubled. To tap upon the +pane eased his heartache. It was an old New England way.</p> + +<p>Josiah took his violin, tuned it, and began to play while +the family listened by the fading coals.</p> + +<p>"I thought I heard something," said Abiah between one +of the tunes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What was it, Abiah?" asked her husband.</p> + +<p>"It sounded like a step."</p> + +<p>"That's nothing strange."</p> + +<p>"It sounded familiar," she said. "Steps are peculiar."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know of whom you are thinking," said Josiah. +"May the Lord comfort you, for the winds and waves do not +to-night."</p> + +<p>He played again. His wife grew restless.</p> + +<p>"Josiah," said she when he ceased playing, "you may +say that I have fancies, but I thought I saw a face pass the +window."</p> + +<p>"That is likely, Abiah."</p> + +<p>"But this one had a short chin and a long nose."</p> + +<p>She choked, and her eyes were wet.</p> + +<p>There came a rap upon the door. It was a strong hand +that made it; there was a heart in the sound.</p> + +<p>"I'll open the door, Josiah," said Abiah.</p> + +<p>She removed the wooden bar with a trembling hand, and +lifted the latch.</p> + +<p>A tall, rugged form stood before her. She started back.</p> + +<p>"Mother, don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Josiah, I knew that you were coming to-night."</p> + +<p>She gazed into his eyes silently.</p> + +<p>"Who told you, mother?"</p> + +<p>"My soul."</p> + +<p>"Well, I've come back like the prodigal son. Let me give +you a smack. You'll take me in—but how about father? I +thought I heard him playing the violin."</p> + +<p>"Josiah, that is your voice!" exclaimed Josiah the elder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +"Now my cup of joy is full and running over. Josiah, come +in out of the storm."</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin rushed to the door and locked his son in +his arms, but there was probably but little sentiment in the +response.</p> + +<p>"Now I <i>know</i> the parable of the prodigal son," said he. +"I had only read it before. Come in! come in! There are +brothers and sisters here whom you have never seen. Now +we are all here."</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin wrote a poem to celebrate young Josiah's +return. It was read in the family, with disheartening results. +Sailor Josiah said that he "never cared much for poetry." +The poem may be found in the large biographies of Franklin.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>BENJAMIN AND BENJAMIN.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">An</span> old man sat by an open fire in a strange-looking room +with a little boy on his knee. Beside him was a middle-aged +man, the father of the boy.</p> + +<p>"Brother Josiah," said the old man, "I have had a hard, +disappointed life, but I have done the best that I could, and +there has nothing happened since my own children died and +my hair turned gray that has made me so happy as that letter +that you sent to me in England in which you told me that +you had named this boy for me."</p> + +<p>"It makes me happy to see you here by my fire to-night, +with the boy in your lap," said the father. "Benjamin and +Benjamin! My heart has been true to you in all your troubles +and losses, and I would have helped you had I been able. +How did you get up the resolution to cross the sea in your old +age?"</p> + +<p>"Brother Josiah, it was because my own son is here, +and he was all that I had left of my own family. But that +was not all. In one sense my own life has failed; I have come +down to old age with empty hands. When your letter came +saying that you had named this boy for me, and had made +me his godfather, I saw that you pitied me, and that you had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +a place for me in your heart. I thought of all the years that +we had passed together when we were young; of the farm and +forge in Ecton; of Banbury; of the chimes of Nottingham; +of all that we were to each other then.</p> + +<p>"I was all alone in London, and there my heart turned to +you as it did when we were boys. That gave me resolution to +cross the sea, Brother Josiah, although my hair is white and +my veins are thin.</p> + +<p>"But that was not all, brother; he is a poor man indeed +who gives up hope. When a man loses hope for himself, he +wishes to live in another. The ancients used to pray that +their sons might be nobler than themselves. When I read +your letter that said that you had named this boy for me and +had made me his godfather, you can not tell how life revived +in me—it was like seeing a rainbow after a storm. I said to +myself that I had another hope in this world; that I would +live in the boy. I have come over to America to live in this +boy.</p> + +<p>"O brother, I never thought that I would see an hour +like this! I am poor, but I am happy. I am happy because +you loved me after I became poor and friendless. That was +your opportunity to show what your heart was. I am happy +because you trusted me and gave my name to this boy.</p> + +<p>"Brother Josiah, I have come over to America to return +your love, in teaching this boy how to live and how to fulfill the +best that is in him. A boy with your heart can succeed in +life, even if he have but common gifts. The best thing that +can be said of any man is that he is true-hearted. Brother, +you have been true-hearted to me, and the boy inherits your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +nature, and I am going to be true-hearted to him and to do +all I can to make his life a blessing to you and the world. We +do no self-sacrificing thing without fruit."</p> + +<p>The old man put his arm about the boy, and said:</p> + +<p>"Ben, little Ben, I loved you before I saw you, and I love +you more than ever now. I have come across the ocean in +my old age to be with you. I want you to like me, Ben."</p> + +<p>"I do, uncle," said little Ben. "I would rather be with +you than with any one. I am glad that you have come."</p> + +<p>"That makes me happy, that makes my old heart happy. +I did everything a man could do for his wife and children and +for everybody. I was left alone in London, poor; I seemed to +be a forsaken man, but this makes up for all."</p> + +<p>"Benjamin and Benjamin!" said the younger brother, +touching the strings of the violin that he held on his lap—"Benjamin +and Benjamin! Brother Benjamin, how did you +get the money to cross the ocean?"</p> + +<p>"I sold my goods and my pamphlets. <i>They</i> were my life; +I had put my life into them. But I sold them, for what were +they if I could have the chance to live another life in little +Ben?"</p> + +<p>"What were your pamphlets?" asked little Ben.</p> + +<p>"They were my life, and I sold them for you, that I might +make your life a blessing to your father, who has been a true +brother to me. I will tell you the whole story of the pamphlets +some day."</p> + +<p>"Uncle, I love you more than ever before, because you +sold the treasures for me. I wish that I might grow up and +help folks, so that my name might honor yours.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You can make it that, my boy. If you will let me teach +you, you may make it that. There can nothing stand before +a will that wills to do good. It is the heart that has power, +my boy. My life will not have been lost if I can live in +you."</p> + +<p>"I have not much time for educating my children," said +the younger brother. "I am going to give over the training +of the boy to you. True education begins with the heart first, +so as to make right ideas fixed in the mind and right habits, +in the conduct. It may be little that I can send him to school, +but it is what you can do for him that will give him a start +in life. I want you to see that he starts right in life. I leave +his training to you. I have a dozen mouths to feed, and small +time for anything but toil."</p> + +<p>He tuned his violin and played an old English air. There +were candle molds in the room, long rows of candle wicks, +great kettles, a gun, a Bible, some old books, and a fireplace +with a great crane, hooks, and andirons.</p> + +<p>Little Benjamin looked up into the old man's face and +laid his hand on his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I am glad father did not forget you," said he.</p> + +<p>The old man's lip quivered.</p> + +<p>"He has been a true brother to me. Always remember +that, boy, as long as you live. It is such memories as that +that teach. His heart is true to me now as when we used +to leave the forge and roam the woods of Banbury together +in springtime, when the skylark rose out of the meadows and +the hedgerows bloomed. It is good for families to be so +true to each other. If one member of a family lacks anything,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +it is good for another to make up for it. Yes, boy, +your father has a good heart, else you would not now be in +my arms."</p> + +<p>"Why do you cry, papa?" said the boy, for his father's +eyes were filled with tears which coursed down his cheeks. +Something that aged Benjamin had said about the forge, +the nightingale, or the thorn had touched his heart.</p> + +<p>"We can never be young again, brother," said Josiah +Franklin. "I shall never see the thorn bloom or hear the +nightingale sing as I once did. No, no, no; but I am glad +that I have brought you and Ben together. That would have +pleased our old mother's heart, long dead and gone to the +violets and primroses. Do you suppose the dead know? I +sometimes think they do, and that it makes them happy to see +things like these. I will talk with the parson about these +things some day."</p> + +<p>The younger brother smiled through his tears and straightened +himself up, as though he felt that he had yielded to weakness, +for he was a plain, hard-working man. Suddenly he +said:</p> + +<p>"Brother, you remember Uncle Tom?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; he set the chimes of Nottingham ringing in +the air. I can hear them ringing now in my memory. Brother, +I think little Ben favors Uncle Tom."</p> + +<p>"Who was Uncle Tom?" asked the boy.</p> + +<p>"They used to say that he was a wizard. I will tell you +all about him some day. Let us listen now to your father's +violin."</p> + +<p>The house was still, save that the sea winds stirred the crisp<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +autumn leaves in the great trees near and the nine o'clock bell +fell solemnly on the air. A watchman went by, saying, "All +is well!"</p> + +<p>Yes, all is well in hearts like these—hearts that can pity, +love, forbear, and feel.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>FRANKLIN'S STORY OF A HOLIDAY IN CHILDHOOD.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">As</span> barren as was the early Puritan town in things that +please the fancy of the child, Josiah Franklin's home was a +cheerful one. It kept holidays, when the violin was played, +and some pennies were bestowed upon the many children.</p> + +<p>Let us enter the house by the candle-room door. The +opening of the door rings a bell. There is an odor of tallow +everywhere. One side is hung with wickings, to be cut and +trimmed.</p> + +<p>When the tallow is boiling the room is very hot, close, and +the atmosphere oily.</p> + +<p>There is a soap kettle in the room. The odor of the lye +is more agreeable than that of the melted tallow.</p> + +<p>Little Ben is here, short, stout, rosy-faced, with a great +head. Where he goes the other children go; what he +does, they do. Already a little world has begun to follow +him.</p> + +<p>Look at him as he runs around among the candle molds, +talking like a philosopher. Does he seem likely to stand in +the French court amid the splendors of the palace of Versailles, +the most popular and conspicuous person among all +the jeweled multitude who fill the mirrored, the golden, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +blazing halls except the king himself? Does he look as though +he would one day ask the French king for an army to help +establish the independence of his country, and that the throne +would bow to him?</p> + +<p>Homely as was that home, the fancy of Franklin after he +became great always loved to return to it.</p> + +<p>In his advanced years he wished to prepare a little story +or parable that would show that people spend too much time +and money on things that could be more cheaply purchased +or that they could well do without. He wrote out an anecdote +of his childhood that illustrated in a clear way, like so +many flashes, how the resources of life may be wasted. The +story has been printed, we may safely say, a thousand times. +Few stories have ever had a wider circulation or been more +often quoted. It has in it a picture of his old home, and as +such we must give it here. Here is the parable again, as in the +original:</p> + +<p>"When I was a child, at seven years old, my friends, on a +holiday, filled my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a +shop where they sold toys for children, and, being charmed +with the sound of a <i>whistle</i> that I met by the way in the hands +of another boy, I voluntarily offered him all my money for +one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house, +much pleased with my <i>whistle</i>, but disturbing all the family. +My brothers and sisters and cousins, understanding the bargain +I had made, told me I had given four times as much for +it as it was worth. This put me in mind what good things +I might have bought with the rest of the money; and they +laughed at me so much for my folly that I cried with vexation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the <i>whistle</i> +gave me pleasure.</p> + +<p>"This, however, was afterward of use to me, the impression +continuing on my mind; so that often, when I was tempted +to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, <i>Don't give +too much for the whistle</i>, and so I saved my money.</p> + +<p>"As I grew up, came into the world, and observed the +actions of men, I thought I met with many, very many, who +<i>gave too much for the whistle</i>.</p> + +<p>"When I saw any one too ambitious of court favor, sacrificing +his time in attendance on levees, his repose, his liberty, +his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I have said to +myself, <i>This man gave too much for his whistle.</i></p> + +<p>"When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing +himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, +and ruining them by neglect, <i>He pays, indeed</i>, says I, <i>too much +for this whistle.</i></p> + +<p>"If I knew a miser who gave up every kind of comfortable +living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem +of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship +for the sake of accumulating wealth, <i>Poor man</i>, says I, <i>you +do, indeed, pay too much for your whistle.</i></p> + +<p>"When I meet a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable +improvement of mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal +sensations, <i>Mistaken man</i>, says I, <i>you are providing pain +for yourself instead of pleasure; you give too much for your +whistle.</i></p> + +<p>"If I see one fond of fine clothes, fine furniture, fine equipages, +all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +ends his career in prison, <i>Alas!</i> says I, <i>he has paid dear, very +dear, for his whistle.</i></p> + +<p>"When I see a beautiful, sweet-tempered girl married to +an ill-natured brute of a husband, <i>What a pity it is</i>, says I, <i>that +she had paid so much for a whistle!</i></p> + +<p>"In short, I conceived that great part of the miseries of +mankind were brought upon them by the false estimates they +had made of the value of things, and by their giving too much +for their <i>whistle</i>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>THE BOY FRANKLIN'S KITE.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Little</span> Ben now began to lead the sports of the boys. As +there came to Froebel an inspiration to found a system of +education in which the playground should be made a means +of forming character when life was in the clay, so to young +Franklin came a desire to make sports and pastimes useful. +This caused him to build the little wharf in the soft marsh +whence the boys might catch minnows and sail their boats.</p> + +<p>Boys of nearly all countries and ages have found delight +in flying kites. A light frame of wood, covered with paper, +held by a long string, and raised by propelling it against the +air, has always peculiar attractions for the young. To see +an object rise from the earth by a law of Nature which seems +to overcome gravitation to the sky while the string is yet in +the hand, gives a boy a sense of power which excites his imagination +and thrills his blood.</p> + +<p>In Franklin's time the boy who could fly his kite the highest, +or who could make his kite appear to be the most picturesque +in the far-away blue sky, was regarded as a leader +among his fellows, and young Franklin, as we may infer, made +his kite fly very high.</p> + +<p>But he was not content with the altitude to which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +could raise his kite or its beauty in the sky. His inquiry was, +What can the kite be made to teach that is useful? What +can it be made to <i>do?</i> What good can it accomplish?</p> + +<p>Ben was an expert swimmer. After he had mastered the +art of overcoming the water, he sought how to make swimming +safe and easy; and when he had learned this himself, +he taught other boys how to swim safely and easily.</p> + +<p>One day he was flying his kite on the shore. His imagination +had wings as well as the kite, and he followed it with the +eye of fancy as it drifted along the sky pulling at his fingers.</p> + +<p>It was a warm day, and the cool harbor rippled near, and +he began to feel a desire to plunge into the water, but he did +not like to pull down his kite.</p> + +<p>He threw off his clothes and dropped into the cool water, +still holding his kite string, which was probably fastened to +a short stick in his hand.</p> + +<p>He turned on his back in the water and floated, looking +up to the kite in the blue, sunny sky.</p> + +<p>But something, was happening. The kite, like a sail in a +boat, was bearing him along. He was the boat, the kite high +in the sky was the sail, between the two was a single string. +He could sail himself on the water by a kite in the sky!</p> + +<p>So he drifted along, near the Mystic River probably, on +that warm pleasant day. The sense of the power that he +gained by thus obeying a law of Nature filled him with delight. +He could not have then dreamed that the simple discovery +would lead up to another which would enable man to see how +to control one of the greatest forces in the universe. He saw +simply that he could make the air <i>work</i> for him, and he probably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +dreamed that sometime and somewhere the same principle +would enable an inventor to show the world how to +navigate the air.</p> + +<p>The kite now became to him something more than a plaything—a +wonder. It caused his fancy to soar, and little Ben +was always happy when his fancy was on the wing.</p> + +<p>There was a man named Jamie who liked to loiter around +the Blue Ball. He was a Scotchman, and full of humor.</p> + +<p>"An' wot you been doin' now?" said Jamie the Scotchman, +as the boy returned to the Blue Ball with his big kite +and wet hair. "Kite-flying and swimming don't go together."</p> + +<p>"Ah, sirrah, don't you think that any more! Kite-flying +and floating on one's back in the water do go together. I've +been making a boat of myself, and the sail was in the sky."</p> + +<p>"Sho! How did that come about?"</p> + +<p>"I floated on my back and held the kite string in my hand, +and the kite drew me along."</p> + +<p>"It did, hey? Well, it might do that with a little shaver +like you. What made you think of that, I would like to know? +You're always thinkin' out somethin' new. You'll get into +difficulties some day, like the dog that saw the moon in the +well and leaped down to fetch it up; he gave one howl, only +one, once for all, and then they fetched <i>him</i> up; he had nothing +more to say. So it will be with you if you go kiting about +after such things, flyin' kites for boat sails."</p> + +<p>"But, Jamie, I think that I am the first boy that ever +sailed on the water without a boat—now don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know. There's nothin' new under the sun. +People like you that are always inquirin' out the whys and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +wherefores of things commonly get into trouble. Ben, wot +will ever become of you, I wonder?"</p> + +<p>"Archimedes made water run uphill."</p> + +<p>"He did, hey? So he did, as I remember to have read. +But he lost his life broodin' over a lot of figers that he was +drawin' on the sand—angles and triangles an' things. The +Roman soldier cut him down when he was dreamin', and they +let his tomb all grow up to briers. Do you think, Ben, that +you will ever make the river run uphill? Perhaps you'll turn +the water up to the sky on a kite string, and then we can have +rain in plantin' time. Who knows?"</p> + +<p>He added thoughtfully:</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't wonder, Ben, if you invented somethin' if +you live. But the prospect isn't very encouragin' of your ever +doin' anything alarmin'."</p> + +<p>"Did you ever hear what Archimedes exclaimed when he +discovered the law that a body plunged in water loses as much +of its weight as is equal to the weight of an equal volume of +the fluid, and applied it to the alloy in the king's crown?"</p> + +<p>"No. Wot did he exclaim?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Eureka! Eureka!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Wot did he do that for?"</p> + +<p>"It means, 'I have found it.'"</p> + +<p>"Maybe you'll find out something sometime, Ben. You all +run to dreams about such things, and some boys turn their +dreams into facts, as architects build their imaginations and +make money. But the fifteenth child of a tallow chandler, +who was the son of a blacksmith and of a woman whose mother +was bought and sold, a boy whose wits are off kite-flyin' instead<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +of wick-cuttin' and tallow-moldin', has no great chance +in the future, so it looks to me. But one can't always tell. +I don't think that you'll never get to be an Archimedes and +cry out 'Eureka!' But you've got imagination enough to +hitch the world to a kite and send it off among the planets +and shootin' stars, no one knows where. I never did see any +little shaver that had so much kite-flyin' in his head as you."</p> + +<p>"Archimedes said that if he only had a lever long enough +he would move the world."</p> + +<p>"He did, hey? Well, little Ben Franklin, you just put +up your kite and attend to the candle molds, and let swimmin' +in the air all go. Whatever may happen on this planet, +<i>you'll</i> never be likely to move the world with a kite, of all +things, nor with anything else, for that matter. So it looks to +me, and I'm generally pretty far-sighted. It takes practical +people to do practical things. Still, the old Bible does say that +'where there is no vision the people perish.' Well, I don't +know—as I said, we can not always tell—David slew a giant +with a pebble stone, and you may come to somethin' by some +accident or other. I'm sure I wish you well. It may be that +your uncle Benjamin, the poet, will train you when he comes +to understand you, but his thoughts run to kite-flyin' and such +things, and he never has amounted to anything at all, I'm +told. You was named after him, and rightly, I guess. He +would like to have been a Socrates. But the tape measure +wouldn't fit his head."</p> + +<p>He saw a shade in the boy's face, and added:</p> + +<p>"<i>He's</i> going to live here, they say. Then there will be +two of you, and you could fly kites and make up poetry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +together, if it were not for a dozen mouths to feed, which matters +generally tend to bring one down from the sky."</p> + +<p>An older son of Josiah Franklin appeared.</p> + +<p>"James," said Jamie, "here's your brother Ben; he's been +sailin' with the sail in the sky. He ought to be keerful of his +talents. There's no knowin' what they may lead up to. When +a person gets started in such ways as these there's no knowin' +how far he may go."</p> + +<p>Brother James opened the weather door at the Blue Ball. +The bell tinkled and Ben followed him in, and the two sat +down to bowls of bread, sweet apples, and milk.</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing, Ben?" asked Brother James.</p> + +<p>Little Ben did not answer. He got up from the table and +went away downhearted, with his face in his jacket sleeve. It +hurt him to be laughed at, but his imagination was a comforting +companion to him in hours like these.</p> + +<p>He could go kite-flying in his mind, and no one could see +the flight.</p> + +<p>"One can not make an eagle run around a barnyard like +a hen," said a sage observer of life. There was the blood of +noble purposes in little Ben Franklin's vein, if his ancestors +were blacksmiths and his grandmother had been a white slave +whose services were bought and sold. He had begun kite-flying; +he will fly a kite again one day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>LITTLE BEN'S GUINEA PIG.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ben</span> loved little animals. He not only liked to have them +about him, but it gave him great joy to protect them. One of +his pets was a guinea pig.</p> + +<p>"There are few traits of character that speak better for +the future of a boy than that which seeks to protect the helpless +and overlooked in the brute creation," said Uncle Benjamin +to Abiah Franklin one day. "There are not many animals +that have so many enemies as a guinea pig. Cats, dogs, and +even the hens run after the harmless little thing. I wonder +that this one should be alive now. He would have been dead +but for Ben."</p> + +<p>Abiah had been spinning. It was a windy day, and the +winds, too, had been spinning as it were around the house. +She had stopped to rest in her work. But the winds had not +stopped, but kept up a sound like that of the wheel.</p> + +<p>"You are always saying good things about little Ben," +said Abiah. "What is it that you see in him that is different +from other boys?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Personality</i>," said Uncle Ben. "Look at him now, out +in the yard. He has been protecting the pigeon boxes from the +wind, and after them the rabbit warren. He is always seeking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +to make life more comfortable for everybody and everything. +Now, Abiah, a heart that seeks the good of others will never +want for a friend and a home. This <i>personality</i> will make for +him many friends and some enemies in the future. The power +of life lies in the heart."</p> + +<p>The weather door opened, and little Ben came into the +room and asked for a cooky out of the earthen jar.</p> + +<p>"Where's your guinea pig, my boy?" asked Uncle Benjamin. +"I only see him now and then."</p> + +<p>"Why do you call him a guinea pig, uncle?" asked little +Ben. "He did not come from Guinea, and he is not a pig. +He came from South America, where it is warm, and he is a +covey; he is not a bit of a rabbit, and not a pig."</p> + +<p>"Where do you keep him?" asked Uncle Benjamin.</p> + +<p>"I keep him where he is warm, uncle. It makes my heart +all shrink up to see the little thing shiver when the wind strikes +him. It is cruel to bring such animals into a climate like +this."</p> + +<p>"There are tens of thousands of guinea pigs, or coveys, in +the land where they are found. Yes, millions, I am told. One +guinea pig don't count for much."</p> + +<p>"But, uncle, one feels the cold wind as much as another +would—as much as each of all the millions would."</p> + +<p>"But, Ben, you have not answered my question. Where +is the little covey now?"</p> + +<p>Little Ben colored red, and looked suspiciously toward the +door of the room in which his father was at work. He presently +saw his father's paper hat through the light over the +door, and said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Let me tell you some other time, uncle. They will laugh +at me if I tell you now."</p> + +<p>"Benjamin," said his mother, "we are going to have a +family gathering this year on the anniversary of the day when +your father landed here in 1685. The family are all coming +home, and the two Folger girls—the schoolmarms—will be +here from Nantucket. You will have to take the guinea-pig +box out of your room under the eaves. The Folger girls are +very particular. What would your aunts Hannah and Patience +Folger, the schoolmarms, say if they were to find your room +a sty for a guinea pig?"</p> + +<p>"My little covey, mother," said Ben. "I'll put the cage +into the shop. No, he would be killed there. I'll put him +where he will not offend my aunts, mother."</p> + +<p>Abiah Folger began to spin again, and the wheel and the +wind united did indeed make a lonely atmosphere. Uncle +Benjamin punched the fire, which roared at times lustily +under the great shelf where were a row of pewter platters.</p> + +<p>Little Ben drew near the fire. Suddenly Uncle Ben +started.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my eyes! what is that, Ben?"</p> + +<p>Ben looked about.</p> + +<p>"I don't see anything, uncle."</p> + +<p>"Your coat sleeve keeps jumping. I have seen it four +or five times. What is the matter there?"</p> + +<p>Uncle Ben put the tongs in the chimney nook, and said:</p> + +<p>"There is a bunch on your arm, Ben."</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, uncle."</p> + +<p>"There is, and it moves about."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have no wound, or boil, nor anything, uncle."</p> + +<p>"There it goes again, or else my head is wrong. There! +there! Abiah, stop spinning a minute and come here."</p> + +<p>The wheel stopped. Abiah, with a troubled look, came +to the hearth and leaned over it with one hand against the +shelf.</p> + +<p>"What has he been doing now?" she asked in a troubled +tone.</p> + +<p>"Look at his arm there! It bulges out."</p> + +<p>Uncle Ben put out his hand to touch the protrusion. He +laid his finger on the place carefully, when suddenly the bunch +was gone, and just then appeared a little head outside the +sleeve.</p> + +<p>"I told you that there was something there! I knew that +there was all the time."</p> + +<p>There was—it was the little covey or guinea pig.</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you before Ben came in?" said Uncle +Benjamin.</p> + +<p>Little Ben did not know what his uncle had said to his +mother before he opened the door; but he heard him say +now mysteriously:</p> + +<p>"It is a cold day for shelterless things. That little bunch +on his arm illustrates what I mean by personality. There are +more guinea pigs than one in this cold world."</p> + +<p>Abiah went to her wheel in silence, and it began to buzz +again.</p> + +<p>Little Ben went into the room where his father was at +work.</p> + +<p>The wheel stopped.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I do love that boy," said Abiah, "notwithstanding all +the fault they find with him."</p> + +<p>"So do I, Abiah. I'm glad that you made him my godson. +All people are common in this world except those who +have personality. He had a great-uncle that was just like him, +and, Abiah, he became a friend of Lord Halifax."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid that poor little Ben, after all his care of the +guinea pig, will never commend himself to Lord Halifax. But +we can not tell."</p> + +<p>"No, Abiah, we can not tell, but stranger things have +happened, and such things begin in that way."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>UNCLE TOM, WHO ROSE IN THE WORLD.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Little</span> Ben had some reasons to dread the visits of his two +stately aunts from Nantucket, the schoolmarms, whom his +mother called "the girls."</p> + +<p>But one November day, as he came home after the arrival +of the stage from Salem, he was met at the door by his uncle +with the question:</p> + +<p>"Who do you think has come?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, uncle. Josiah?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Brother John from Rhode Island? Esther and Martha +from school? Zachary from Annapolis?"</p> + +<p>"Not right yet."</p> + +<p>"Esther and Martha from school at Nantucket?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and your Aunt Hannah and Aunt Prudence have +come with them, with bandboxes, caps, snuffboxes, and all. +They came on the sloop. It is a time for little boys to be quiet +now, and to keep guinea pigs and such things well out of +sight."</p> + +<p>"How long are <i>they</i> going to stay, uncle?"</p> + +<p>By "they" he referred to his aunts.</p> + +<p>"A week or more, I guess. This will be your still week."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But I can not keep still, uncle; I am a boy."</p> + +<p>Little Benjamin went into the home room and there met +his stately aunts, the school teachers.</p> + +<p>There was a great fire in the room, and the pewter platters +shone there like silver. His aunts received him kindly, but in +a very condescending way. They had not yet discovered +any "personality" in the short, little boy of the numerous +family.</p> + +<p>The aunts delighted in imparting moral instruction, and +they saw in little Ben, as they thought, a useful opportunity +for such culture.</p> + +<p>That night the family, with the aunts from Nantucket, sat +down by the great fire under the shining platters to hear +Uncle Benjamin relate a marvelous story. Every family has +one wonder story, and this was the one wonder story of +the Franklin side of the family. Uncle Benjamin wished +the two "aunts" to hear this story "on his side of the +house."</p> + +<p>"There was only one of our family in England who ever +became great, and that was my Uncle Thomas," he began.</p> + +<p>"Only think of that, little Ben," said Aunt Hannah Folger, +"only one."</p> + +<p>"Only one," said Aunt Prudence Folger, "and may you +become like him."</p> + +<p>"He was born a smith, and so he was bred, for it was the +custom of our family that the eldest son should be a smith—a +Franklin."</p> + +<p>"Sit very still, my little boy," said the two aunts, "and +you shall be told what happened. He was a smith."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There was a man in our town," continued Uncle Ben, +"whose name was Palmer, and he became an esquire."</p> + +<p>"Maybe that <i>you</i> will become an esquire," said Aunt +Esther to Ben.</p> + +<p>"He became an esquire," said Aunt Prudence. "Sit very +still, and you shall hear."</p> + +<p>"This man liked to encourage people; he used to say +good things of them so as to help them grow. If one encourage +the good things which one finds in people it helps them. +It is a good thing to say good words."</p> + +<p>"If you do not say too many," said Josiah Franklin. "I +sometimes think we do to little Ben."</p> + +<p>"Well, this Esquire Palmer told Uncle Tom one day that +he would make a good lawyer. Tom was very much surprised, +and said, 'I am poor; if I had any one to help me I +would study for the bar.' 'I will help you,' said Esquire +Palmer. So Uncle Tom dropped the hammer and went to +school."</p> + +<p>"And <i>you</i> may one day leave the candle shop and go to +school," said Aunt Esther, moralizing.</p> + +<p>"I hope so," said little Ben humbly.</p> + +<p>"Not but that the candle shop is a very useful place," said +the other aunt.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Tom read law, and began to practice it in the +town and county of Northampton. He was public-spirited, +and he became a leader in all the enterprises of the county, and +people looked up to him as a great man. Everything that he +touched improved."</p> + +<p>"Just think of that," said Aunt Esther to Ben. "Everything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +that he touched improved. That is the way to make +success for yourself—help others."</p> + +<p>"May you profit by his example, Ben," said Aunt Prudence, +bobbing her cap border.</p> + +<p>"He made everything better—the church, the town, the +public ways, the societies, the homes. He was a just man, and +he used to say that what the world wanted was <i>justice</i>. Everybody +found him a friend, except he who was unjust. And at +last Lord Halifax saw how useful he had become, and he +honored him with his friendship. When he died, which was +some fourteen years ago, all the people felt that they had lost +a friend."</p> + +<p>The two aunts bowed over in reverence for such a character. +Aunt Esther did more than this. She put her finger slowly and +impressively on little Ben's arm, and said:</p> + +<p>"It may be that you will grow up and be like him."</p> + +<p>"Or like Father Folger," added Aunt Prudence, who +wished to remind Uncle Benjamin that the Folgers too had +a family history.</p> + +<p>Little Ben was really impressed by the homely story which +he now heard a second time. It presented a looking-glass to +him, and he saw himself in it. He looked up to his Uncle +Ben with an earnest face, and said:</p> + +<p>"I would like to help folks, too; why can I not, if Uncle +Tom did?"</p> + +<p>"A very proper remark," said Aunt Esther.</p> + +<p>"Very," said Aunt Prudence.</p> + +<p>"Good intentions are all right," said Josiah Franklin. +"They do to sail away with, but where will one land if he has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +not got the steering gear? That is a good story, Brother Ben. +Encourage little Ben here all you can; it may be that you +might have become a man like Uncle Tom if you had had +some esquire to encourage you."</p> + +<p>The aunts sat still and thought of this suggestion.</p> + +<p>Then Josiah played on his violin, and the two aunts told +tales of the work of <i>their</i> good father among the Indians of +Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.</p> + +<p>A baby lay in Abiah Franklin's arms sleeping while these +family stories were related. It was a girl, and they had +named her Jane, and called her "Jenny."</p> + +<p>Amid the story-telling Jenny awoke, and put out her arms +to Ben.</p> + +<p>"The baby takes to Ben," said the mother. "The first +person that she seemed to notice was Ben, and she can hardly +keep her little eyes off of him."</p> + +<p>Ben took little Jenny into his arms.</p> + +<p>As Uncle Benjamin grew older the library of pamphlets +that he had sold and on whose margins he had written the +best thoughts of his life haunted him. He would sometimes +be heard to exclaim:</p> + +<p>"Those pamphlets! those pamphlets!"</p> + +<p>"Why do you think so much of the lost pamphlets, +uncle?" said little Ben.</p> + +<p>"Hoi, Ben, hoi! 'tis on your account, Ben. I want you +to have them, Ben, and read them when you are old; and I +want my son Samuel to have them, although his mind does +not turn to philosophy as yours does. It tore my heart to +part with them, but I did it for you. One must save or be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +slave. You see what it is to be poor. But it is all right, Ben, +as the book of Job tells us; all things that happen to a man +with good intentions are for his best good."</p> + +<p>It was Uncle Benjamin's purpose to mold the character of +his little godson. He had the Froebel ideas, although he lived +before the time of the great apostle of soul education.</p> + +<p>"The first thing for a boy like you, Ben, is to have a definite +purpose, and the next is to have fixed habits to carry +forward that purpose, to make life automatic."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by <i>automatic</i>, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Your heart beats itself, does it not? You do not make +it beat. Your muscles do their work without any thought on +your part; so the stomach assimilates its food. The first thing +in education, more than cultivation of memory or reason, is +to teach one to do right, right all the time, because it is just +as the heart beats and the muscles or the stomach do their +work. I want so to mold you that justice shall be the law +of your life—so that to do right all the time will be a part of +your nature. This is the first principle of home education."</p> + +<p>Little Ben only in part comprehended this simple philosophy.</p> + +<p>"But, uncle," said he, "what should be my purpose in +life?"</p> + +<p>"You have the nature of your great-uncle Tom—you love +to be doing things to help others, just as he did. The purpose +of your life should be to improve things. Genius creates +things, but benevolence improves things. You will understand +what I mean some day, when you shall grow up and go +to England and hear the chimes of Northampton ring."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin liked to take little Ben out to sea. They +journeyed so far that they sometimes lost sight of the State +House, the lions and unicorns, and the window from which +new kings and royal governors had been proclaimed.</p> + +<p>These excursions were the times that Uncle Ben sought +to mold the will of little Ben after the purpose that he saw +in him. He told him the stories of life that educate the imagination, +that help to make fixed habit.</p> + +<p>"If I only had those pamphlets," he said on these excursions, +"what a help they would be to us! You will never forget +those pamphlets, will you, Ben?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>LITTLE BEN SHOWS HIS HANDWRITING TO THE FAMILY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. George Brownell</span> kept a writing school, and little +Ben was sent to him to learn to write his name and to "do +sums."</p> + +<p>Franklin did indeed learn to write his name—very neatly +and with the customary flourish. In this respect he greatly +pleased the genial old master.</p> + +<p>"That handwriting," he said, "is fit to put before a king. +Maybe it will be some day, who knows? But, Ben," he added, +"I am sorry to say it, although you write your name so well, +you are a dunce at doing your sums. Now, if I were in your +place I would make up for that."</p> + +<p>In picturing these encouraging schooldays in after years, +Benjamin Franklin kindly says of the old pedagogue: "He +was a skillful master, and successful in his profession, employing +the mildest and most encouraging methods. Under +him I learned to write a good hand pretty soon, but he could +not teach me arithmetic."</p> + +<p>One afternoon, toward evening, after good Master Brownell +had encouraged him by speaking well of his copy book, he +came home with a light heart. He found his Uncle Benjamin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +and his cousin, Samuel Franklin, Uncle Benjamin's son, +at the candle shop.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Benjamin," he said, "I have something to show +you; I have brought home my copy book. Master Brownell +says it is done pretty well, but that I ought to do my sums +better, and that I 'must make up for that.'"</p> + +<p>"He is right, little Ben. We have to try to make up for +our defects all our lives. Let me look at the book. Now that +is what I call right good writing."</p> + +<p>"Do you see anything peculiar about it?" asked Ben. +"Master Brownell said that it was good enough to set before +a king, and that it might be, some day."</p> + +<p>Little Ben's big brothers, who had come in, laughed, and +slapped their hands on their knees.</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin left his tallow boiling, and said:</p> + +<p>"Let me see it, Ben."</p> + +<p>He mounted his spectacles and held up the copy book, +turning his eyes upon the boy's signature.</p> + +<p>"That flourish to your name does look curious. It is all +tied up, and seems to come to a conclusion, as though your +mind had carried out its original intention. There is character +in the flourish. Ben, you have done well. But you +must make up for your sums.—Brother Ben, that is a good +hand, but I guess the sun will go around and around the +world many times before kings ever set their eyes on it. +But it will tell for sure. The good Book says, 'Seest +thou a man diligent in his business——' Well, you all +know the rest. I repeat that text often, so that my boys +can hear."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></p> + +<p>Samuel Franklin, Uncle Ben's son, examined the copy +book.</p> + +<p>"Samuel," said Uncle Ben, "I used to write a hand something +like that. I wish that I had my pamphlets; I would +show you my hand at the time of the Restoration. I used to +write political proverbs in my pamphlets in that way.</p> + +<p>"I want you," he continued, "to honor that handwriting, +and do your master credit. The master has tried to do well +by you. I hope that handwriting may be used for the benefit +of others; live for influences, not for wealth or fame. +My life will not fail if I can live in you and Samuel here. +Remember that everything that you do for others will send +you up the ladder of life, and I will go with you, even if the +daisies do then blow over me.</p> + +<p>"Ben, you and Samuel should be friends, and, if you +should do well in life, and he should do the same—which +Heaven grant that he may!—I want you sometimes to meet +by the gate post and think of me.</p> + +<p>"If you are ever tempted to step downward, think of me, +Ben; think of me, Samuel. Meet sometimes at the gate post, +and remember all these things. You will be older some day, +and I will be gone."</p> + +<p>The old man held up the copy book again.</p> + +<p>"'Fit to set before kings,'" he repeated. "That was a +great compliment."</p> + +<p>Little Jane, the baby, seeing the people all pleased, held +out her hands to Ben.</p> + +<p>"Jenny shall see it," said Ben. He took the copy book +and held it up before her eyes. She laughed with the rest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span></p> + +<p>That signature was to remap the world. It was to be set +to four documents that changed the history of mankind. +Reader, would you like to see how a copy of it looked? We +may fancy that the curious flourish first saw the light in Mr. +Brownell's school.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 339px;"> +<img src="images/illus-064.png" width="339" height="250" alt="Handwritten: Philad Oct 9 1755 Your most hum Servt B Franklin" title="Handwritten: Philad Oct 9 1755 Your most hum Servt B Franklin" /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>UNCLE BENJAMIN'S SECRET.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Little</span> Ben was fond of making toy boats and ships and +sailing them. He sometimes took them to the pond on the +Common, and sometimes to wharves at low tide.</p> + +<p>One day, as he was going out of the door of the sign of +the Blue Ball, boat in hand, Uncle Benjamin followed him.</p> + +<p>The old man with white hair watched the boy fondly day +by day, and he found in him many new things that made him +proud to have him bear his name.</p> + +<p>"Ben," he called after him, "may I go too?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, Uncle Benjamin. I am going down beside +Long Wharf. Let us take Baby Jane, and I will leave the +boat behind. The baby likes to go out with us."</p> + +<p>The old man's heart was glad to feel the heart that was +in the voice.</p> + +<p>Little Ben took Baby Jane from his mother's arms, and +they went toward the sea, where were small crafts, and sat +down on board of one of the safely anchored boats. It was a +sunny day, with a light breeze, and the harbor lay before them +bright, calm, and fair.</p> + +<p>"Ben, let us talk together a little. I am an old man; I +do not know how many years or even days more I may have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +to spend with you. I hope many, for I have always loved to +live, and, since I have come to know you and to give my heart +to you, life is dearer to me than ever. I have a secret which +I wish to tell you.</p> + +<p>"Ben, as I have said, I have found in you <i>personality</i>. You +do not fully know what that means now. Think of it fifty +years from now, then you will know. You just now gave up +your boat-sailing for me and the baby. You like to help +others to be more comfortable and happy, and that is the way +to grow. That is the law of life, and the purpose of life is +to grow. You may not understand what I mean now; think +of what I say fifty years from now.</p> + +<p>"Ben, I have faith in you. I want that you should always +remember me as one who saw what was in you and believed +in you."</p> + +<p>"Is that the secret that you wanted to tell me, uncle?" +asked little Ben.</p> + +<p>"No, no, no, Ben; I am a poor man after a hard life. You +do pity me, don't you? Where are my ten children now, except +one? Go ask the English graveyard. My wife is gone. I +am almost alone in the world. All bright things seemed to be +going out in my life when you came into it bearing my name. +I like to tell you this again and again. Oh, little Ben, you +do not know how I love you! To be with you is to be happy.</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 255px;"> +<img src="images/illus-066.jpg" width="255" height="400" alt="Uncle Benjamin's secret." title="Uncle Benjamin's secret." /> +<span class="caption">Uncle Benjamin's secret.</span> +</div> + +<p>"One after one my ten children went away to their long +rest where the English violets come and go. Two after one +they went, three after two, and four after three. I lost my +property, and Samuel went to America, and I was told that +Brother Josiah had named you for me and made me your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +godfather. Then, as there was nothing but graves left for +me in old England, I wished to come to America too.</p> + +<p>"Ben, Ben, you have heard all this before, but, listen, I +must tell you more. I wanted to cross the ocean, but I had little +money for such a removal, and I used to walk about London +with empty hands and wish for £100, and my wishes brought +me nothing but sorrow, and I would go to my poor lodgings +and weep. Oh, you can not tell how I used to feel!</p> + +<p>"I had a few things left—they were as dear to me as my +own heart. I am coming to the secret now, Ben. You are +asking in your mind what those things were that I sold; they +were the things most precious of all to me, and among them +were—were my pamphlets."</p> + +<p>The old man bowed over, and his lip quivered.</p> + +<p>"What were your pamphlets, uncle? You said that you +would explain to me what they were."</p> + +<p>"Ben, there are some things that we come to possess that +are a part of ourselves. Our heart goes into them—our blood—our +life—our hope. It was so with my pamphlets, Ben. +This is the secret I have to tell.</p> + +<p>"I loved the cause of the Commonwealth—Cromwell's +days. In the last days of the Commonwealth, when I had but +little money to spare, I used to buy pamphlets on the times. +When I had read a pamphlet, thoughts would come to me. +I did not seem to think them; they came to me, and I used to +note these thoughts down on the margins of the leaves in the +pamphlets. Those thoughts were more to me than anything +that I ever had in life."</p> + +<p>"I would have felt so too, uncle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Years passed, and I had a little library of pamphlets, the +margins filled with my own thoughts. Poetry is the soul's +vision, and I wrote my poetry on those pamphlets. Ben, oh, +my pamphlets! my pamphlets! They were my soul; all the +best of me went into them.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ben, times changed. King Charles returned, and +the Commonwealth vanished, but I still added to my pamphlets +for years and years. Then I heard of you. I always loved +Brother Josiah, and my son was on this side of the water, and +the longing grew to sail for America, where my heart then +was, as I have told you."</p> + +<p>"I see how you felt, uncle."</p> + +<p>"I dreamed how to get the money; I prayed for the money. +One day a London bookseller said to me: 'You have been collecting +pamphlets. Have you one entitled Human Freedom'? +I answered that I had, but that it was covered with notes. He +asked me to let him come to my lodgings and read it. He +came and looked over all my pamphlets, and told me that a +part of the collection had become rare and valuable; that +they might have a value in legal cases that would arise owing +to the change in the times. He offered to buy them. I refused +to sell them, on account of what I had written on the margins +of the leaves. What I wrote were my revelations.</p> + +<p>"He went away. Then my loneliness increased, and my +longing to come to America. I could sell my valuables, and +among them the pamphlets, and this would give me money +wherewith to make the great change."</p> + +<p>"You sold them, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"When I thought of Brother Josiah, I was tempted to do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +it. But I at first said 'No.' When I heard that my son was +making a home for himself here, I again was tempted to do it. +But I said, 'No.' I could not sell myself.</p> + +<p>"Then there came a letter from Brother Josiah. It said: +'I have another son. We have named him Benjamin, after +you. We have named you as his godfather.'</p> + +<p>"Then I sat down on the side of the bed in my room, and +the tears fell.</p> + +<p>"'<i>We have named him Benjamin</i>'—how those words went +to my heart!"</p> + +<p>"It was the first time that you ever heard of me, wasn't +it, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; it makes me happy to hear you say that. And +you will never forget me, will you, Ben?"</p> + +<p>"Never, uncle, if I live to be eighty years old! But, uncle, +you sold the pamphlets!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. When I read your name in Josiah's letter I felt +a weight lifted from my mind. I said to myself that I would +part with myself—that is, the pamphlets—for you."</p> + +<p>"Did you sell them for me, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I sold them for you, Benjamin."</p> + +<p>"What was the man's name that <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'brought'">bought</ins> them, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"I hoped that you would ask me that. His name was +Axel. Repeat it, Ben."</p> + +<p>"Axel."</p> + +<p>"It is a hard name to forget."</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget it, uncle."</p> + +<p>"Ben, you may go to London sometime."</p> + +<p>"We are all poor now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But you have <i>personality</i>, and people who look out for +others are needed by others for many things. Maybe they will +sometime send you there."</p> + +<p>"Who, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know. But if ever you should go to London, +go to all the old bookstores, and what name will you look for?"</p> + +<p>"Axel, uncle."</p> + +<p>"Ben, those are not books; they are myself. I sold myself +when I sold them—I sold myself for you. Axel, Ben, +Axel."</p> + +<p>Little Ben repeated "Axel," and wondered if he would +ever see London or meet with his uncle in those pamphlets +which the latter claimed to be his other self.</p> + +<p>"Axel," he repeated, pinching Baby Jane's cheek. Baby +Jane laughed in the sunlight on the blue sea when she saw +the excitement in Ben's face.</p> + +<p>The tide was coming in, the boat was rocking, and Ben +said:</p> + +<p>"We must go home now, for Jenny's sake."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE STONE WHARF, AND LADY WIGGLEWORTH, WHO FELL +ASLEEP IN CHURCH.</h3> + + +<p>Did little Ben's trumpet and gun indicate that he would +become a statesman whose cause would employ armies? We +do not know. The free will of a boy on the playground is +likely to present a picture of his leading traits of character. +In old New England days there was a custom of testing a +child's character in a novel way. A bottle, a coin, and a Bible +were laid on the floor at some distance apart to tempt the notice +of the little one when he first began to creep. It was +supposed that the one of the three objects that he crept toward +and seized upon was prophetic of his future character—that +the three objects represented worldly pleasure, the seeking for +wealth, and the spiritual life.</p> + +<p>Franklin's love for public improvements was certainly indicated +in his early years. He liked the water and boats, and +he saw how convenient a little wharf near his house would +be; so he planned to build one, and laid his plans before his +companions.</p> + +<p>"We will build it of stone," he said. "There are plenty +of stones near the wharf."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But the workmen there would not let us have them," +said a companion.</p> + +<p>"We will take them after they have gone from their work. +We can build the wharf in a single evening. The workmen +may scold, but they will not scold the stone landing out of the +water again."</p> + +<p>One early twilight of a long day the boys assembled at the +place chosen by young Franklin for his wharf, and began to +work like beavers, and before the deep shadows of night they +had removed the stones to the water and builded quite a little +wharf or landing.</p> + +<p>"We can catch minnows and sail our boats from here +now," said young Franklin as he looked with pride on the +triumphs of his plan. "All the boys will be free to use +this landing," he thought. "Won't it make the people +wonder!"</p> + +<p>It did.</p> + +<p>The next morning the weather door of the thrifty tallow +chandler opened with a ring.</p> + +<p>"Josiah Franklin, where is that boy of yours?" asked a +magistrate.</p> + +<p>The paper cap bobbed up, and the man at the molds bent +his head forward with wondering eyes.</p> + +<p>"Which boy?"</p> + +<p>"Ben, the one that is always leading other boys round."</p> + +<p>"I dunno. He's making a boat—or was.—Benjamin!" he +called; "I say, Benjamin!"</p> + +<p>The door of the living room opened, and little Ben appeared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here's a man who has come to see you. What have you +been doing now?"</p> + +<p>"Boy," said the man—he spoke the word so loudly that +the little boy felt that it raised him almost to the dignity of +a man.</p> + +<p>"What, sir?" gasped Ben, very intelligent as to what +would follow.</p> + +<p>"Did you put those stones into the water?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"What did you do that for?"</p> + +<p>"To make a wharf, sir."</p> + +<p>"'To make a wharf, sir!' Didn't you have the sense to +know that those stones were building stones and belonged to +the workmen?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; I didn't know that they belonged to any one. +I thought that they belonged to everybody."</p> + +<p>"You did, you little rascal! Then why did you wait to +have the workmen go away before you put them into the +water?"</p> + +<p>"The workmen would have hindered us, sir. They don't +think that improvements can be made by little shavers like +us. I wanted to surprise them, sir—to show them what we +could do, sir."</p> + +<p>"Benjamin Franklin," said Josiah, "come here, and I +will show you what I can do.—Stranger, the boy's godfather +has come to live with us and to take charge of him, and he +does need a godfather, if ever a stripling did."</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin laid his hand on the boy, and the workman +went away. The father removed the boy's jacket, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +showed him what he could do, the memory of which was not a +short one.</p> + +<p>"I did not mean any harm, father," young Benjamin said +over and over. "It was a mistake."</p> + +<p>"My boy," said the tallow chandler, softening, "never +make a second mistake. There are some people who learn +wisdom from their first mistakes by never making second +mistakes. May you be one of them."</p> + +<p>"I shall never do anything that I don't think is honest, +father. I thought stones and rocks belonged to the people."</p> + +<p>"But there are many things that belong to the people in +this world that you have no right to use, my son. When +you want to make any more public improvements, first come +and talk with me about them, or go to your Uncle Ben, +into whose charge I am going to put you—and no small job he +will have of it, in my thinking!"</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin said, when he was growing old and was +writing his own life, that his father <i>convinced</i> him at the time +of this event that "that which is not honest could not be +useful."</p> + +<p>We can see in fancy his father with a primitive switch +thus <i>convincing</i> him. He never forgot the moral lesson.</p> + +<p>Where was Jamie the Scotchman during this convincing +episode? When he heard that the little wharf-builder, bursting +with desire for public improvement, had fallen into disgrace, +he came upon him slyly:</p> + +<p>"So you've been building a wharf for the boys of the town. +When one begins so soon in life to improve the town, there +can be no telling what he will do when he grows up. Perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +you will become one of the great benefactors of Boston +yet. Who knows?"</p> + +<p>"We can't tell," said the future projector of Franklin +Park, philosophically.</p> + +<p>"No, that is a fact, bubby. Take your finger out of your +mouth and go to cutting candle wicks. It must make a family +proud to have in it such a promising one as you! You'll be +apt to set something ablaze some day if you keep on as you've +begun."</p> + +<p>He did.</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman went out, causing the bell on the +door to ring. He whistled lustily as he went down the street.</p> + +<p>Little Benjamin sat cutting wicks for the candle molds +and wondering at the ways of the world. He had not intended +to do wrong. He may have thought that the stones, although +put aside by the workmen, were common property. He had +made a mistake. But how are mistakes to be avoided in life? +He would ask his Uncle Benjamin, the poet, when he should +meet him. It was well, indeed, never to make a <i>second</i> mistake, +but better not to make any mistake at all. Uncle +Benjamin was wise, and could write poetry. He would ask +him.</p> + +<p>Besides Jamie the Scotchman, who spent much time at the +Blue Ball, little Benjamin's brother James seems to have +looked upon him as one whose activities of mind were too obvious, +and needed to be suppressed.</p> + +<p>The evening that followed the disgrace of little Ben was +a serious one in the Franklin family. Uncle Ben had "gone +to meeting" in the Old South Church.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> + +<p>The shop, with its molded candles, dipped candles, ingot +bars of soap, pewter molds, and kettles, was not an unpleasant +place in the evening, and old sea captains used to drop in to +talk with Josiah, and sometimes the leading members of the +Old South Church came to discuss church affairs, which were +really town affairs, for the church governed the town.</p> + +<p>On this particular night little Ben sat in the corner of the +shop very quietly, holding little Jane as usual. The time had +come for a perfect calm in his life, and he himself was well +aware how becoming was silence in his case.</p> + +<p>Among those who used to come to the shop evenings to +talk with Josiah and Uncle Ben, the poet, was one Captain +Holmes. He came to-night, stamping his feet at the door, +causing the bell to ring very violently and the faces of some +of the Franklin children to appear in the window framed +over the shop door. How comical they looked!</p> + +<p>"Where's Ben to-night?" asked Captain Holmes.</p> + +<p>Little Ben's heart thumped. He thought the captain +meant <i>him</i>.</p> + +<p>"He's gone to meetin'," said Josiah. "Come, sit down. +Ben will be at home early."</p> + +<p>Little Ben's heart did not beat so fast now.</p> + +<p>"Where's that boy o' yourn?" asked the captain.</p> + +<p>Ben's heart began to beat again.</p> + +<p>"There, in the corner," said Josiah, with a doubtful look +in his face.</p> + +<p>"He'll be given to making public improvements when he +grows up," said the captain. "But I hope that he will not +take other people's property to do it. If there is any type<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +of man for whom I have no use it is he who does good with +what belongs to others."</p> + +<p>The door between the shop and the living room opened, +and the grieved, patient face of Abiah appeared.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Captain Holmes," said Abiah. "I heard +what you said—how could I help it?—and it hurt me. No +descendant of Peter Folger will ever desire to use other people's +property for his own advantage. Ben won't."</p> + +<p>"That's right, my good woman, stand up for your own. +Every drop of an English exile's blood is better than its weight +in gold."</p> + +<p>"Ben is a boy," said Abiah. "If he makes an error, it will +be followed by a contrite heart."</p> + +<p>Little Ben could hear no more. He flew, as it were, up +to the garret chamber and laid down on the trestle bed. A +pet squirrel came to comfort him or to get some corn. He +folded the squirrel in his bosom.</p> + +<p>Ting-a-ling! It was Uncle Ben, the poet, whose name he +had disgraced. He could endure no more; he began to sob, +and so went to sleep, his little squirrel pitying him, perhaps.</p> + +<p>There was another heart that pitied the boy. It was Uncle +Ben's. Poor Uncle Ben! He sleeps now at the side of the +Franklin monument in the Granary burying ground, and we +like to cast a kindly glance that way as we pass the Park Street +Church on Tremont Street, on the west side. It is a good thing +to have good parents, and also to have a good uncle with a +poetic mind and a loving heart.</p> + +<p>There was one trait in little Benjamin's character that +Josiah Franklin saw with his keen eye to business, and it gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +him hope. He was diligent. One of Josiah Franklin's favorite +texts of Scripture was, "Seest thou a man diligent in his +business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before +mean men." This text he used to often repeat, or a part of it, +and little Ben must have thought that it applied to him. Hints +of hope, not detraction, build a boy.</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman had little expectation that puttering +Ben would ever "stand before kings." Not he. He had not +that kind of vision.</p> + +<p>"Ah, boy, I could tell you a whole history of diligent boys +who not only came to stand before kings, but who overturned +thrones; and he who discrowns a king is greater than a king," +said he one day. "Think what you might become."</p> + +<p>"Maybe I will."</p> + +<p>"Will what?"</p> + +<p>"Be some one in the world."</p> + +<p>"Sorry a boy you would make to 'stand before kings,' and +I don't think you'll ever be likely to take off the crown from +anybody. So your poor old father might as well leave that text +out of the Scriptures. There are no pebbles in your sling of +life. If there were, wonders would never cease. You are +just your Uncle Ben over again. I'm sorry for ye, and for +all."</p> + +<p>Little Ben looked sorry too, and he wondered if there +really were in the text something prophetic for him, or if +Jamie the Scotchman were the true seer. But many poor +boys had come to stand before kings, and some such boys had +left tyrants without a crown.</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman thought that he had the gift of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +"second sight," as a consciousness of future events was called, +but he usually saw shadows. He liked to talk to himself, walking +with his hands behind him.</p> + +<p>After his dire prophecy concerning the future of little Ben +he walked down to Long Wharf with Uncle Benjamin, talking +to himself for the latter to hear.</p> + +<p>"Ye can't always tell," said he; "I didn't speak out of +the true inward spirit when I said those things. It hurt the +little shaver to tell him there was no future in him; I could +see it did. The boy has a curious way of saying wise things; +such words fly out of his mouth like swallows from a cave. +If I were to take up a dead brand in the blacksmith's shop +and he was around, as he commonly is, he would say, 'The +more you handle a burned stick the smuttier you become'; +or if I were to pick up a horseshoe there, and say, 'For the +want of a nail the shoe was lost,' he would answer, 'And for +want of a shoe the horse was lost.' Then, after a time, he +would add, 'For want of a horse the rider was lost,' and so +on. His mind works in that way. Maybe he'll become a philosopher. +Philosophers stand before kings. I now have the +true inner sight and open vision. I can see a streak of light +in that curious gift of his. But blood tells, and his folks on +his father's side were blacksmiths over in England, and philosophers +don't come from the forge more'n eagles do from the +hen yard.</p> + +<p>"I said what I did to stimulate him. It cut the little +shaver to the quick, didn't it? Now he wouldn't have been so +cut if there had been nothing there. The Lord forgive me if +I did wrong!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<p>He walked down the wharf to the end. Beyond lay the +blue harbor and the green islands. The town had only some +ten thousand inhabitants then, but several great ships lay +in the harbor under the three hills, two of which now are +gone.</p> + +<p>The harbor was girded with oaks and pines. Here and +there a giant elm, still the glory of New England, lifted its +bowery top like a cathedral amid towns of trees. Sea birds +screamed low over the waters, and ospreys wheeled high in +the air.</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman had not many things to occupy his +thoughts, so he sat down to wonder as to what that curious +Franklin boy might become.</p> + +<p>A new thought struck him.</p> + +<p>"He has French blood in him—the old family name used +to be Franklein," he said to himself. "Now what does that +signify? French blood is gentle; it likes to be free. I don't +see that it might not be a good thing to have; the French +like to find out things and give away to others what they +discover."</p> + +<p>A shell fell into the water before him from high in the +air. The water spouted up, causing an osprey to swoop down, +but to rise again.</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman turned his head.</p> + +<p>"You, Ben? You follow me 'round everywhere. What +makes ye, when I treat ye so?"</p> + +<p>"If a boy didn't hope for anything he would never have +the heartache."</p> + +<p>"True, true, my boy; and what of that?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I would rather expect something and have the heartache."</p> + +<p>"No one ever misses his expectations who looks for the +heartache in this world. But what queer turns your mind +does take, and what curious questions you do ask! Let us +return to the Blue Ball."</p> + +<p>They did, through winding streets, one or more of which +were said to follow the wanderings of William Blackstone's +cow from the Common. Boston still follows the same interesting +animal.</p> + +<p>There were windmills on the hills and tidemills near the +water. There was a ferryboat between Boston and Charlestown, +and on the now Chelsea side was the great Rumney +Marsh. On the Common, which was a pasture, was a branching +elm, a place of executions. Near it was a pond into which +had been cast the Wishing Stone around which, it was reported, +that if one went three times at night and repeated the Lord's +Prayer <i>backward</i> at each circuit one might have whatever he +wished for. Near the pond and the great tree were the Charles +River marshes. Such was Boston in 1715-'20.</p> + +<p>Little Ben went to the South Church on Sundays, and the +tithingman was there. The latter sat in the gallery among +the children with his long rod, called the tithing stick, with +which he used to touch or correct any boy or girl who +whispered in meeting, who fell asleep, or who misbehaved. +Little Ben must have looked from the family pew in awe +at the tithingman. The old-time ministers pictured the +Lord himself as being a kind of a tithingman, sitting up +in heaven and watching out for the unwary. Good Josiah<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +Franklin governed the conduct of the children in his own +pew. You may be sure that none of them whispered there or +fell asleep or misbehaved.</p> + +<p>The tithingman, who was a church constable, was annually +elected to keep peace and order in the church. In England +he collected tithes, or a tenth part of the parish income, which +the people were supposed, after the Mosaic command, to offer +to the church. He sometimes wore a peculiar dress; he +was usually a very solemn-looking man, the good man of +whom all the children, and some of the old women, stood in +terror.</p> + +<p>A crafty man was the tithingman in the pursuit of his +duties. He was on the watch all the time, and, as suspicion +breeds suspicion, so the children were on the watch for him. +The sermons were long, the hourglass was sometimes twice +turned during the service, and the children often kept themselves +awake by looking out for the tithingman, who was watching +out for them. This was hardly the modern idea of heart +culture and spiritual development, but the old Puritan churches +made strong men who faced their age with iron purposes.</p> + +<p>We said that the tithingman was sometimes a terror to +old women. Why was he so? It was sweet for certain good +old people to sleep in church, and his duties extended to all +sleepers, young and old. But he did not smite the good old +ladies with a stick. In some churches, possibly in this one, he +carefully tickled their noses with a feather. This led to a +gentle awakening, very charitable and kindly.</p> + +<p>It is a warm summer day. Josiah Franklin's pew is +crowded, and little Ben has gone to the gallery to sit among<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +the boys. Uncle Ben, the poet, is there, for he sees that the +family pew is full.</p> + +<p>How can little Ben help whispering now, when the venerable +poet is by his side and will not harshly reprove him, +and when so many little things are happening that tempt him +to share his thoughts with his amiable godfather?</p> + +<p>But he restrained himself long and well.</p> + +<p>In her high-backed pew, provided with the luxury of the +cushion, sat fine old Lady Wiggleworth, all in silks, satins, and +plumes. Little Ben, looking over the gallery rail, saw that +my lady's plumes nodded, and he gently touched Uncle Ben +and pointed down. Suddenly there came a tap of the tithing +stick on his head, and he was in disgrace. He looked very +solemn now; so did Uncle Ben. It was a solemn time after one +had been touched by the tithing rod.</p> + +<p>But the tithingman had seen Lady Wiggleworth's nodding +plumes. Could it be possible that this woman, who +was received at the Province House, had lost her moral and +physical control?</p> + +<p>If such a thing had happened, he must yet do his duty. +He would have done that had the queen been there. The +law of Heaven makes no exception, nor did he.</p> + +<p>He tiptoed down the stair and stood before the old lady's +pew. All her plumes were nodding, something like the picture +of a far ship in a rolling sea. My lady was asleep.</p> + +<p>The tithingman's heart beat high, but his resolution did +not falter. If it had, it would soon have been restored, for +my lady began to snore.</p> + +<p>Gently, very gently, the tithingman took from his side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +pocket a feather. He touched with it gently, very gently, a +sensitive part of the oblivious old lady's nose. She partly +awoke and brushed her nose with her hand. But her head +turned to the other side of her shoulders, and she relapsed into +slumber again.</p> + +<p>The sermon was still beating the sounding-board, and a +more vigorous duty devolved upon the tithingman.</p> + +<p>He pushed the feather up my lady's nose, where the membrane +was more sensitive and more quickly communicated +with the brain. He did this vigorously and more vigorously. +It was an obstinate case.</p> + +<p>"Scat!"</p> + +<p>The tithingman jumped. My lady opened her eyes. The +sermon was still beating the sounding-board, but she was not +then aware that she, too, had spoken in meeting.</p> + +<p>There were some queer church customs in the days of +Boston town.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>JENNY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Jenny Franklin</span>, the "pet and beauty of the family," +Benjamin's favorite sister, was born in 1712, and was six years +younger than he.</p> + +<p>"My little Jenny," said Josiah, "has the Franklin heart." +Little Ben found that heart in her baby days, and it was true +to him to the end.</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin had entertained such large hopes of the +future of little Ben since the boy first sent to him a piece of +poetry to England, that he wrote of him:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"For if the bud bear grain, what will the top?"<br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>and again:</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"When flowers are beautiful before they're blown,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">What rarities will afterward be shown!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">If trees good fruit un'noculated bear,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">You may be sure't will afterward be rare.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">If fruits are sweet before they've time to yellow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">How luscious will they be when they are mellow!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>He also saw great promise in bright little Jenny, who had +heart full of sympathy and affection. Jenny, Ben, and Uncle +Benjamin became one in heart and companionship.</p> + +<p>Beacon Hill was a lovely spot in summer in old Boston +days. Below it was the Common, with great trees and winding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +ways. It commanded a view of the wide harbor and far +blue sea. It looked over a curve of the river Charles, and the +bright shallow inlet or pond, where the Boston and Maine depot +now stands, that was filled up from the earth of the fine old +hillside. The latter place may have been the scene of Ben's +bridge, which he built in the night in a forbidden way. The +place is not certainly known.</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin, one Sunday after church, took Ben and +little Jenny, who was a girl then, to the top of the hill. It +was a showery afternoon in summer—now bright, now overcast—and +all the birds were singing on the Common between +the showers.</p> + +<p>In one of the shining hours between the showers they +sat down under an ancient forest tree, and little Jenny rested +her arms on one of the knees of Uncle Benjamin, and Ben +leaned on the other. The old man looked down on the harbor, +which was full of ships, and said:</p> + +<p>"I wish I had my sermons that I left behind. I would +read one of them to you now."</p> + +<p>"I would rather hear you talk," said Ben, with conscientious +frankness.</p> + +<p>"So would I," said Jenny, who thought that Ben was a +philosopher even at this early age, and who echoed nearly +everything that he said.</p> + +<p>"Look over the harbor," said the old man. "There are +more and more ships coming in every year. This is going to +be a great city, and America will become a great country. +Ben, I hope there will never be any wars on this side of the +water. War is sloth's maintainer, and the shield of pride;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +it makes many poor and few rich, and fewer wise.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> Ben, this +is going to be a great country, and I want you to be true to the +new country."</p> + +<p>"I will always be true to my country," said Ben.</p> + +<p>"And I will be true to my home," said little Jenny.</p> + +<p>"So you will, so you will, my darling little pet; I can see +that," said Uncle Benjamin.</p> + +<p>Ben was so pleased at his echo that he put his arm around +his sister's neck and kissed her many times.</p> + +<p>The old man's heart was touched at the scene. He thought +of his lost children, who were sleeping under the cover of the +violets now.</p> + +<p>"It is going to rain again," he said. "The robins are all +singing, and we will have to go home. But, children, I want +to leave a lesson in your minds. Listen to Uncle Ben, +whose heart is glad to see you so loving toward each other +and me.</p> + +<p>"<i>More than wealth, more than fame, more than anything, is +the power of the human heart, and that power is developed by +seeking the good of others.</i> Live for influences that multiply, +and for the things that live. Now what did I say, Ben?"</p> + +<p>"You said that more than wealth, more than fame, +more than anything, was the power of the human heart, +and that that power was developed in seeking the good of +others."</p> + +<p>"That's right, my man.—Now, Jenny, what did I say?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't repeat all those big words, uncle."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> +<p>"Well, you lovely little <i>creeter</i>, you; you do not need to +repeat it; you know the lesson already; it was born in you; +you have the Franklin heart!"</p> + +<p>"Beloved Boston," Franklin used to say when he became +old. What wonder, when it was associated with memories like +these!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>A CHIME OF BELLS IN NOTTINGHAM.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Some</span> time after Uncle Benjamin, who became familiarly +known as Uncle Ben, had revealed to little Ben his heart's +secret, and how that he had for his sake sold his library of +pamphlets, which was his other self, the two again went down +to the wharves to see the ships that had come in.</p> + +<p>They again seated themselves in an anchored boat.</p> + +<p>"Ben," said Uncle Benjamin, "I have something more on +my mind. I did not tell you all when we talked here before. +You will never forget what I told you—will you?"</p> + +<p>"Never, uncle, if I live to be old. My heart will always +be true to you."</p> + +<p>"So it will, so it will, Ben. So it will. I want to tell +you something more about your Great-uncle Thomas. You +favor him. Did any one ever tell you that the people used +to think him to be a wizard?"</p> + +<p>"No, no, uncle. You yourself said that once. What is a +wizard?"</p> + +<p>"It is a man who can do strange things, no one can tell +how. They come to him."</p> + +<p>"But what made them think him a wizard?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, people used to be ignorant and superstitious, like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +Reuben of the Mill, your father's old friend and mine. There +was an inn called the World's End, at Ecton, near an old +farm and forge. The people used to gather there and tell +stories about witches and wizards that would have made your +flesh creep, and left you afraid to go to bed, even with a guinea +pig in your room.</p> + +<p>"Your Great-uncle Thomas was always inventing things to +benefit the people. At last he invented a way by which it might +rain and rain, and there might be freshets and freshets, and +yet their meadows would not be overflown. The water would +all run off from the meadows like rain from a duck's back. He +made a kind of drain that ran sideways. Now the pious +Brownites thought that this was flying in the face of Providence, +and people began to talk mysteriously about him at +the World's End.</p> + +<p>"But it was not that which I have heavy on my mind or +light on my mind, for it is a happy thought. There are not +many romantic things in our family history. The Franklins +were men of the farm, forge, and fire. But there was one +thing in our history that was poetry. It was this—listen now.</p> + +<p>"What was the name of that man to whom I sold the +pamphlets?" he asked in an aside.</p> + +<p>"Axel."</p> + +<p>"That is right—always remember that name—Axel.</p> + +<p>"Now listen to that other thing. Your uncle, or great-uncle +Thomas, started a subscription for a chime of bells. +The family all loved music—that is what makes your father +play the violin. Your Great-uncle Thomas loved music in the +air. You may be able to buy a spinet for Jenny some day.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now your Great-uncle Thomas's soul is, as it were, in those +chimes of Nottingham. I pray that you may go to England +some day before you die and hear the chimes of Nottingham. +You will hear a part of your own family's soul, my boy. It is the +things that men do that live. If you ever find the pamphlets, +which are myself—myself that is gone—you will read in them +my thoughts on the Toleration Act, and on Liberty, and on the +soul, and the rights of man. What was the man's name?"</p> + +<p>"Axel."</p> + +<p>"Right."</p> + +<p>Little Jenny, who loved to follow little Ben, had come +down to the wharf to hear "Uncle Benjamin talk." She had +joined them in the boat on the sunny water. She had become +deeply interested in Uncle Tom and the chimes of Nottingham.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ben," she asked, "was Uncle Tom ever laughed +at?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; the old neighbors who would hang about the +smithy used to laugh at him. They thought him visionary. +Why did you ask me that?"</p> + +<p>"What makes people who come to the shop laugh at Ben? +It hurts me. I think Ben is real good. He is good to me, and +I am always going to be good to him. I like Ben better than +<i>almost</i> anybody."</p> + +<p>"A beneficent purpose is at first ridiculed," said Uncle +Benjamin.</p> + +<p>Little Ben seemed to comprehend the meaning of this +principle, but the "big words" were lost on Jenny.</p> + +<p>"He whose good purpose is laughed at," said Uncle Benjamin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +"will be likely to live to laugh at those who laughed +at him if he so desired; but, hark! a generous man does not +laugh at any one's right intentions. Ben, never stop to answer +back when they laugh at you. Life is too short. It robs +the future to seek revenge."</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin was right.</p> + +<p>Did little Ben heed the admonition of his uncle on this +bright day in Boston, to follow beneficence with a ready step, +and not to stop to "answer back"? Was little Jenny's heart +comforted in after years in finding Ben, who was so good to +her now, <i>commended?</i> We are to follow a family history, and +we shall see.</p> + +<p>As the three went back to the Blue Ball, Ben, holding his +uncle by the one hand and Jane by the other, said:</p> + +<p>"I do like to hear Jane speak well of me, and stand up +for me. I care more for that than <i>almost</i> any other thing."</p> + +<p>"Well, live that she may always speak well of you," said +Uncle Benjamin; "so that she may speak well of you when +you two shall meet for the last time."</p> + +<p>"Uncle," said Jenny, "why do you always have something +solemn to say? Ben isn't solemn, is he?"</p> + +<p>"No, my girl, your brother Ben is a very lively boy. You +will have to hold him back some day, I fear."</p> + +<p>"No, no, uncle, I shall always push him on. He likes to +go ahead. I like to see him go—don't you?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE ELDER FRANKLIN'S STORIES.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Peter Folger</span>, Quaker, the grandfather of Benjamin +Franklin, was one of those noblemen of Nature whose heart +beat for humanity. He had been associated in the work of +Thomas Mayhew, the Indian Apostle, who was the son of +Thomas Mayhew, Governor of Martha's Vineyard. The +younger Mayhew gathered an Indian church of some hundred +or more members, and the Indians so much loved him +that they remained true to him and their church during +Philip's war.</p> + +<p>What stories Abiah Franklin could have told, and doubtless +did tell, of her old home at Nantucket!—stories of the +true hearts of the pioneers, of people who loved others more +than themselves, and not like the sea-rovers who at this time +were making material for the Pirate's Own Book.</p> + +<p>Josiah, too, had his stories of Old England and the conventicles, +heroic tales of the beginning of the long struggle +for freedom of opinion. Hard and rough were the stories of +the Commonwealth, of Cromwell, Pym, and Sir Henry Vane, +the younger.</p> + +<p>There was one very pleasing old tale that haunted Boston +at this time, of the Hebrew parable order, or after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +manner of the German legend. Such stories were rare in those +days of pirates, Indians, and ghosts, the latter of whom were +supposed to make their homes in their graves and to come forth +in their graveclothes, and to set the hearts of unquiet souls to +beating, and like feet to flying with electrical swiftness before +the days of electricity.</p> + +<p>Governor Winthrop—the same who got lost in the Mystic +woods, and came at night to an Indian hut in a tree and +climbed into it, and was ordered out of it at a later hour +when the squaw came home—took a very charitable view of +life. He liked to reform wrongdoers by changing their hearts. +Out of his large love for every one came this story of old Boston +days.</p> + +<p>We will listen to it by the Franklin fire in the candle shop. It +was an early winter tale, and it will be a good warm place to +hear it there.</p> + +<p>"It is a cold night," said Josiah, "and Heaven pity those +without fuel on a night like this! There are not overmany +like Governor Winthrop in the world."</p> + +<p>Abiah drew her chair up nearer to the great fire, for it +made one chilly to hear the beginning of that story, but the +end of it made the heart warm.</p> + +<p>"It was in the early days of the colony," said Josiah, "and +the woods in the winter were bare, and the fields were cold. +There was a lack of wood on the Mystic near the town.</p> + +<p>"A poor man lived there on the salt marsh with his family. +He had had a hard time to raise enough for their support. A +snowstorm came, and his fuel was spent, his hearth was cold, +and there was nothing to burn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The great house of the Governor rose over the ice-bordered +marshes. Near it were long sheds, and under them +high piles of wood brought from the hills.</p> + +<p>"The poor man had no wood, but after a little time smoke +was seen coming out of his chimney.</p> + +<p>"There came one day a man to the Governor, and said:</p> + +<p>"'Pardon me, Governor, I am loath in my heart to accuse +any one, but in the interest of justice I have something which +I must tell you.'</p> + +<p>"'Speak on, neighbor.'</p> + +<p>"'Some one has been stealing your wood.'</p> + +<p>"'It is a hard winter for the poor. Who has done this?'</p> + +<p>"'The man who lives on the marsh.'</p> + +<p>"'His crop was not large this year.'</p> + +<p>"'No, it failed.'</p> + +<p>"'He has a wife and children.'</p> + +<p>"'True, Governor.'</p> + +<p>"'He has always borne a good reputation.'</p> + +<p>"'True, Governor, and that makes the case more difficult.'</p> + +<p>"'Neighbor, don't speak of this thing to others, but send +that man to me.'</p> + +<p>"The man on the marsh came to the Governor's. His +face was as white as snow. How he had suffered!</p> + +<p>"'Neighbor,' said the Governor, 'this is a cold winter.'</p> + +<p>"'It is, your Honor.'</p> + +<p>"'I hope that your family are comfortable.'</p> + +<p>"'No, your Honor; they have sometimes gone to bed supperless +and cold.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'It hurts my conscience to know that. Have you any +fuel?'</p> + +<p>"'None, your Honor. My children have kept their bed for +warmth.'</p> + +<p>"'But I have a good woodpile. See the shed: there is +more wood there than I can burn. I ought not to sit down by +a comfortable fire night after night, while my neighbor's +family is cold.'</p> + +<p>"'I am glad that you are so well provided for, for you are +a good man, and have a heart to feel for those in need.'</p> + +<p>"'Neighbor, there is my woodpile. It is yours as well +as mine. I would not feel warm if I were to sit down by my +fire and remember that you and your wife and your children +were cold. When you need any fuel, come to my woodpile and +take all the wood that you want.'</p> + +<p>"The man on the marsh went away, his head hanging +down. I believe that there came into his heart the powerful +resolution that he would never steal again, and we have +no record that he ever did. The Governor's hope for him had +made him another man.</p> + +<p>"He came for the wood in his necessity one day. The +Governor looked at him pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"'Why did you not come to me before?'"</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin looked around on the group at the fireside, +and opened the family Bible.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that the Governor did right, Brother +Ben?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it isn't altogether clear to me."</p> + +<p>"What do you think, Abiah?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Father would have done as he did. He hindered no one, +but helped every one. He saw life on that side."</p> + +<p>"Well, little Ben, what have you to say?"</p> + +<p>"The Governor looked upon the heart, didn't he? He felt +for the man. Would it not be better for all to look that way? +The worth of life depends upon those we help, lift, and make, +not in those we destroy. I like the old Governor, I do, and +I am sorry that there are not many more like him. That +seems like a Luke story, father. Read a story from Luke."</p> + +<p>Josiah read a story from Luke.</p> + +<p>There followed a long prayer, as usual. Then the children +kissed their mother and Jenny and crept up to their chamber. +The nine-o'clock bell had rung, and the streets were still. +The watchman with his lantern went by, saying, "Nine o'clock, +and all is well!" None of the family heard him say, "Ten +o'clock, and all is well!" They were in slumberland after +their hard, homely toil, and some of them may have been +dreaming of the good old Governor, who followed literally +the words of the Master who taught on the Mount of Beatitudes.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h3>THE TREASURE-FINDER.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Little</span> Benjamin once had the boy fever to go to sea. +This fever was a kind of nervous epidemic among the boys +of the time, a disease of the imagination as it were. Many +boys had it in Boston; they disappeared, and the town crier +called out something like this:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"Hear ye!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">Hear ye!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">Boy lost—lost—lost!</span><br /> +Who returns him will be rewarded."<br /> +</div> + +<p>He rang the bell as he cried. The crier's was the first bell +that was rung in Boston.</p> + +<p>But why did boys have this peculiar fever in Boston +and other New England towns at this time? It was largely +owing to the stories that were told them. Few things affect +the imagination of a boy like a story. De Foe's Robinson +Crusoe was the live story of the times. Sindbad the sailor was +not unknown.</p> + +<p>Old sailors used to meet by the Town Pump and spin wonderful +"yarns," as story-telling of the sea was then described.</p> + +<p>But there was one house in Boston that in itself was a +story. It was made of brick, and rose over the town, at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +North End, in the "Faire Green Lane," now decaying Chatham +Street. In it lived Sir William Phips, or Phipps, the first +provincial Governor under the charter which he himself had +brought from England.</p> + +<p>Sir William had been born poor, in Maine, and had made +his great fortune by an adventure on the sea.</p> + +<p>The story of Sindbad the Sailor was hardly more than a +match for his, with its realities.</p> + +<p>He was one of a family of twenty-six children; he had been +taught to read and write when nearly grown up; had come to +Boston as an adventurer, and had found a friend in a comely +and sympathetic widow, who helped to educate him, and to +whom he used to say:</p> + +<p>"All in good time we will come to live in the brick house +in the Faire Green Lane."</p> + +<p>A Boston boy like young Franklin, among the pots and +kettles of life, could not help recalling what this poor sailor +lad had done for himself when he saw the brick house looming +over the bowery lane.</p> + +<p>The candle shop at the Blue Ball, that general place for +story-telling by winter fires, when it was warm there and +the winds were cold outside, often heard this story, and such +stories as the Winthrop Silver Cup, which may still be seen; +of lively Anne Pollard, who was the first to leap on shore +here from the first boat load of pioneers as it came near the +shore at the North End, when the hills were covered with +blueberries; of old "sea dogs" and wonderful ships, like +Sir Francis Drake and the Golden Hynde, or "Sir Francis +and his shipload of gold," which ship returned to England one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +day with chests of gold, but not with Sir Francis, whose body +had been left in many fathoms of sea! Ben listened to these +tales with wonder, with Jenny by his side, leaning on him.</p> + +<p>What was the story of Sir William Phipps, that so haunted +the minds of Boston boys and caused their pulses to beat +and the sea fever to rise?</p> + +<p>It was known in England as well as in America; it was a +wonder tale over the sea, for it was associated with titled +names. Uncle Ben knew it well, and told it picturesquely, +with much moralizing.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose it to be a cold winter's night, when the +winds are abroad and the clouds fly over the moon. Josiah +Franklin has played his violin, the family have sung "Martyrs"; +the fire is falling down, and "people are going to meetin'," +as a running of sparks among the soot was called, when +such a thing happened in the back of the chimney.</p> + +<p>Little Ben's imagination is hungry, and he asks for the +twice-told tale of Sir William. He would be another Sir William +himself some day.</p> + +<p>By the dying coals Uncle Ben tells the story. What a +story it was! No wonder that it made an inexperienced boy +want to go to sea, and especially such boys as led an uneventful +life in the ropewalk or in the candle shop!</p> + +<p>Uncle Ben first told the incident of Sir William's promise +to the widow who took him to her home when he was poor, +that she should live in the brick house; and then he pictured +the young sailor's wonderful voyages to fulfill this promise. +He called the sailor the "Treasure-finder."</p> + +<p>Let us snuggle down by the fire on this cold night in Boston<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +town, beside little Ben and Jenny, and listen to the +story.</p> + +<p>Uncle Ben, mayhap, shakes his snuffbox, and says:</p> + +<p>"That boy dreamed dreams in the daytime, but he was an +honest man." Uncle Ben rang these words like a bell in his +story.</p> + +<p>"He was an honest man; but a man in this world must +save or be a slave, and young William's mind went sailing far +away from the New England coast, and a-sailing went he. What +did he find? Wonders! Listen, and I will tell you.</p> + +<p>"William Phips, or Phipps, went to the Spanish Main, +and he began to hear a very marvelous story there. The +sailors loitering in the ports loved to tell the legend of a certain +Spanish treasure ship that had gone down in a storm, +and they imagined themselves finding it and becoming rich. +The legend seized upon the fancy of William the sailor and +entered his dreams. It was only a vague fancy at first, but in +the twilight of one burning day a cool island of palms appeared, +and as it faded away a sailor who stood <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'waching'">watching</ins> it +said to him:</p> + +<p>"'There is a sunken reef off this coast somewhere; we +are steering for it, and I have been told that it was on that +reef that the Spanish treasure ship went down. They say that +ship had millions of gold on board. I wonder if anybody will +ever find her?'</p> + +<p>"William, the sailor, started. Why might not he find her?—William +was an honest man.</p> + +<p>"It was early evening at sea. The shadows of night fell on +the Bahama Islands. The sea and the heavens seemed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +mingle. The stars were in the water; the heavens were there. +A stranger on the planet could not have told which was the +sea and which was the sky.</p> + +<p>"The sails were limp. There was a silence around. The +ship seemed to move through some region of space. William +Phipps sat by himself on the deck and dreamed. Many people +dream, but it is of no use to dream unless you <i>do</i>.</p> + +<p>"He seemed to see her again who had been the good angel +of his life; he saw the gabled house in the bowery lane, and +two faces looking out of the same window over Boston town.—William +was honest.</p> + +<p>"He dreamed that he himself was the captain of a ship. +He saw himself in England, in the presence of the king. He +is master of an expedition now, in his sea dream. He finds the +sunken treasure ship. He is made rich by it, and he returns +to Boston and buys the gabled house in the cool green lane +by the sea. An honest man was Sir William. He was not +<i>Sir</i> William then.</p> + +<p>"He returned to Boston with his dream. William stayed +in port for a time, and then prepared for a long voyage; but +before he went away he obtained a promise from the widow +that if she ever married any one it should be himself. There +was nothing wrong in that.</p> + +<p>"The ship owners saw that he had honor, and that they +could trust him. He was advanced in the service, and he +learned how to command a ship.</p> + +<p>"He returned and married the widow, and went forth +again to try to reap the harvest of the sea for her, carrying +with him his dreams.—He was an honest man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span></p> + +<p>"William Phipps, the sailor, heard more and more in regard +to the sunken treasure ship, and he went to England +and applied to the king for ships and men to go in search +of this mine of gold in the sea.</p> + +<p>"Gold was then the royal want, and King James's heart +was made right glad to hear the bold adventurer's story. The +king put at his command ships and men, and young William +Phipps—now Commander Phipps—went to the white reef in +the blue Bahama Sea and searched the long sea wall for treasures +faithfully, but in vain. He was compelled to return to +England as empty-handed as when he went out.</p> + +<p>"He heard of the great admiral, the Duke of Albemarle, +and was introduced to him by William Penn. The duke +heard his story, and furnished him with the means to continue +the search for the golden ship in the coral reef.</p> + +<p>"Ideals change into realities and will is way. Commander +William bethought him of a new plan of gaining the needed +intelligence. Might not some very old person know the place +where the ship was wrecked? The thought was light. He +found an old Indian on a near island who remembered the +wreck, and who said he could pilot him to the very spot where +the ship had gone down.</p> + +<p>"Captain William's heart was light again. With the Indian +on board he drifted to the rippling waters over the +reef.</p> + +<p>"Below was a coral world in a sea as clear as the sky. +Out of it flying-fish leaped, and through it dolphins swam in +pairs, and over it sargasso drifted like cloud shadows.</p> + +<p>"Captain William looked down. Was it over these placid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +waters that the storm had made wreckage many years ago? +Was it here that the exultant Spanish sailors had felt the shock +that turned joy into terror, and sent the ship reeling down, +with the spoils of Indian caciques, or of Incarial temples, or +of Andean treasures?</p> + +<p>"The old Indian pointed to a sunken, ribbed wall in the +clear sea. The hearts of the sailors thrilled as they stood +there under the fiery noonday sky.</p> + +<p>"Down went the divers—down!</p> + +<p>"Up came one presently with the news—'The wreck is +there; we have found it!'</p> + +<p>"'Search!' cried Captain William, with a glad wife and a +gable house in Boston town before his eyes. 'Down!'</p> + +<p>"Another diver came up bringing a bag. It looked like a +salt bag.</p> + +<p>"An officer took an axe and severed the bag. The salt +flew; the sailors threw up their hands with a cry—out of the +bag poured a glittering stream of gold!</p> + +<p>"Captain William reeled. His visions were now taking +solid forms; they had created for him a new world.</p> + +<p>"'Down! down!' he commanded.</p> + +<p>"They broke open a bag which was like a crystal sack. It +was full of treasure, and in its folds was a goblet of gold.</p> + +<p>"They shouted over the treasure and held up the golden cup +to the balmy air. It had doubtless belonged to a Spanish +don.</p> + +<p>"More salt bags of gold! The deck was covered with gold! +It is related that one of the officers of the ship went mad at +the sight. But Captain William did not go mad as he surveyed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +the work of the men in the vanishing twilight. He had +been there in spirit before; he had expected something, and +he was on familiar ground when he had found it. He had +been a prophetic soul.</p> + +<p>"He carried home the treasure to England, and, soul of +honor that he was, he delivered every dollar's worth of it to +the duke. His name filled England; and his honesty was a +national surprise, though why it should have been we can not +say. But didn't I tell you he was an honest man?</p> + +<p>"The duke was made happy, and began to cast about how +to bestow upon him a fitting reward.</p> + +<p>"'What can I do for you?' asked his Highness.</p> + +<p>"I have a wife in Boston town, over the sea. She is +a good woman. Her faith in me made me all I am. She +is the world to me, for she believed in me when no one else +did.'</p> + +<p>"'You are a fortunate man. We will send her the goblet +of gold, and it shall be called the Albemarle Cup.'</p> + +<p>"The imagination of Captain William Phipps must have +kindled and glowed as he received the 'dead don's cup,' which +in itself was a fortune.</p> + +<p>"'And to you, for your honor and honesty, shall be given +an ample fortune, and there shall be bestowed upon you the +honor of knighthood. You shall be able to present to your +good wife, whose faith has been so well bestowed, the Albemarle +Cup, in the name of the Duke of Albemarle and of Sir William +Phipps!'</p> + +<p>"Captain William Phipps returned to Boston a baronet, +with the Albemarle Cup. The widow that he had won was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +Lady Phipps. New England never had a wonder tale like +that.</p> + +<p>"The Albemarle Cup! The fame of it filled Boston town. +There it stood in massive gold, in Lady Phipps's simple parlor, +among humbler decorations. How strange it looked to her as +she saw it! Then must have arisen before her the boy from +the Maine woods, one of twenty-six school-denied children; +the ungainly young sailor with his hot temper and scars; the +dreamer of golden dreams; the captain, the fortune-finder, +the knight. Another link was soon added to this marvelous +chain of events. The house of gables in the green lane was +offered for sale. Sir William purchased it, and the Albemarle +Cup was taken into it, amid furnishings worthy of a knight +and lady.</p> + +<p>"The two looked out of the upper window over Boston +town.—He was an honest man.</p> + +<p>"After this many-time repeated declaration that Sir William +was an honest man," he added: "A man must get a living +somehow—he must get a living somehow; either he must +save or be a slave."</p> + +<p>Little Ben thought that he would like to earn a living in +some such way as that. The brick house in the "Faire Green +Lane" meant much to him after stories like those. He surely +was almost as poor as Sir William was at his age. Could he +turn his own dreams into gold, or into that which is better +than gold?</p> + +<p>"Jenny," he said, "I would like to be able to give a brick +house in the Faire Green Lane to father and mother, and to +you. Maybe I will some day. I will be true to my home!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h3>"HAVE I A CHANCE?"</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Blessed</span> is he who lends good books to young people. +There was such a man in Boston town named Adams, one +hundred and ninety years ago. His influence still lives, for +he lent such books to young Benjamin Franklin.</p> + +<p>The boy was slowly learning what noble minds had done +in the world; how they became immortal by leaving their +thought and works behind them. His constant question was, +What have I the chance or the opportunity to do? What can +I do that will benefit others?</p> + +<p>It was a November evening. The days were short; the +night came on at six o'clock. These were the dark days of the +year.</p> + +<p>"There is to be a candle-light meeting in the South Church, +and I must go," said Uncle Benjamin. "It will be pretty +cold there to-night, Ben; you had better get the foot stove."</p> + +<p>The foot stove was a tin or brass box in a wooden frame +with a handle. It was filled with live coals, and was carried to +the church by a handle, as one would carry a dinner pail.</p> + +<p>Little Benjamin brought the stove out of a cupboard to +the hearth, took out of it a pan, which he filled with hard +coals and replaced it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ben," said Uncle Ben, "you had better go along with us +and carry the stove."</p> + +<p>"I will go, too," said Josiah Franklin. "There is to be a +lecture to-night on the book of Job. I always thought that +that book is the greatest poem in all the world. Job arrived +at a conclusion, and one that will stand. He tells us, since we +can not know the first cause and the end, that we must be always +ignorant of the deepest things of life, but that we must +do just right in everything; and if we do that, everything which +happens to us will be for our best good, and the very best +thing that could happen whether we gain or lose, have or +want. I may be a poor man, with my tallow dips, but I have +always been determined to do just right. It may be that I +will be blessed in my children—who knows? and then men +may say of me, 'There was a man!'"</p> + +<p>"'And he dwelt in the land of Uz'" said Uncle Ben.</p> + +<p>"Wait for me a few minutes while I get ready," said Josiah +Franklin. "I will have to shave."</p> + +<p>The prospect of a lecture in the old South Church on +the philosophical patriarch who dwelt in the land of Uz, +and led his flocks, and saw the planets come and go in +their eternal march, on the open plains or through the +branches of pastoral palms, was a very agreeable one to +little Ben.</p> + +<p>He thought.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Benjamin," he said, "a man who writes a book +like Job leaves his thoughts behind him. He does not die +like other men; his life goes on."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is what some people call an objective life. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +call it a <i>projective</i> life. A man who builds men, or things, for +the use of men, lives in the things he builds. He has immortality +in this world. A man who builds a house leaves +his thought in the form of the house he builds. If he make +a road, he lives in the road; if he invent a useful thing, he +lives in the invention. A man may live in a ship that he has +caused to be constructed, or his mind may see the form of a +church, a hall, or a temple, and he may so build after what he +sees that he makes his thoughts creative, and he lives on in +the things that he creates after he dies. It was so with the +builders of cities, of the Pyramids. So Romulus—if there were +such a man—lives in Rome, and Columbus in the lands that +he discovered. The Pilgrim Fathers will always live in New +England. Those who do things and make things leave behind +them a life outside of themselves. I call such works a man's +projected life."</p> + +<p>Little Ben sat swinging the foot stove.</p> + +<p>"He lives the longest in this world who invents the most +useful things for others," continued Uncle Benjamin. "The +thoughts of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton changed the +world. Those men can never die."</p> + +<p>Little Ben swung the stove in his hand.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he looked up, and we fancy him to have said:</p> + +<p>"Uncle Benjamin, have <i>I</i> a chance?"</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman came into the house, jingling the +door bell as he shut the door.</p> + +<p>"Philosophizing?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Little Ben here is inquiring in regard to his chance of +doing something in the world—of living so as to leave his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +thoughts in creative forms behind. What do you think about +it, Jamie?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know; it is a pretty hard case. Drumsticks +will make a noise, so any man may make himself heard +if he will. Certain it is Ben has no gifts; at least, I have never +discerned any. There are no Attic bees buzzing around +him, none that I have seen, unless there be such things up +in the attic, which would not be likely in a new house like +this."</p> + +<p>Uncle Ben pitied the little boy, whose feelings he saw were +hurt.</p> + +<p>"Jamie, I have read much, and have made some observation, +and life tells me that character, industry, and a determined +purpose will do much for a man that has no special +gifts. The Scriptures do not say that a man of gifts shall +stand before kings, but that the man 'diligent in his business' +shall do so. Ben here can rise with the best of the +world, and if he has thoughts, he can project them. It is +thinking that makes men work. He thinks.—Ben, you can +do anything that any one else of your opportunities has ever +done. There—I hate to see the boy discouraged."</p> + +<p>"The fifteenth child among seventeen children would not +seem likely to have a very broad outlook," said Jamie, "but +it is good to encourage him; it is good to encourage +anybody. He is one of the human family, like all the rest +of us.—Are you going to the lecture? I will go along with +you."</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin was now ready to go, and the party started. +Josiah carried a lantern, and little Benjamin the foot stove<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> +with the coals. As they walked along they met other people +with lanterns and foot stoves.</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin felt hurt at what Jamie had said, so he +proceeded to encourage the boy as they went along.</p> + +<p>"If you could invent a stove that would warm the +whole church, you would have a <i>projected</i> life, for example," +said he.</p> + +<p>"Have I a chance?" asked again the future inventor of +the Franklin stove.</p> + +<p>"Or if you could print something original that might live; +or found a society to study science—something might come +out of that; or could make some scheme for a better government +of the people in these parts; but that would be too great +for you. There I go!"</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin stumbled. Little Ben helped him up.</p> + +<p>They came to the South Church, where many lanterns, +foot stoves, and tallow dips were gathered, and shadowy forms +were moving to and fro.</p> + +<p>Little Ben set down the stove in the pew. The lecture +began. He heard the minister read the sublime passage of the +ancient poem beginning, "Then the Lord answered Job out of +the whirlwind, and said." He heard about the "morning +stars singing together," the "sweet influences of Pleiades," +and the question, "Canst thou bind the sea?"</p> + +<p>The boy asked, "Have I a chance? have I a chance?" +The discouraging words of Jamie the Scotchman hung over +his mind like a cloud.</p> + +<p>The influence of the coals led Josiah Franklin to slumberland +after his hard day's work. Little Ben saw his father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +nod and nod. But Uncle Benjamin was in the Orient with the +minister, having a hard experience for the good of life with +the patriarch Job.</p> + +<p>"Have I a chance?" The boy shed tears. If he had +not gifts, he knew that he had personality, but there was something +stirring within him that led his thoughts to seek the +good of others.</p> + +<p>The nine-o'clock bell rang. The lecture was over.</p> + +<p>"Good—wasn't it?" said Jamie the Scotchman as they +went out of the church and looked down to the harbor glimmering +under the moon and stars, and added:</p> + +<p>"Ben, you will be sure to have one thing to spur you on +to lead that 'projected life' your Uncle Benjamin tells about."</p> + +<p>"What is that, sir?"</p> + +<p>"A hard time, like Job—a mighty hard time."</p> + +<p>"The true way to knowledge," said Uncle Benjamin encouragingly.</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin felt a hand in his great mitten. It was +little Ben's. The confidence touched his heart.</p> + +<p>"Ben, you are as likely to have a projected life as anybody. +A man rises by overcoming his defects. Strength comes in +that way."</p> + +<p>Little Ben went through the jingling door with a heart +now heavy, now light. He set down the lantern, and climbed +up to his bed under the roof.</p> + +<p>He was soon in bed, the question, "Have I a chance?" +still haunting him.</p> + +<p>In summer there would be the sound of the wings of the +swallows or purple swifts in the chimney at night as they became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +displaced from their nests. He would start up to listen +to the whirring wings, then sink into slumber, to awake a +blithe, light-hearted boy again.</p> + +<p>All was silent now. He could not sleep. His fancy was +too wide awake. Was Uncle Benjamin right, or Jamie the +Scotchman? Had he a chance?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h3>"A BOOK THAT INFLUENCED THE CHARACTER OF A MAN +WHO LED HIS AGE."</h3> + + +<p>"<span class="smcap">You</span> must read good books," said Benjamin Franklin's +godfather. "How sorry I am that I had to sell my pamphlets!"</p> + +<p>Books have stamped their character on young men at the +susceptible age and the turning points of life. But their influence +for good or evil comes to receptive characters. "He +is a genius," says Emerson, "who gives me back my own +thoughts." The gospel says, "He that hath ears to hear, let +him hear."</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln would walk twenty miles to borrow a +law book, and would sit down on a log by the wayside to study +it on his return from such a journey. Horace Greeley says +that when he was a boy he would go reading to a woodpile. +"I would take a pine knot," he said, "put it on the back log, +pile my books around me, and lie down and read all through +the long winter evenings." He read the kind of books for +which his soul hungered. He read to find in books what he +himself wished to be. A true artist sees and hears only what +he wishes to see and hear. An active, earnest, resolute soul +reads only that which helps him fulfill the haunting purpose +of his life. Almost every great man's books that were his companions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +in early years were pictures of what he most wished +to be and to do.</p> + +<p>How many men have had their spiritual life quickened by +a hymn! How many by a single poem! Homer and Ossian +filled the imagination of Napoleon. Plutarch's Lives has +helped form the characters of a thousand heroes, and Emerson +placed Plutarch next to the Bible in the rank of beneficent influences. +We would say to every boy, Read Plutarch; read the +best books first.</p> + +<p>A few books well read would be an education. Let a boy +read the Bible, Josephus, Plutarch's Lives, Rawlinson's, Hallam's +Macaulay's, Bancroft's, and Prescott's histories, Shakespeare, +Tennyson, and Longfellow, and he would have a basis +of knowledge of such substantial worth and moral and literary +standard as to cause his intelligence to be respected everywhere +and to become a power. Yet all these books could +be purchased for twenty-five dollars, and the time that many +waste in unprofitable reading for three years would be sufficient +to master them.</p> + +<p>"I am a part of all that I have met," says Tennyson, and +a man becomes a part of all the books that color his mind and +character. Ask a company of people what books they most +sought in childhood, and you may have a mental photograph +of each.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin says that his opinions and character +were so greatly influenced by his reading Cotton Mather's +Essays to do Good, that he owed to that book his rise in life. +A boy, he says, should read that book with pen and note-book +in hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span></p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin declared that it was in this book that +he found the statements of the purposes in life that met his +own views. "To do good," he said, was the true aim of existence, +and the resolution became fixed in his soul to seek to +make his life as beneficent as possible to all men. How to help +somebody and to improve something became the dreams of +his days and nights. "A high aim is curative," says Emerson. +Franklin had some evil tendencies of nature and habit, but +his purpose to live for the welfare of everybody and everything +overcame them all in the end, and made him honestly +confess his faults and try to make amends for his lapses. To +do good was an impelling purpose that led him to the building +of the little wharf, where boys might have firm footing +whence to sail their boats, and it continued through many +wiser experiences up to the magic bottle, in which was stored +the revelation of that agent of the earth and skies that would +prove the most beneficent of all new discoveries.</p> + +<p>The book confirmed all that Uncle Benjamin had said. +In it he saw what he should struggle to be: he put his resolution +into this vision, and so took the first step on the ladder of +life which was to give him a large view of human affairs.</p> + +<p>He turned from the candle molds to Cotton Mather's strong +pages, which few boys would care to read now, and from +them, a little later, to Addison, and from both to talk with +Jenny about what he would like to do and to become, and, +like William Phips to the widow, he promised Jenny that +they, too, should one day live in some "Faire Green Lane in +Boston town." He would be true to his home—he and Jenny.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h3>BENJAMIN LOOKS FOR A PLACE WHEREIN TO START IN LIFE.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Besides</span> his instruction from encouraging Mr. Brownell +and his Uncle Benjamin, little Benjamin Franklin had spent +one year at school and several years of self-instruction under +helps. His father needed him in the candle shop, and he could +not give him a larger education with so many mouths to feed.</p> + +<p>Young Ben did not like his occupation in the candle shop. +He worked with his hands while his heart was absent, and his +imagination was even farther away.</p> + +<p>He had a brother John who had helped his father when +a boy, who married and moved to Rhode Island to follow there +his father's trade as a candle and soap maker. John's removal +doubled the usefulness of little Ben among the candle molds +and soap kettles. He saw how this kind of work would increase +as he grew older; he longed for a different occupation, +something that would satisfy his mental faculties and give +him intellectual opportunities, and his dreams went sailing to +the seas and lands where his brother Josiah had been. There +were palms in his fancy, gayly plumed birds, tropical waters, +and a free life under vertical suns—India, the Spanish Main, +the ports of the Mediterranean. He talked so much of going<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +to sea that his father saw that his shop was not the place for +this large-brained boy with an inventive faculty.</p> + +<p>"Ben," said Josiah Franklin one day, "this is no place for +you—you are not balanced like other boys; your head is +canted the <i>other</i> way. You'll be running off to sea some day, +just as Josiah did. Come, let us go out into the town, and I +will try to find another place for you. You will have to become +an apprentice boy."</p> + +<p>"Anything, father, but this dull work. I seem here to +be giving all my time to nothing. Soap and candles are good +and useful things, but people can make them who can do +nothing else. I want a place that will give me a chance to +work with my head. What is my head for?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Ben; it will take time to answer that. +You do seem to have good faculties, if you <i>are</i> my son. I +would be glad to have you do the very best that you are capable +of doing, and Heaven knows that I would give you an +education if I were able. Come, let us go."</p> + +<p>They went out into the streets of Boston town. The +place then contained something more than two thousand +houses, most of them built of timber and covered with cedar +shingles; a few of them were stately edifices of brick and tiles. +It had seven churches, and they were near the sign of the +Blue Ball: King's Chapel, Brattle Street, the Old Quaker, the +New North, the New South, the New Brick, and Christ +Church. There was a free writing school on Cornhill, a school +at the South End, and another writing school on Love Lane. +Ben Franklin could not enter these simple school doors for +the want of means. To gain the Franklin Medal, provided<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +by legacy of Benjamin Franklin, is now the high ambition of +every Boston Latin schoolboy. There were fortifications on +Fort Hill and a powder house on the Common. There were +inns, taverns, and ordinaries everywhere. Boston was a town +of inns with queer names; Long Wharf was the seaway to the +ships. Chatham Street now was then a fair green lane; Salem +Street was a place of property people or people of "quality."</p> + +<p>In King's Chapel was a state pew for the royal Governors. +On the pulpit stood an hourglass in a frame of brass. The +pillars were hung with escutcheons of the king.</p> + +<p>Ben may have passed the old Latin School which at first +was established at a place just east of King's Chapel. If so, +he must have wished to be entered there as a pupil again. The +school has distributed his medals now for several generations. +He may have passed the old inns like the Blue Anchor Tavern, +or the Royal Exchange, or the fire of 1711 may have wiped +out some of these old historic buildings, and new ones to take +their places may have been rising or have been but recently +completed. The old Corner Bookstore was there, for it was +built directly after the fire of 1711. It is the oldest brick +building now standing in the city, and one of the few on which +little Ben's eyes could have rested. A new town arose after +the fire.</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin and little Ben visited the workshops of +carpenters, turners, glaziers, and others, but, although they had +a good time together in the study, the kind father could not +find a place that suited his son. Ben did not like to be apprenticed +to any of the tradesmen that he met.</p> + +<p>He had a brother James, of a bright mind but of no very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +amiable disposition, who was a printer. He had been to London +to improve his trade, and on his return he became the one +printer in the town.</p> + +<p>One evening, between the violin and the Bible, Josiah +Franklin suddenly said:</p> + +<p>"Ben, you look here!"</p> + +<p>"What, father?" asked the boy, starting.</p> + +<p>"It all comes to me what you ought to do. You should +become a printer."</p> + +<p>"That I would like, father."</p> + +<p>"Then the way is clear—let me apprentice you to James."</p> + +<p>"Would he have me, father? We do not always get on +well together. I want to learn the printer's trade; that would +help me on to an education."</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin was now a happier man. Ben would +have no more desire to go to sea. If he could become anything +out of the ordinary, the printer's trade would be the +open way.</p> + +<p>He went to his son James and presented the matter. As +a result, they drew up an indenture.</p> + +<p>This indenture, which may be found in Franklin's principal +biographies, was a very queer document, but follows the +usual form of the times of George I. It was severe—a form +by which a lad was practically sold into slavery, and yet it +contained the demands that develop right conduct in life. Ben +was not constituted to be an apprentice boy under these sharp +conditions even to his own brother. But all began well. His +mother, who worried lest he should follow the example of his +brother Josiah, now had heart content. His father secured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +an apprentice, and probably had drawn up for him a like form +of indenture.</p> + +<p>Benjamin, too, was happy now. He saw that his new way +of life led to somewhere—where? He would do his best to +make it lead to the best in life. He started with a high resolve, +which we are sorry he did not always fulfill in the letter, +though the spirit of it never was lost.</p> + +<p>His successor in the tallow shop does not seem to have +been more happy than he. His name was Tinsley. There +appeared in the New England Courant of 1722 the following +queer advertisement, which we copy because it affords a picture +of the times:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Ran away from his Master, Mr. Josiah Franklin, of Boston, +Tallow-Chandler, on the first of this instant July, an Irish +Man-servant, named William Tinsley, about 20 Years of Age, +of a middle Stature, black Hair, lately cut off, somewhat fresh-coloured +Countenance, a large lower Lip, of a mean Aspect, +large Legs, and heavy in his Going. He had on, when he went +away, a felt Hat, a white knit Cap, striped with red and blue, +white Shirt, and neck-cloth, a brown coloured Jacket, almost +new, a frieze Coat, of a dark Colour, grey yarn Stockings, +leather Breeches, trimmed with black, and round to'd Shoes. +Whoever shall apprehend the said runaway Servant, and him +safely convey to his above said Master, at the blue Ball, in +Union street, Boston, shall have forty Shillings Reward, and +all necessary Charges paid.</p></div> + +<p>As this advertisement was continued for three successive +weeks, we are at liberty to conclude that William Tinsley was +not "apprehended."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>Let the reader be glad that he did not live in those days. +The best of all ages is now.</p> + +<p>"And so you have begun life as a printer?" said Uncle +Benjamin. "A printer's trade is one after my own heart. +It develops thought. If I could have only kept my pamphlets +until now, you would have printed the notes that I made. One +of them says that what people want is not favors or patronage +of any kind, but <i>justice</i>. Remember that, Ben. What the +world wants is justice. You may become a printer in your +own right some day."</p> + +<p>"I want to become one, uncle. That is just what is in my +heart. I can see success in my mind."</p> + +<p>"But you can do it if you will. Everything goes down +before 'I will!' The Alps fell before Hannibal. Have a deaf +ear, Ben, toward all who say 'You <i>can't!</i>' Such men don't +count with those in the march; they are stragglers. Don't +you be laughed down by anybody. Hold your head high; +there is just as much royal blood in your veins as there is in +any king on earth. There is no royal blood but that which +springs from true worth. I put that down in my documents +years ago.</p> + +<p>"Life is too short to stop to quarrel with any one by the +way. If a man calls you a fool, you need not come out under +your own signature and deny it. Your life should do that. +I am quoting from my pamphlets again.</p> + +<p>"If you meet old Mr. Calamity in your way, the kind of +man who tells you that you have no ground of expectation, +and that everything in the world is going to ruin, just whistle, +and luck will come to you, my boy. I only wish that I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +my documents—my pamphlets, I mean. I would have left them +to you in my will. In the present state of society one must +save or be a slave—that also I wrote down in my documents. +It is a pity that it is so, but it is. Save what you +can while you are young, and it will give your mind leisure +to work when you are older. <i>That</i> was in my pamphlets. +I hope that I may live to see you the best printer in the +colonies."</p> + +<p>The boy absorbed the spirit of these proverbial sayings. +They were to his liking and bent of mind. But there came +into his young face a shadow.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ben, I know what you say is true. I have listened +to you; now I would like you to hear me. You saw the boys +going to the Latin School this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ben."</p> + +<p>"I can not go there."</p> + +<p>"O Ben! that is hard," said Jenny, who was by his side.</p> + +<p>"But you can go to school, Ben," said Uncle Benjamin.</p> + +<p>"Where, uncle?"</p> + +<p>"To life—and graduate there as well as any of them."</p> + +<p>"I would like to study Latin."</p> + +<p>"Well, what is to hinder you, Ben? One only needs to +learn the alphabet to learn all that can be known through +books. You know <i>that</i> now."</p> + +<p>"I would like to learn French. Other boys can; I can +not."</p> + +<p>"The time will come when you can. The gates open before +a purpose. You can study French later in life, and, it may be, +make as good use of French as any of them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why can not I do as other boys?"</p> + +<p>"You can, Ben. You can so live that the Boston Latin +School to which you can not go now will honor you some +day."</p> + +<p>"I would be sorry to see another boy feel as I have felt +when I have seen the boys going to that school with happy +faces to learn the things that I want to know. But father +has done the best that he can for me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ben, he has, and you only need to do the best that +you can for yourself to graduate at the head of all in the school +of life. I know how to feel for you, Ben. I have stood in +shoes like yours many times. When you have done as I have +told you, then think of me. The world may soon forget +me. I want you so to live that it will not as soon forget +you."</p> + +<p>The cloud passed from the boy's face. Hope came to him, +and he was merry again. He locked Jenny in his arms, whirled +her around, and said:</p> + +<p>"I am glad to hear the bells ring for other boys, even if I +must go to my trade."</p> + +<p>"I like the spirit of what you say," said Uncle Benjamin. +"You have the blood of Peter Folger and of your Great-uncle +Tom in your veins. Peter gave his heart to the needs of the +Indians, and to toleration; your Great-uncle Tom started the +subscription for the bells of Nottingham, and became a magistrate, +and a just one. You may not be able to answer +the bell of the Latin School, but if you are only true to the +best that is in you, little Ben, you may make bells ring for +joy. I can hear them now in my mind's ear. Don't laugh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +at your old uncle; you can do it, little Ben—can't he +Jenny?"</p> + +<p>"He just can—I can help him. Ben can do anything—he +may make the Latin School bell ring for others yet—like +Uncle Tom. He is the boy to do it, and I am the sister to +help him to do it—ain't I, Uncle Benjamin?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h3>LITTLE BEN'S ADVENTURES AS A POET.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">That</span> was a charmed life that little Ben Franklin led in +the early days of his apprenticeship. He always thought of provincial +Boston as his "beloved city." When he grew old, the +Boston of his boyhood was to him a delightful dream.</p> + +<p>He and his father were on excellent terms with each other. +His father, though a very grave, pious man, whose delight +was to go to the Old South Church with his large family, +allowed little Ben to crack his jokes on him.</p> + +<p>He was accustomed to say long graces at meals, at which +the food was not overmuch, and the hungry children many. +One day, after he had salted down a large quantity of meat in +a barrel, he was surprised to hear Ben ask:</p> + +<p>"Father, why don't you say grace over it now?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Ben?"</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't it be saving of time to say grace now over the +whole barrel of provisions, and then you could omit it at +meals?"</p> + +<p>But the strong member of the Old South Church had no +such ideas of religious economy as revealed his son's mathematical +mind.</p> + +<p>The Franklin family must have presented a lively appearance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +at church in old Dr. Joseph Sewell's day. They heard +some sound preaching there, and Dr. Sewell lived as he preached. +He was offered the presidency of Harvard College, but honors +were as bubbles to him, and he refused it for a position of less +money and fame, but of more direct spiritual influence, and +better in accord with the modest views of his ability. He began +to preach in the Old South Church when Ben was seven years +of age; he preached a sermon there on his eightieth birthday.</p> + +<p>These were fine old times in Boston town. Some linen spinners +came over from Londonderry, in Ireland, and they established +a spinning school. They also brought with them the +potato, which soon became a great luxury.</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin probably pastured his cows on the Common, +and little Ben may often have sat down under the old elm +by the frog pond and looked over the Charles River marshes, +which were then where the Public Garden now is.</p> + +<p>But the delight of the boy's life was still Uncle Benjamin, +the poet. The two read and roamed together. Now Ben had +a poetic vein in him, a small one probably inherited from his +grandfather Folger, and it began to be active at this time.</p> + +<p>There were terrible stories of pirates in the air. They +kindled the boy's lively imagination; they represented the +large subject of retributive justice, and he resolved to devote his +poetic sense to one of these alarming characters.</p> + +<p>There was a dreadful pirate by the name of Edward Teach, +but commonly called "Blackbeard." He was born in Bristol, +England. He became the terror of the Atlantic coast, and had +many adventures off the Carolinas. He was at length captured +and executed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span></p> + +<p>One day little Ben came to his brother James with a paper.</p> + +<p>"James, I have been writing something, and I have come +to read it to you."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Poetry."</p> + +<p>"Like Uncle Ben's?"</p> + +<p>"No; it is on Blackbeard."</p> + +<p>James thought that a very interesting subject, and prepared +to listen to his poet brother.</p> + +<p>Little Ben unfolded the paper and began to read his lines, +which were indeed heroic.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Come, all you jolly sailors,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">You all so stout and brave!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>"Good!" said James. "That starts off fine."</p> + +<p>Ben continued:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Come, hearken and I'll tell you<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">What happened on the wave."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>"Better yet—I like that. Why, Uncle Ben could not excel +that. What next?"</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Oh, 'tis of that bloody Blackbeard<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">I'm going now to tell,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And as how, by gallant Maynard,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">He soon was sent to <i>hell</i>,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With a down, down, down, derry down!"</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>James lifted his hands at this refrain after the old English +ballad style.</p> + +<p>"Ben, I'll tell you what we'll do. I'll print the verses for +you, and you shall sell them on the street."</p> + +<p>The poet Arion at his coronation at Corinth could not have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +felt prouder than little Ben at that hour. He would be both a +poet and bookseller, and his brother would be his publisher.</p> + +<p>He may have cried on Boston street:</p> + +<p>"Blackboard—broadside!" or something like that. It +would have been honorable advertising.</p> + +<p>His success as a poet was instantaneous. His poem sold +well. Compliments fell upon him like a sun shower. He wrote +another poem of like value, and it sold "prodigiously." He +thought indeed he was a great poet, and had started out on +Shakespeare's primrose way to fame and glory. Alas! how +many under like circumstances have been deceived. He lived +to call his ballads "wretched stuff." How many who thought +they were poets have lived to take the same view of their +work!</p> + +<p>His second poem was called the Light-House Tragedy. It +related to a recent event, and set the whole town to talking, +and the admiration for the young poet was doubled.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the great sale of his poems by himself, and +of all the flatteries of the town, he went for approval to his +father. The result was unexpected; the rain of sunshine +changed into a winter storm indeed.</p> + +<p>"Father, you have heard that I have become a poet?"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Josiah, in his paper cap and leather +breeches. "Like your Uncle Ben, my boy, and he amounted +to nothing at all as a poet. A poet—my stars!"</p> + +<p>"I thought that you looked upon Uncle Ben as the best +man in all the world. The people love him. When he enters +the Old South Church there is silence."</p> + +<p>"That is all very true, my boy, but he lives between the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +heavens and the earth, and can not get up to the one or down +to the other. Poets are beggars, in some way or other. They +live in garrets among the mice and bats. Their country is the +imagination, and that is the next door to nowhere. You a +poet! What puckers my face up—<i>so?</i>"</p> + +<p>"But my poetry sells, father," looking into his father's droll +face, his heart sinking.</p> + +<p>"Your poetry! It sells, my boy, because you are a little +shaver and appear to be smart, and also because your rhymes +refer to events in which everybody is interested. But, my son, +your poetry, as you call it, has no merit in itself. It is full of +all kinds of errors. It is style that makes a poem live; yours +has no style."</p> + +<p>"But, father, many people do not think so."</p> + +<p>"But they will. You will think so some day."</p> + +<p>"But isn't there something good in it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, Ben. You never was born to be a poet. You +have the ability to earn a living, same as I have done. Poets +don't have that kind of ability; they beg. There are not many +men who can earn a living by selling their fancies, which is +mostly moonshine."</p> + +<p>This was unsympathetic. Ben looked at the soap kettles +and candle molds and wondered if these things had not blinded +his father's poetic perceptions. There was no Vale of Tempe +here.</p> + +<p>But Josiah Franklin had hard common sense. Little Ben's +dreams of poetic fame came down from the skies at one arrow. +That was a bitter hour.</p> + +<p>"If I can not be a poet," he thought, "I can still be useful,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +and he reverted from heroic ballads to stern old Cotton +Mather's Essays to do Good. The fated poet is always left a like +resource.</p> + +<p>Yet many people who have not become poets, but who +have risen to be eminent men, have had poetic dreams in +early life; they have had the poetic mind. A little poetry in +one's composition is no common gift; it is a stamp of superiority +in some direction. Josiah Franklin was a wise man, but +his views of poetry as such were of a low standard. Poetry +is the highest expression of life, the noblest exercise of the +spiritual faculties.</p> + +<p>So poor little Ben had soared to be laughed at again. But +there was something out of the common stirring in him, and he +would fly again some day. The victories of the vanquished are +the brightest of all.</p> + +<p>Franklin, after having been thus given over to the waste +barrel by his father, now resolved to acquire a strong, correct, +and impressive prose style of writing. He found Addison's +Spectator one of the best of all examples of literary style, and +he began to make it a study. In works of the imagination he +read De Foe and Bunyan.</p> + +<p>This good resolution was his second step up on the ladder +of life.</p> + +<p>Others were contributing to his brother James's paper, +why should not he? But James, after the going out of the +poetic meteor, might not be willing to consider his plain prose.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin has now written an article in plain +prose, which he wishes to appear in his brother's paper. If +it were accepted, he would have to put it into type himself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +and probably to deliver the paper to its patrons. He is sixteen +years old. He has become a vegetarian, and lives by himself, +and seeks pleasure chiefly in books.</p> + +<p>It is night. There are but few lamps in the Boston streets. +With a manuscript hidden in his pocket Benjamin walks slyly +toward the office of James Franklin, Printer, where all is dark +and still. He looks around, tucks his manuscript suddenly under +the office door, turns and runs. Oh, how he does glide away! +Is he a genius or a fool? He wonders what his brother will +say of the manuscript, when he reads it in the morning.</p> + +<p>In the morning he went to his work.</p> + +<p>Some friends of James came into the office.</p> + +<p>"I have found something here this morning," said James, +"that I think is good. It was tucked under the door. It seems +to me uncommonly good. You must read it."</p> + +<p>He handed it to one of his friends.</p> + +<p>"That is the best article I have read for a long time," said +one of the callers. "There is force in it. It goes like a song +that whistles. It carries you. I advise you to use it. Everybody +would read that and like it. I wonder who wrote it? You +should find out. A person who can write like that should never +be idle. He was born to write."</p> + +<p>James handed it to another caller.</p> + +<p>"There are brains in that ink. The piece flows out of life. +Who do you think wrote it?"</p> + +<p>"I have no idea," said James.—"Here, Ben, set it up. +Here's nuts for you. If I knew who wrote it I would ask the +writer to send in other articles."</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography and Charles Dickens's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +novels have had a sale equaled by a few books in the world. +The two authors began their literary life in a like manner, by +tucking their manuscripts under the editor's door at night and +running away. They both came to wonder at themselves at +finding themselves suddenly people of interest. Still, we could +hardly say to the literary candidate, "Fling your article into +the editor's room at night and run," though modesty, silence, +and prudence are commendable in a beginner, and qualities +that win.</p> + +<p>What pen name did Ben Franklin sign to this interesting +article? It was one that implies his purpose in life; you may +read his biography in it—<span class="smcap">Silence Dogood</span>.</p> + +<p>The day after the name of Silence Dogood had attracted the +attention of Boston town, Benjamin said to Jane, his sympathetic +little sister:</p> + +<p>"Jenny, let's go to walk this evening upon Beacon Hill. +I have something to tell you."</p> + +<p>They went out in the early twilight together, up the brow +of the hill which the early settlers seem to have found a blackberry +pasture, to the tree where they had gone with Uncle +Benjamin on the showery, shining midsummer Sunday.</p> + +<p>"Can you repeat what Uncle Benjamin said to us here, +two years ago?" asked Ben.</p> + +<p>"No; it was too long. You repeat it to me again and I +will learn it."</p> + +<p>"He said, 'More than wealth, or fame, or anything, is the +power of the human heart, and that that power is developed in +seeking the good of others.' Jenny, what did father say when +he read the piece by Silence Dogood in the Courant?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He clapped his hand on his leather breeches so that +they rattled; he did, Ben, and he exclaimed, 'That is a good +one!' and he read the piece to mother, and she asked him who +he supposed wrote it, and she shook her head, and he said, 'I +wish that I knew.'"</p> + +<p>"Would you like to know who wrote it, Jenny?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Do you know?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> wrote it. Jenny, you must not tell. I am writing another +piece. James does not know. I tucked the manuscript +under the door. I am going to put another one under the door +at night."</p> + +<p>"O Ben, Ben, you will be a great man yet, and I hope that +I will live to see it. But why did you take the name of <i>Silence +Dogood?</i>"</p> + +<p>"That carries out Uncle Ben's idea. It stands for seeking +the good of others quietly. That name is what I would like +to be."</p> + +<p>"It is what you will be, Ben. Uncle would say that the +Franklin heart is in that name. If you should ever become a +big man, Ben, and I should come to see you when we are old, +I will say, 'Silence Dogood, more than wealth, more than +fame, and more than anything else, is the power of the human +heart.' There, I have quoted it correctly now. Maybe the day +will come. Maybe we will live to be old, and you will write +things that everybody will read, and I will take care of father +and mother while you go out into the world."</p> + +<p>"Wherever I may go, and whatever I may become or fail +to be, my heart will always be true to you, Jenny."</p> + +<p>"And I will do all I can for father and mother; I will be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +your heart to them, so that you may give your time to your +pen. Every one in a family should seek to do for the family +what others lack or are not able to do. You can write; I can +not, but, Ben, I can love."</p> + +<p>She walked about the wild rose bushes, where the red-winged +blackbirds were singing.</p> + +<p>"O Ben," she continued, "I am so glad that you wrote +that piece, and that father liked it so well! I would not have +been more glad had you received a present from a king. Maybe +you will receive a present from a king some day, if you write as +well as that."</p> + +<p>"You will keep the secret, Jenny?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ben, I will look for the paper to-morrow. How glad +Uncle Ben would be if he knew it. Why, Ben, that name, +Silence Dogood, is a piece in itself. It is a picture of your +heart. You are just like Uncle Ben, Silence Dogood."</p> + +<p>The name of Silence Dogood became famous in Boston +town. Jenny obtained Ben's permission to tell Uncle Benjamin +the great secret, and Uncle Benjamin's heart was so delighted +that he went to his room and told the secret "to the +Lord."</p> + +<p>The three hearts were now very, very happy for a time. +Jenny was growing up a beautiful girl, and her thoughts were +much given to her hard-working parents and to laughed-at, +laughing little Ben.</p> + +<p>When Uncle Benjamin had heard of Ben's failure as a poet +and success as Silence Dogood, he took him down to Long +Wharf again.</p> + +<p>"I am an old man," he said. "But here I have a lesson<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +for you. If you are conscious that you have any gift, even in +small degree, never let the world laugh it away. See 'that no +man take thy crown,' the Scripture says. Every one who has +contributed anything to the progress of the world has been +laughed at. Stick a pin in thee, Ben.</p> + +<p>"Now, Ben, you may not have the poet's imagination or art, +but if you have the poetical mind do not be laughed out of an +attempt to express it. You may not become a poet; I do not +think that you ever will. Perhaps you will write proverbs, and +proverbs are a kind of poems. I am going to reprove Brother +Josiah for what he has said. He has given over your education to +me, and it is my duty to develop you after your own gifts.</p> + +<p>"Let us go back to the shop. I want to have a talk with +Josiah; but, before we leave, I have a short word to say to you.</p> + +<p>"Hoi, Ben, hoi!—I don't know what makes me repeat these +words; they are not swear words, Ben, but they come to me +when my feelings are awakened.</p> + +<p>"It is hard, hard for one to see what he wants to be and +to be kept back. I wanted to be a philosopher and a poet. +Don't you laugh, Ben. I did; I wanted to be both, and I was +so poor that I was obliged to write my thoughts on the margin +of the leaves of my pamphlets, which I sold to come to +teach you. Ben, Ben, listen: I can never be a philosopher or a +poet, but you may. Don't laugh, Ben. Don't let any one +laugh you out of your best ideas, Ben. You may. The world +will never read what I wrote. They may read what you will +write, and if you follow my ideas and they are read, you will be +content. Hoi, Ben, hoi!"</p> + +<p>They went to the candle shop.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Josiah, you do wrong to try to suppress Ben's gift at rhyme. +A man without poetry in his soul amounts to no more than a +chopping block. The world just hammers itself on him, and +that is all. You would not make Ben a dunce!"</p> + +<p>"No, brother, no; but a goose is not a nightingale, and the +world will not stop to listen if she mounts a tree and attempts +to sing."</p> + +<p>"No, Brother Josiah, but a goose that would like to sing like +a nightingale would be no common goose; she would find better +pasture than other geese. Small gifts are to be prized. 'A +little diamond is worth a mountain of glass,' as the proverb +says."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you must write poetry, don't publish it until it is +called for."</p> + +<p>"Well, Brother Josiah, your advice will do for me, for I +am an old man; but I must teach Ben never to be laughed +out of any good idea that may come to him. Is not that right, +brother?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Uncle Ben. But you can't make a hen soar to the +skies like an eagle. If you are not a poet, you have a perfect +character, and that is why I leave the training of Ben to +you. If you can make a man of him, the world will be better +for him; and if you can make something else of him besides a +poet out of his poetical gift, I shall be very glad. Your poetry +has not helped you in life, has it, Benjamin?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. You think it is that that has made me a +burden to you."</p> + +<p>Josiah looked his brother in the face.</p> + +<p>"A burden? No, brother. One of the greatest joys of my life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +was to have you come here, and it will be the greatest blessing +to my life if you can make the life of little Ben a blessing +to the world. I am not much of a musician, but I like to sound +the fiddle, and if you have any poetic light, let it shine—but +as a tallow dip, like my fiddling. You are right, brother, in +teaching little Ben never to be laughed down. I don't blame +any one for crying his goods if he has anything to sell. But +if he has not, he had better be content to warm his hands by his +own fire."</p> + +<p>"Brother Josiah, listen to me. Little Ben here has something +to sell.—Hoi, Ben, hoi! you listen.—There have thoughts +come to me that I know did not rise out of the dust. I have +been too poor to publish them. You may laugh at me, and +call me a poor philosopher and say that my philosophy has +kept me poor. But Benjamin here is going to give my +thoughts to the world, and the things that I put into my pamphlets +are going to live. It was not you that gave Ben to me: +it was Heaven. A veil hangs over us in this world, and if a +man does good in his heart, the hand behind that veil moves +all the events of his life for good.</p> + +<p>"Don't laugh at us, Josiah; we are weaving together +thoughts that will feed the world. That we are.—Hoi, Ben, +hoi!"</p> + +<p>"Well, Brother, your faith makes you a happy old man. I +hope that you will be able to make something of Ben, and that +he may do credit to your good name. It may be so. Faith +sees.</p> + +<p>"I love to see you go into the South Church, Brother. As +soon as your face appears all the people look very happy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +and sit still. The children all sit still. The tithingman stands +still; he has nothing to do for a time.</p> + +<p>"It is something, Brother Ben, to be able to cast such an +influence as that—something that money can not buy. I am +sorry if I have hurt your feelings. Heaven be praised for such +men as you are, Brother Ben! I hope that I may live to see +all that you see by faith. I think I may, Brother Ben. 'Men +do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles,' but they do +gather grapes of grapes and figs of figs. I hope that Ben will +be the book of your life, and make up for the pamphlets. It +would be a good book for men to read."</p> + +<p>"Hoi, Ben, hoi!" said the old man, "I can see that it +will."</p> + +<p>One Sunday, after church, in summer, Uncle Ben the poet +and Silence Dogood went down on Long Wharf to enjoy the +breezes from the sea. Uncle Ben was glad to learn more of +the literary successes of Silence Dogood.</p> + +<p>"To fail in poetry is to succeed in prose," said the fine old +man. "But much that we call prose is poetry; rhymes are only +childish jingles. The greatest poetry in the world is written +without rhyme. It is the magic spirit and the magic words that +make true poetry. The book of Job, in my opinion, is the +greatest poetry ever written. Poetry is not made, it exists; and +one who is prepared to receive it catches it as it flows. Ben, +you are going to succeed in prose. You are going to become +a ready writer. Study Addison more and more."</p> + +<p>"Uncle Ben, do you not think that it is the hardest thing +in life for one to be told that he can not do what he most wants +to do?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, Ben, that is the hardest thing in life. It is a cruel +thing to crush any one in his highest hope and expectation."</p> + +<p>"Was Solomon a poet? Are the Proverbs poetry?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. The book of Proverbs is a thousand poems."</p> + +<p>"Then, Uncle Ben, I may be a poet yet. That kind of little +poems come to me."</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!"</p> + +<p>A voice rang out behind them.</p> + +<p>It was Jamie the Scotchman.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ben, it is good to fly high. I infer that you expect +to become a proverb poet, after the manner of Solomon. The +people here will all be quoting you some day. It may be +that you will be quoted in England and France. Ha! ha! ha! +What good times," he added, "you two have together—dreaming! +Well, it costs nothing to dream. There is no toll +demanded of him who travels in the clouds. Move along, young +Solomon, and let me sit down on the sea wall beside you. +When you write a book of proverb poetry I hope I'll be living +to read it. One don't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear—there's +a proverb for you!—nor gather wisdom except by experience—there's +another; and some folks do not get wisdom even +from experience." He looked suspiciously toward Uncle +Ben.</p> + +<p>"Experience keeps a dear school," said Uncle Ben in a +kindly way.</p> + +<p>"And some people can learn of no other," added Silence +Dogood.</p> + +<p>"And some folks not even there," said Jamie the Scotchman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p> + +<p>The loons came semicircling along the sea wall, their necks +aslant, and uttering cries in a mocking tone.</p> + +<p>"Well, I declare, it makes the loons laugh—and no wonder!" +said Jamie the Scotchman. He lighted his pipe, whose +bowl was a piece of corncob, and whiffed away in silence for a +time, holding up one knee in his clasped hands.</p> + +<p>Silence Dogood surveyed his surroundings, which were ship +cargoes.</p> + +<p>"The empty bags do not stand up," he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you infer from that?" asked Jamie.</p> + +<p>Silence Dogood did not answer, but the thought in his +mind was evident. It was simply this: that, come what would +in life, he would not fail. He put his hand on Uncle Benjamin's +shoulder, for who does not long to reach out his hand toward +the fire in the cold, and to touch the form that entemples the +most sympathetic heart? He dreamed there on the sea wall, +where the loons seemed to laugh, and his dreams came true. +Every attainment in life is first a dream.</p> + +<p>Silence Dogood, dream on! Add intelligence to intelligence, +virtue to virtue, benevolence to benevolence, faith to faith, for +so ascends the ladder of life.</p> + +<p>Uncle Benjamin was right. Let no man be laughed out of +ideals that are true, because they do not reach their development +at once.</p> + +<p>Many young people stand in the situation in which we find +young Franklin now. Many older people do in their early +work. England laughed at Boswell, but he came to be held as +the prince of biographers, and his methods as the true manner +of picturing life and making the past live in letters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span></p> + +<p>People with a purpose who have been laughed at are many +in the history of the world. From Romulus and the builders +of the walls of Jerusalem to Columbus, ridicule makes a long +record, and the world does not seem to grow wiser by its mistakes. +Even Edison, in our own day, was ridiculed, when a +youth, for his abstractions, and his efforts were ignored by +scientists.</p> + +<p>Two generations ago a jeering company of people, uttering +comical jests under the cover of their hands, went down to a +place on the banks of the Hudson to see, as they said, "a crazy +man attempt to move a boat by steam." They returned with +large eyes and free lips. <i>That boat moved.</i></p> + +<p>In the early part of the century a young Scotchman named +Carlyle laid before the greatest of English scholars and critics +a manuscript entitled Sartor Resartus. The great critic read +the manuscript and pronounced it "the stupidest stuff that he +ever set eyes on." He laughed at a manuscript that became one +of the literary masterpieces of the century. A like experience +had Milton, when he once said that he would write a poem that +should be the glory of his country.</p> + +<p>A young graduate named Longfellow wrote poems that +came to him amid the woods and fields, and published them +in newspapers and magazines, and gathered them into a book. +The book fell into the hands of one then held to be supreme +as a literary judge—Edgar Allen Poe. It was laughed at in ink +that made the literary world laugh. The poet Longfellow's +bust now holds an ideal place in Westminster Abbey, between +the memorials of Dryden and Chaucer, and at the foot of the +tombs of England's kings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span></p> + +<p>Keats was laughed at; Wordsworth was deemed a fool.</p> + +<p>A number of disdainful doctors met on October 16, 1846, +in the amphitheater of the Massachusetts General Hospital in +Boston, to see a young medical student try to demonstrate +that a patient upon whom a surgical operation was to be performed +could be rendered insensible to pain. The sufferer +was brought into the clear light. The young student touched +his face with an unknown liquid whose strange odor filled the +room. He was in oblivion. The knives cut and the blood +flowed, and he knew it not. Pain was thus banished from the +room of surgery. That young medical student and dentist +was Dr. W. T. G. Morton, whose monument may be seen in +the Boston Public Garden, and in whose honor the semicentennial +of the discovery of anæsthesia has but recently been +celebrated.</p> + +<p>"So, with a few romantic boys and crazy girls you expect +to see the world converted," said a wise New York journal +less than a century ago, as the first missionaries began to sail +away. But the song still arose over the sea—</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"In the desert let me labor,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">On the mountain let me till"—</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>until there came a missionary jubilee, whose anthems were +repeated from land to land until they encircled the earth.</div> + +<p>When Browning first published Sordello, the poem met +with common ridicule. Even Alfred Tennyson is said to have +remarked that "there were but two lines in it that he could +understand, and they were both untrue." The first line of the +poem was, "Who will, <i>may</i> hear Sordello's story told"; and +the last line of the poem was, "Who would, <i>has</i> heard Sordello's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +story told." Yet the poem is ranked now among the +intellectual achievements of the century in the analysis of one +of the deeper problems of life.</p> + +<p>Samuel F. B. Morse was laughed at. McCormick, whose +invention reaps the fields of the world, was ridiculed by the +London Times, "the Thunderer." "If that crazy Wheelwright +calls again, do not admit him," said a British consul to his +servant, of one who wished to make new ports and a new commerce +for South America, and whose plans are about to harness +the Andes with railways. William Wheelwright's memory lives +in grateful statues now.</p> + +<p>Columbus was not only laughed at by the Council of Salamanca, +but was jeered at by the children in the streets, as he +journeyed from town to town holding his orphan boy by the +hand. He wandered in the visions of God and the stars, and +he came to say, after the shouts of homage that greeted him +as the viceroy of isles, "God made me the messenger of the +new heavens and new earth, and told me where to find them!"</p> + +<p>Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, presents a picture +of the unfortunate condition of many lives of whom the world +expected nothing, and for whom it had only the smile of incredulity +when in them the Godlike purpose appeared. He +says:</p> + +<p>"Hannibal had but one eye; Appius Claudius and Timoleon +were blind, as were John, King of Bohemia, and Tiresais the +prophet. Homer was blind; yet who, saith Tully, made more +accurate, lively, or better descriptions with both his eyes! +Democritus was blind, yet, as Laertius writes of him, he saw +more than all Greece besides. . . . Æsop was crooked, Socrates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +purblind, Democritus withered, Seneca lean and harsh, ugly +to behold; yet show me so many flourishing wits, such divine +spirits. Horace, a little, blear-eyed, contemptible fellow, yet +who so sententious and wise? Marcilius Ficinus, Faber Stapulensis, +a couple of dwarfs; Melanchthon, a short, hard-favored +man, yet of incomparable parts of all three; Galba the emperor +was crook-backed; Epictetus, lame; the great Alexander a +little man of stature; Augustus Cæsar, of the same pitch; +Agesilaus, <i>despicabili forma</i>, one of the most deformed princes +that Egypt ever had, was yet, in wisdom and knowledge, far +beyond his predecessors."</p> + +<p>Why do I call your attention to these struggles in this +place in association of an incident of a failure in life that was +ridiculed?</p> + +<p>It has been my lot, in a somewhat active life in the city of +Boston for twenty-five years, to meet every day an inspiring +name that all the world knows, and that stands for what right +resolution, the overcoming of besetting sins in youth, and persevering +energy may accomplish against the ridicule of the +world. There have been many books written having that +name as a title—<span class="smcap">Franklin</span>.</p> + +<p>I have almost daily passed the solemn, pyramidal monument +in the old Granary Burying Ground, between the Tremont +Building and Park Street Church, that bears the names +of the Franklin family, in which the parents have found +eternal honor by the achievements of their son.</p> + +<p>As I pass the Boston City Hall there appears the Franklin +statue.</p> + +<p>As I face the Old South Church and its ancient neighborhood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +I am in the place of the traditions of the birth of Benjamin +Franklin and of his baptism. It may be that I will return +by the way of Franklin Street, or visit the Franklin +School, or go to the Mechanics' Building, where I may see the +primitive printing press at which Franklin worked, and which +was buried in the earth at Newport, Rhode Island, at the time of +the Revolutionary War.</p> + +<p>If I go to the Public Library, I may find there two original +portraits of Franklin and a Franklin gallery, and a picture of +him once owned by Thomas Jefferson.</p> + +<p>If I go to the Memorial Hall at Harvard College, I will there +see another portrait of the philosopher in the grand gallery +of noble men. Or I may go to Boston's wide pleasure ground, +the Franklin Park, by an electric car made possible by the discoveries +of Franklin.</p> + +<p>Nearly all of Franklin's early efforts were laughed at, but +he would not be laughed down. Time is the friend of every +true purpose.</p> + +<p>Boys with a purpose, face the future, do good in silence, and +trust. You will find some Uncle Benjamin and sister Jenny +to hold you by the hand. Be in dead earnest, and face the +future, and forward march! The captains of industry and the +leaders of every achievement say, "Guide right! Turn to the +right, and advance!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h3>LEAVES BOSTON.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">These</span> were fine old times, but they were English times; +English ideas ruled Boston town. There was little liberty of +opinion or of the press in those days. The Franklins belonged +to a few families who hoped to find in the province freedom +of thought. James Franklin was a testy man, but he +breathed free air, and one day in his paper, the Courant, he +published the following simple sentences, the like of which any +one might print anywhere in the civilized world to-day: "If +Almighty God will have Canada subdued without the assistance +of those miserable Savages, in whom we have too much confidence, +we shall be glad that there will be no sacrifices offered +up to the Devil upon the occasion; God alone will have all the +glory."</p> + +<p>What had he done? He had protested against the use of +Indians in the war then being waged against Canada.</p> + +<p>He was arrested on a charge that the article in which this +paragraph appeared, and some like articles, "contained reflections +of a very high nature." He was sentenced to a month's +imprisonment and forbidden to publish the paper. So James +went to jail, and he left the management of the paper to Benjamin.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></p> + +<p>This incident gives us a remarkable view of the times. But +Boston was only following the English law and custom.</p> + +<p>The printing office was now carried on in Benjamin's name. +Little Ben grew and flourished, until his popularity excited the +envy of his brother. One day they quarreled, and James, almost +in the spirit of Cain, struck his bright, enterprising apprentice. +Benjamin had a proud heart. He would not stand +a blow from James without a protest. What was he to do?</p> + +<p>He resolved to leave the office of his brother James forever. +He did so, and tried to secure work elsewhere. His brother's +influence prevented him from doing this. His resentment +against his brother grew more bitter, and blinded him to all +besides. This was conduct unworthy of a young philosopher. +In his resentment he does not seem to have regarded the feelings +of his good father, or the heart of his mother that would +ache and find relief in tears at night, nor even of Jenny, whom +he loved. He took a sloop for New York, and bade good-by +to no one. The sail dipped down the harbor, and the three +hills of Boston faded from his view.</p> + +<p>He was now on the ocean, and out in the world alone. We +are sorry to say that he faced life with such a deep resentment +toward his brother in his heart. He afterward came to regard +his going away in this manner as one of the mistakes of his life +which he would wish to correct. His better heart came back +again, true to his home.</p> + +<p>He was not popular in Boston in his last days there. New +influences had come into his life. He had loved argument and +disputation, and there is a subtile manner of discussion called +the "Socratic method," which he had found in Xenophon,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +in which one confuses an opponent by asking questions and +never making direct assertions himself, but using the subjunctive +mood. It is an art of entanglement. The boy had +delighted in "twisting people all up," and making them contradict +themselves after a perversion of the manner described by +Xenophon in his Life of Socrates.</p> + +<p>As religion and politics formed the principal subjects of +these discussions, and he liked to take the unpopular view in +order to throw his mental antagonist, he had fallen into disfavor, +to which disesteem his brother's charges against him +had added. These things made Jenny's heart ache, but she +never ceased to believe in Ben.</p> + +<p>Few boys ever left the city in provincial times with less +promise of any great future, so far as public opinion is concerned. +But, notwithstanding these errors of judgment, he +still carried with him a purpose of being a benefactor, and his +dream was to help the world. The star of this purpose ever +shone before him in the deserts of his wanderings.</p> + +<p>But how was he to succeed, after thus following his own +personal feeling in matters like these? By correcting his own +errors as soon as he saw them, and never repeating them again. +This he did; he openly acknowledged his faults, and tried to +make amends for them. He who confesses his errors, and +seeks to retrieve them, has a heart and purpose that the public +will love. But it is a higher and nobler life not to fall into +such errors.</p> + +<p>This was about the year 1723. A curious incident happened +on the voyage to New York. Young Franklin had become +a vegetarian—that is, he had been convinced that it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +wrong to kill animals for food, and wrong to eat flesh of any +kind.</p> + +<p>The ship became becalmed, and the sailors betook themselves +to fishing. Franklin loved to argue still, notwithstanding +his unhappy experiences.</p> + +<p>"Fishing is murder," said he. "Why should these inhabitants +of the sea be deprived of their lives and opportunities of +enjoyment? They have never done any one harm, and they +live the lives for which Nature made them. They have the +same right to liberty that they have to life."</p> + +<p>This indicated a true heart. But when the steward began +to cook the fish that the sailors had caught, the frying of them +did have a savory smell.</p> + +<p>Young Franklin now began to be tempted from theory by +appetite. How could he get over his principles and share the +meal with the sailors? The cook seized a large fish to prepare +it for the frying-pan. As he cut off its head and opened him +he found in him a little fish.</p> + +<p>"So you eat fish," said Franklin, addressing the prize; +"then why may I not eat <i>you?</i>" He did so, and from this time +left off his vegetarian habits, which habits, like his aspiration to +be a poet, did credit to his heart.</p> + +<p>His argument in this case had no force. The fish had not +a moral nature, and because an animal or reptile without such +a nature should eat other animals or reptiles would furnish no +reason why a being governed by laws outside of himself should +do the same.</p> + +<p>October found him in New York, a Dutch town of less than +ten thousand inhabitants. He was about eighteen years of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +age. New York then had little in common with the city of +to-day. Its streets were marked by gable ends and cobble +stones. Franklin applied for work to a printer there, and the +latter commended him to go to Philadelphia. He followed the +advice, going by sea, friendless and forlorn, with only a few +shillings in his pocket.</p> + +<p>He helped row the boat across the Delaware. He offered +the boatman his fare.</p> + +<p>"No," said the boatman, "I ought to take nothing; you +helped row."</p> + +<p>Franklin had just one silver dollar and a shilling in copper +coin. He insisted that the ferryman should take the coin. He +said of this liberal sense of honor afterward that one is "sometimes +more generous when he has little money than when he +has plenty."</p> + +<p>Philadelphia, the city of Penn, now rose before him, +and he entered it a friendless lad, whom none knew and few +could have noticed. Would any one then have dreamed that +he would one day become the governor of the province?</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin had now found the world indeed, and +his brother James had lost the greatest apprentice that the +world ever had. Both were blind. Each had needed that early +training that develops the spiritual powers, and makes it a delight +to say "No" to all the lower passions of human nature.</p> + +<p>Josiah and Abiah Franklin had had great hopes of little +Ben. The boy had a large brain and a tender heart. From +their point of view they had trained him well. They had sent +him to the Old South Church and had made him the subject +of their daily prayers. In fact, these good people had done their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +best to make him a "steady boy," according to their light. The +education of the inner life was like a sealed book to them. But +they were yet people upon whom a larger light was breaking. +The poor old soap and candle maker went on with his business +at the Blue Ball with a heavy heart.</p> + +<p>"Gone, gone," said Jamie the Scotchman. "He'll find proverbs +enough on his way of life. This is a hard world, but he +has a heart to return to the right. I pity good Abiah Franklin, +but we often have to trust where we can not see."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h3>LAUGHED AT AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin's</span> first day in Philadelphia is well known to the +world. He has related it in Addisonian English, and it has +been read almost as widely as the adventures of Robinson Crusoe +or Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.</p> + +<p>We must give a part of the narrative here in his own language, +for a merry girl is about to laugh at the Boston boy as +she sees him pass, and he will cause this lovely girl to laugh +with him many times in his rising career and in different +spirit from that on the occasion when she first beheld him, the +awkward and comical-looking boy wandering he knew not +where on the street.</p> + +<p>Let us follow him through his own narrative until he meets +the eyes of Deborah Read, a fair lass of eighteen.</p> + +<p>On his arrival at Philadelphia, he tells us, he was in his +working dress; his best clothes were to come by sea. He was +covered with dirt; his pockets were filled with shirts and stockings. +He was unacquainted with a single soul in the place, and +knew not where to seek for a lodging. Fatigued with walking, +rowing, and having passed the night without sleep, he was extremely +hungry, and all his money consisted of a Dutch dollar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +and about a shilling's worth of coppers, which latter he gave +to the boatman for his passage.</p> + +<p>He walked toward the top of the street, looking eagerly on +both sides, till he came to Market Street, where he met with +a child with a loaf of bread. Often he had made his dinner +on dry bread. He inquired of the child where he had bought +the bread, and went straight to the baker's shop which the latter +pointed out to him. He asked for some biscuits, expecting +to find such as they had in Boston; but they made, it seems, +none of that sort in Philadelphia. He then asked for a threepenny +loaf. They made no loaves of that price. Finding himself +ignorant of the prices as well as of the different kinds of +bread, he desired the baker to let him have threepenny worth +of bread of some kind or other. The baker gave him +three large rolls. He was surprised at receiving so much; he +took them, however, and having no room in his pockets, he +walked on with a roll under each arm, eating the third. In +this manner he went through Market Street to Fourth Street, +and passed the house of Mr. Read, the father of his future wife. +The girl was standing at the door, observed him, and thought +with reason that he made a very singular and grotesque appearance, +and laughed merrily. We repeat the many-times-told tale +in nearly his own words.</p> + +<p>So here we find our young adventurer laughed at again. +We can fancy the young girl standing on her father's doorsteps +on that mellow autumn day. There comes up the street a lad +with two rolls of bread under his arm, and eating a third roll, +his pockets full of the simpler necessities of clothing, which must +have made him look like a ragman; everything about him was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +queer and seemingly wrong. She may have seen that he was +just from the boat, and a traveler, but when did ever a traveler +look so entirely out of his senses as this one did?</p> + +<p>Never mind, Ben Franklin. You will one day stand in +Versailles in the velvet robes of state, and the French king will +give you his portrait framed in four hundred and eight diamonds.</p> + +<p>"I then turned the corner," he continues, "and went +through Chestnut Street, eating my roll all the way; and having +made this round, I found myself again on Market Street Wharf, +near the boat in which I arrived. I stepped into it to take a +draught of river water, and finding myself satisfied with my +first roll, I gave the other two to a woman and her child who +had come down the river with us in the boat and was waiting +to continue her journey. Thus refreshed, I regained the +street, which was now full of well-dressed people, all going the +same way. I joined them, and was thus led to a large Quakers' +meeting-house near the market-place. I sat down with the +rest, and, after looking round me for some time, hearing nothing +said, and being drowsy from my last night's labor and want +of rest, I fell into a sound sleep. In this state I continued +till the assembly dispersed, when one of the congregation had +the goodness to wake me. This was consequently the first +house I entered or in which I slept at Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>"I began again to walk along the streets by the riverside, and, +looking attentively in the face of every one I met with, I at +length perceived a young Quaker whose countenance pleased +me. I accosted him, and begged him to inform me where a +stranger might find a lodging. We were then near the sign of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +the Three Mariners. 'They receive travelers here,' said he, +'but it is not a house that bears a good character. If you will +go with me I will show you a better one.' He conducted me to +the Crooked Billet, in Water Street. There I ordered something +for dinner, and during my meal a number of curious +questions were put to me, my youth and appearance exciting +the suspicion of my being a young runaway. After dinner +my drowsiness returned, and I threw myself upon a bed without +taking off my clothes, and slept till six o'clock in the +evening, when I was called to supper. I afterward went to +bed at a very early hour, and did not awake till the next +morning.</p> + +<p>"As soon as I got up I put myself in as decent a trim as I +could, and went to the house of Andrew Bradford, the printer. +I found his father in the shop, whom I had seen at New York. +Having traveled on horseback, he had arrived at Philadelphia +before me. He introduced me to his son, who received me +with civility and gave me some breakfast, but told me he had +no occasion at present for a journeyman, having lately procured +one. He added that there was another printer newly +settled in the town, of the name of Keimer, who might perhaps +employ me, and that in case of refusal I should be welcome +to lodge at his house. He would give me a little work now +and then till something better should be found.</p> + +<p>"The old man offered to introduce me to the new printer. +When we were at his house, 'Neighbor,' said he, 'I bring you +a young man in the printing business; perhaps you may have +need of his services.'</p> + +<p>"Keimer asked me some questions, put a composing stick<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +in my hand to see how I could work, and then said that at +present he had nothing for me to do, but that he should soon +be able to employ me. At the same time taking old Bradford +for an inhabitant of the town well disposed toward him, +he communicated his project to him and the prospect he had of +success. Bradford was careful not to discover that he was the +father of the other printer; and from what Keimer had said, +that he hoped shortly to be in possession of the greater part +of the business of the town, led him, by artful questions and +by starting some difficulties, to disclose all his views, what his +hopes were founded upon, and how he intended to proceed. I +was present and heard it all. I instantly saw that one of the +two was a cunning old fox and the other a perfect novice. +Bradford left me with Keimer, who was strangely surprised +when I informed him who the old man was.</p> + +<p>"I found Keimer's printing materials to consist of an old, +damaged press and a small font of worn-out English letters, +with which he himself was at work upon an elegy upon +Aquilla Rose, an ingenious young man and of excellent +character, highly esteemed in the town, Secretary to the +Assembly and a very tolerable poet. Keimer also made +verses, but they were indifferent ones. He could not be +said to write in verse, for his method was to set the lines as they +followed from his muse; and as he worked without copy, had +but one set of letter cases, and as the elegy would occupy all his +types, it was impossible for any one to assist him. I <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'endeavered'">endeavored</ins> +to put his press in order, which he had not yet used, and +of which indeed he understood nothing; and, having promised +to come and work off his elegy as soon as it should be ready,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> +I returned to the house of Bradford, who gave me some +trifles to do for the present, for which I had my board and +lodging.</p> + +<p>"In a few days Keimer sent for me to print off his elegy. +He had now procured another set of letter cases, and had a +pamphlet to reprint, upon which he set me to work.</p> + +<p>"The two Philadelphia printers appeared destitute of every +qualification necessary in their profession. Bradford had not +been brought up to it, and was very illiterate. Keimer, though +he understood a little of the business, was merely a compositor, +and wholly incapable of working at press. He had been one of +the French prophets, and knew how to imitate their supernatural +agitations. At the time of our first acquaintance he +professed no particular religion, but a little of all upon occasion. +He was totally ignorant of the world, and a great knave at +heart, as I had afterward an opportunity of experiencing.</p> + +<p>"Keimer could not endure that, working with him, I +should lodge at Bradford's. He had indeed a house, but it +was unfurnished, so that he could not take me in. He procured +me a lodging at Mr. Read's, his landlord, whom I have +already mentioned. My trunk and effects being now arrived, +I thought of making, in the eyes of Miss Read, a more respectable +appearance than when chance exhibited me to her +view, eating my roll and wandering in the streets.</p> + +<p>"From this period I began to contract acquaintance with +such young people as were fond of reading, and spent my evenings +with them agreeably, while at the same time I gained +money by my industry, and, thanks to my frugality, lived contentedly. +I thus forgot Boston as much as possible, and wished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +every one to be ignorant of the place of my residence, except +my friend Collins, to whom I wrote, and who kept my +secret.</p> + +<p>"An accident, however, happened which sent me home much +sooner than I proposed. I had a brother-in-law, of the name +of Robert Holmes, master of a trading sloop from Boston to +Delaware. Being at Newcastle, forty miles below Philadelphia, +he heard of me, and wrote to inform me of the chagrin +which my sudden departure from Boston had occasioned my +parents, and of the affection which they still entertained for +me, assuring me that, if I would return, everything should be +adjusted to my satisfaction; and he was very pressing in his +entreaties. I answered his letter, thanked him for his advice, +and explained the reasons which had induced me to quit Boston +with such force and clearness that he was convinced I had +been less to blame than he had imagined.</p> + +<p>"Sir William Keith, Governor of the province, was at Newcastle +at the time. Captain Holmes, being by chance in his +company when he received my letter, took occasion to speak +of me and showed it to him. The Governor read it, and appeared +surprised when he learned of my age. He thought me, +he said, a young man of very promising talents, and that of +consequence I ought to be encouraged; that there were at Philadelphia +none but very ignorant printers, and that if I were to +set up for myself he had no doubt of my success; that, for his +own part, he would procure me all the public business, and +would render me every other service in his power. My +brother-in-law related all this to me afterward at Boston, but I +knew nothing of it at the time. When, one day, Keimer and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +being at work together near the window, we saw the Governor +and another gentleman, Colonel French, of Newcastle, handsomely +dressed, cross the street and make directly for our house. +We heard them at the door, and Keimer, believing it to be a visit +to himself, went immediately down; but the Governor inquired +for me, came upstairs, and, with a condescension and politeness +to which I had not at all been accustomed, paid me many +compliments, desired to be acquainted with me, obligingly reproached +me for not having made myself known to him on my +arrival in the town, and wished me to accompany him to a tavern, +where he and Colonel French were going to have some excellent +Madeira wine.</p> + +<p>"I was, I confess, somewhat surprised, and Keimer appeared +thunderstruck. I went, however, with the Governor and the +colonel to a tavern at the corner of Third Street, where he proposed +to me to establish a printing house. He set forth the +probabilities of success, and himself and Colonel French assured +me that I should have their protection and influence in obtaining +the printing of the public papers of both governments; and +as I appeared to doubt whether my father would assist me in +this enterprise, Sir William said that he would give me a letter +to him, in which he would represent the advantages of the +scheme in a light which he had no doubt would determine +him. It was thus concluded that I should return to Boston +by the first vessel with the letter of recommendation +from the Governor to my father. Meanwhile the project +was to be kept secret, and I continued to work for Keimer +as before.</p> + +<p>"The Governor sent every now and then to invite me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +dine with him. I considered this a very great honor, and I +was the more sensible of it as he conversed with me in the most +affable, familiar, and friendly manner imaginable.</p> + +<p>"Toward the end of April, 1724, a small vessel was ready +to sail for Boston. I took leave of Keimer upon the pretext of +going to see my parents. The Governor gave me a long letter, +in which he said many flattering things of me to my father, +and strongly recommended the project of my settling at +Philadelphia as a thing which could not fail to make my +fortune."</p> + +<p>What is there prophetic of a great life in this homely narrative? +Read over again the incident of the three rolls, one of +which he ate, and two of which he gave to the poor woman +and her child who needed them more than he. All his money on +that day was one silver dollar. In that incident we see the +heart and the persistent purpose to do good. He had made +mistakes, but the resolution that he had made on reading +Cotton Mather's meaty book was unshaken. He would correct +his errors and yield to his better nature, and this purpose to +help others would grow, and so he would overcome evil with +good.</p> + +<p>He who helps one helps two. The poor woman may +never have been heard of in public, except in this story, but +that act of sharing the rolls, with one for the little child, +made Ben Franklin a larger man. "The purpose of life is +to grow."</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin is now a seed in the wind, but he is a +good seed in the wind—good at heart, with a right purpose. +The stream of life is turned aside, but it will flow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +true again toward the great ocean of that which is broadest +and best.</p> + +<p>For this little Jenny at home is hoping, and Abiah Franklin +praying, and Josiah Franklin keeping silence in regard to +his family affairs.</p> + +<p>These were hard days for Uncle Benjamin and his philosophy, +and for Jenny and her human faith.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h3>LONDON AND A LONG SWIM.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">What</span> kind of a man was Governor Sir William Keith? +There are not many such, but one such may be found in almost +every large community. He desired popularity, and he loved +to please every one. He was constantly promising what he was +not able to fulfill. He had a lively imagination, and he liked +to think what he would do if he could for every bright person +he met; and these things which he would like to do he promised, +and his promises often ended in <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'disapponiment'">disappointment</ins>. It delighted +him to see faces light up with hope. Did he intend to +deceive? No. He had a heart to bless the whole world. He +was for a time a very popular Governor, but he who had given +away expectations that but disappointed so many hearts was +at last disappointed in all his expectations. He was greatly +pleased with young Benjamin Franklin when he first met him, +just as he had been with many other promising young men. +He liked a young man who had the hope of the future in his +face. This young printer who had entertained Boston under +the name of Silence Dogood won his heart on a further acquaintance, +and so he used to invite him to his home. He there +showed him how essential a good printer would be to the province; +how such a young man as he would make a fortune;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +and he urged him to go back to his father in Boston and borrow +money for such an enterprise. He gave him a long letter +of commendation to his father, a droll missive indeed to carry +to clear-sighted, long-headed Josiah Franklin.</p> + +<p>With this grand letter and twenty-five pounds in silver in +his pocket and a gold watch besides, and his vision full of +rainbows, he returned to the Puritan town. He went to the +printing office, which was again under the charge of his brother +James. He was finely dressed, and as he had come back with +such flattering prospects he had a grain of vanity.</p> + +<p>He entered James's office. The latter looked at him with +wide eyes, then turned from him coldly.</p> + +<p>But Silence Dogood was not to be chilled. The printers +flocked around him with wonder, as though he had been a returning +Sindbad, and he began to relate to them his adventures in +Philadelphia. James heard him with envy, doubtful of the land +"where rocs flew away with elephants." But when Benjamin +showed the men his watch, and finally shared with them a silver +dollar in hospitalities, he fancied that his brother had come +there to insult him, and he felt more bitterly toward him than +ever before. Benjamin had much to learn in life. He and his +brother, notwithstanding their good Quaker-born mother, had +not learned the secret of the harmony of Abraham and Lot.</p> + +<p>But one of these lessons of life our elated printer was to +learn, and at once.</p> + +<p>He returned to his home at the Blue Ball. His parents had +not heard from him since he went away some seven months before, +and they, though grieved at his conduct, received him joyfully. +There was always an open door in Abiah Folger's heart.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +The Quaker blood of good Peter Folger never ceased to course +warm in her veins.</p> + +<p>Ben told his marvelous story. After the literary adventures +of Silence Dogood in Boston, his parents could believe much, +but when he came to tell of his intimacy with Sir William +Keith, Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania, successor to +the great William Penn, they knew not what to think. Either +Sir William must be a singular man, or they must have underrated +the ability of young Silence Dogood.</p> + +<p>"This is great news indeed. But what proof do you bring +of your good fortune, my son?" asked the level-headed Josiah, +lifting his spectacles upon his forehead and giving his son a +searching look.</p> + +<p>Young Benjamin took from his pocket the letter of Sir +William and laid it before his father. It indeed had the vice-royal +seal of the province.</p> + +<p>His father put down his spectacles from his forehead, and +his wife Abiah drew up her chair beside him, and he read the +letter to himself and then reviewed it aloud.</p> + +<p>The letter told him what a wonderfully promising young +man Benjamin was; how well he was adapted to become the +printer of the province, and how he only needed a loan wherewith +to begin business to make a fortune.</p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin could not doubt the genuineness of the letter. +He sat thinking, drumming on a soap shelf.</p> + +<p>"But why, my boy, if you are so able and so much needed +does not Governor Keith lend you the money himself?"</p> + +<p>Ben sat silent. Not all the arts of the Socratic method +could suggest any answer to this question.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am glad that you have an influential patron," said Josiah, +"but to a man of hard sense it would seem very strange +that he should not advance the money himself to help one so +likely to become so useful to the province to begin business. +People are seldom offered something for nothing in this world, +and why this man has made himself your patron I can not see, +even through my spectacles."</p> + +<p>"He wishes, father, to make me a printer for the advancement +of the province."</p> + +<p>"Then why, my son, should not a governor of a rich province +himself provide you with means to become a printer for the +advancement of the province?"</p> + +<p>Socrates himself could not have answered this question.</p> + +<p>"Did you tell him that your father was an honest, hard-working +soap boiler and candle maker?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the young man.</p> + +<p>"Benjamin, I have a large family, and I am unable to lend +you the money that the Governor requests. But even if I had +the money I should hesitate to let you have it for such a purpose. +You are too young to start in business, and your character +is not settled. That troubles me, Ben. Your character +is not settled. You have made some bad mistakes already. +You went away without bidding your mother good-by, and +now return to me with a letter from the Governor of +Pennsylvania who asks me to loan you money to set you up +in business, because you are so agreeable and promising. +O Ben, Ben, did you not think that I had more sense than +that?"</p> + +<p>Josiah lifted his spectacles up to his forehead, and looked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +his finely dressed son fully in the face. The pride of the latter +began to shrink. He saw himself as he was.</p> + +<p>But Abiah pleaded for her large-brained boy—Abiah, whose +heart was always open, in whom lived Peter Folger still. Jenny +had but one thing to say. It was, "Ben, don't go back, don't +go back."</p> + +<p>"I will tell you what I will do," said Josiah. "I will write +a letter to Governor Keith, telling him the plain truth of my +circumstances. That is just right. If when you are twenty +years of age you will have saved a part of the money to begin +business, I will do what I can for you."</p> + +<p>With this letter Silence Dogood returned to Philadelphia +in humiliation. We think it was this Silence Dogood who +wrote the oft-quoted proverb, "A good kick out of doors is +worth all the rich uncles in the world."</p> + +<p>Young Franklin presented his father's letter to Governor +Keith.</p> + +<p>"Your father is too prudent," said the latter. "He says +that you are too young and unsettled for business. Some people +are thirty years old at eighteen. It is not years that are to +be considered in this case, but fitness for work. I will start +you in business myself."</p> + +<p>Silence Dogood rejoiced. Here was a man who was +"better than a father"—the "best man in all the world," he +thought.</p> + +<p>"Make out an inventory of the things that you need to begin +the business of a printer, and I will send to London for +them."</p> + +<p>Benjamin did so, an inventory to the amount of one hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +pounds. He brought it to the Governor, who greatly surprised +him by a suggestion.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Sir William, "you would like to go to London +and get the machinery yourself. I would give you a letter +of credit."</p> + +<p>Was it raining gold?</p> + +<p>"I would like to go to London," answered the young +printer.</p> + +<p>"Then I will provide for your journey. You shall go with +Captain Annis." This captain sailed yearly from Philadelphia +to London.</p> + +<p>Waiting the sailing of the ship months passed away. Governor +Keith entertained the young printer at his home. The +sailing time came. Franklin went to the office of the Governor +to receive the letter of credit and promised letters of introduction.</p> + +<p>"All in good time, my boy," said the Governor's clerk, +"but the Governor is busy and can not see you now. If you +will call on Wednesday you will receive the letters."</p> + +<p>Young Franklin called at the office on the day appointed.</p> + +<p>"All in good time, my boy," said the clerk. "The Governor +has not had time to fix them up and get them ready. +They will be sent to you on board the ship with the Governor's +mail."</p> + +<p>So Franklin went on board the ship. As the Governor's +mail came on board he asked the captain to let him see the letters, +but the latter told him that he must wait until the ship +got under way.</p> + +<p>Out at sea the Governor's letters were shown to him. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +were several directed to people "in the care of Benjamin +Franklin." He supposed these contained notes of introduction +and the letter of credit, so he passed happily over the sea.</p> + +<p>He reached London December 24, 1724. He rushed into +the grand old city bearing the letters directed in his care. He +took the one deemed most important to the office of the gentleman +to whom it was directed. "This letter is from Governor +Keith, of the Province of Pennsylvania," said Franklin.</p> + +<p>"I know of no such person," said the man. The latter +opened the letter. "Oh, I see," said he, "it is from one Riddleson. +I have found him out to be a rascal, an exile, and refuse +to entertain any communication from him."</p> + +<p>Franklin's face fell. His heart turned heavy. He went +out wondering. "Was his father's advice sound, after all?"</p> + +<p>The rest of the letters that had been directed in his care +were not written by Governor Keith, but by people in the province +to their friends, of which he had been made a postboy. +There were in the mail no letters of introduction from Governor +Keith to any one, and no letter of credit.</p> + +<p>He found himself alone in London, that great wilderness +of homes. Of Keith's conduct he thus speaks in his autobiography:</p> + +<p>"What shall we think of a Governor playing such pitiful +tricks, and imposing so grossly upon a poor ignorant boy? It +was a habit he had acquired; he wished to please everybody, +and having little to give, he gave expectations. He was otherwise +an ingenuous, sensible man, a pretty good writer, and a +good Governor for the people, though not for his constituents, +the Proprietaries, whose instructions he sometimes disregarded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> +Several of our best laws were of his planning, and passed during +his administration."</p> + +<p>He found work as a journeyman printer in London, and we +are sorry to say lived like most journeymen printers there. But +Silence Dogood had to make himself useful even among +these unsettled people. He instituted new ways of business +and life of advantage to journeymen printers, and so kept the +chain of his purpose lengthening.</p> + +<p>There was a series of curious incidents that happened during +the last part of this year of residence in London that came +near changing his career. It was in 1726; he was about twenty +years old. He had always loved the water, to be on it and in +it, and he became an expert swimmer when he was a lad in Boston +town.</p> + +<p>He had led a temperate life among the London apprentices, +and had kept his physical strength unimpaired. He drank +water while they drank beer. They laughed at him, but he +was able to carry up stairs a heavier case of type than any of +them. They called him the "American water-drinker," but +there came a day when he performed a feat that became the admiration +of the young London printers. He loved companionship, +and had many intimate friends, and among them there +was one Wygate, who went swimming with him, probably in +the Thames, and whom he taught to swim in two lessons.</p> + +<p>One day Wygate invited him to go into the country with +him and some of his friends. They had a merry time and returned +by water. After they had embarked from Chelsea, a +suburb which was then some four and a half miles from St. +Paul's Cathedral, Wygate said to him:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 263px;"> +<img src="images/illus-174.jpg" width="263" height="400" alt=""Are you going to swim back to London?"" title=""Are you going to swim back to London?"" /> +<span class="caption">"Are you going to swim back to London?"</span> +</div> + +<p>"Franklin, you are a water boy; let us see how well you +can swim."</p> + +<p>Franklin knew his strength and skill. He took off his clothing +and leaped into the river, and probably performed all the +old feats that one can do in the water.</p> + +<p>His dexterity delighted the party, but it soon won their +applause.</p> + +<p>He swam a mile.</p> + +<p>"Come on board!" shouted they. "Are you going to swim +back to London?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," came a voice as if from a fish in the bright, sunny +water.</p> + +<p>He swam two miles.</p> + +<p>The wonder of the party grew.</p> + +<p>Three miles.</p> + +<p>They cheered.</p> + +<p>Four miles to Blackfriars Bridge. Such a thing had never +been known among the apprentice lads. The swim brought +young Franklin immediate fame among these apprentices, and +it spread and filled London.</p> + +<p>Sir William Wyndham, once Chancellor of the Exchequer, +heard of this exploit, and desired to see him. He had two sons +who were about to travel, to whom he wished Franklin to teach +swimming. But the two boys were detained in another place, +and Franklin never met them. It was proposed to Franklin +that he open a swimming school.</p> + +<p>But while he was favorable to such agreeable employment, +there occurred one of those incidents that seem providential.</p> + +<p>He met one day at this shifting period Mr. Denham, the upright<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +merchant, whose integrity came to honor his profession +and Philadelphia. This man had failed in business at Bristol, +and had left England under a cloud. But he had an honest +soul and purpose, and he resolved to pay every dollar that he +owed. To this end he put all the energies of his life into +his business. He went to America to make a fortune, and he +made it. He then returned to Bristol, which he had left in +sorrow and humiliation.</p> + +<p>He gave a banquet, and invited to it all the merchants and +people whom he owed. They responded to the unexpected invitation, +and wondered what would happen. When they had +seated themselves at the table, and the time to serve the meal +came, the dinner plates were lifted, and each one found before +him the full amount of the money due to him. The banquet of +honor made the name of the merchant famous.</p> + +<p>Mr. Denham was a friend to men in need of good influences. +He saw Franklin's need of advice, and he said to him:</p> + +<p>"My young friend, you should return to Philadelphia. It +is the place of opportunity."</p> + +<p>"But I have not the means."</p> + +<p>"I have the means for you. I am about to return to America +with a cargo of merchandise. You must go back with me. +Your place in life is there."</p> + +<p>Should he go?</p> + +<p>It was early summer. He went out on London Bridge one +night. It grew dark late. But at last there gleamed in the +dark water the lights of London like stars. Many voices filled +the air as the boats passed by. The nine o'clock bells rang. +It may be that he heard the Bow bells ring, the bells that said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +"Come back! come back! come back!" to young Dick Whittington +when he was running away from his place in life. If +so, he must have been reminded of all that this man accomplished +by heeding the voice of the bells, and of how King +Henry had said, after all his benefactions, "Did ever a prince +have such a subject?"</p> + +<p>He must have thought of Uncle Tom and the bells of Nottingham +on this clear night of lovely airs and out-of-door +merriments. Over the great city towered St. Paul's under +the rising moon. Afar was the Abbey, with the dust of kings.</p> + +<p>Then he thought of Uncle Benjamin's pamphlets. It +seemed useless for one to look for books in this great city of +London.</p> + +<p>Franklin never saw ghosts, except such as arise out of conscience +into the eye of the mind. But the old man's form and +his counsels now came into the view of the imagination. His +old Boston home came back to his dreams; Jenny came back +to him, and the face of the young woman whom he had learned +to love in Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>He resolved to return. America was his land, and he must +build with her builders. He sailed for America with his good +adviser, the honest merchant, July 21, 1726, and left noblemen's +sons to learn to swim in the manner that he himself had +mastered the water.</p> + +<p>Did he ever see Governor Keith again? Yes. After his +return to Philadelphia he met there upon the street +one who was becoming a discredited man. The latter recognized +him, but his face turned into confusion. He did not +bow; nor did Franklin. It was Governor Keith. This Governor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +Please-Everybody died in London after years of poverty, +at the age of eighty.</p> + +<p>Silence Dogood may have thought of his father's raised +spectacles when he met Sir William that day on the street, and +when they did not wish to recognize each other, or of Jenny's +words, "Ben, don't go back."</p> + +<p>He had learned some hard lessons from the book of life, +and he would henceforth be true to the most unselfish counsels +on earth—the heart and voice of home.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h3>A PENNY ROLL WITH HONOR.—JENNY'S SPINNING-WHEEL.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Benjamin</span> became a printer again. By the influence of +friends he opened in Philadelphia an office in part his own.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin had no Froebel education. The great +apostle of the education of the spiritual faculties had not yet +appeared, and even Pestalozzi, the founder of common schools +for character education, could not have been known to him. +But when a boy he had grasped the idea that was to be evolved +by these two philosophers, that the end of education is character, +and that right habits become fixed or automatic, thus virtue +must be added to virtue, intelligence to intelligence, benevolence +to benevolence, faith to faith.</p> + +<p>One day, when he was very poor, there came into his printing +office a bustling man.</p> + +<p>"See here, my boy, I have a piece for you; there's ginger +in it, and it will make a stir. You will get well paid for giving +it to the public; all Philadelphia will read it."</p> + +<p>"I am glad to get something to give the paper life," +said Franklin. "I will read the article as soon as I have time +to spare."</p> + +<p>"I will call to-morrow," said the man. "It is running water +that makes things grow. That article will prove very interesting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +reading to many people, and it will do them good. It is a +needed rebuke. You'll say so when you read it."</p> + +<p>Franklin at this time did a great part of the work in the +office himself, and he was very busy that day. At last he found +time to take up the article. He hoped to find it one that +would add to the circulation of the paper. He found that it +was written in a revengeful spirit, that it was full of detraction +and ridicule, that it would answer no good purpose, that +it would awaken animosities and engender bitter feelings and +strife. But if used it would be read, laughed at, increase the +sale of the paper, and secure him the reputation of publishing a +<i>smart</i> paper.</p> + +<p>Should he publish an article whose influence would be +harmful to the public for the sake of money and notoriety?</p> + +<p>He here began in himself as an editor that process of moral +education which tends to make fixed habits of thought, judgment, +and life. He resolved <i>not</i> to print the article.</p> + +<p>But the author of it would laugh at him—might call him +puritanic; would probably say that he did not know when he +was "well off"; that he stood in his own light; that he had not +the courage to rebuke private evils.</p> + +<p>The young printer had the courage to rebuke wrong, but +this article was a sting—a revengeful attempt to make one a +laughing stock. It had no good motive. But it haunted him. +He turned the question of his duty over and over in his mind.</p> + +<p>Night came, and he had not the money to purchase a supper +or to secure a bed. Should he not print the lively article, +and make for himself better fare on the morrow?</p> + +<p>No. Manhood is more than money, worth more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +wealth. He went to the baker's and bought a twopenny roll; +he ate it in his office, and then lay down on the floor of his +office and went to sleep.</p> + +<p>The boy's sleep was sweet. He had decided the matter in +his own heart, and had given himself a first lesson in what we +would to-day call the new education. In this case it was an +editorial education.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely winter morning. There was joy in all Nature; +the air was clear and keen; the Schuylkill rippled bright +in the glory of the sun. He rose before the sun, and went to his +work with a clear conscience, but probably dreading the anger +of the patron when he should give him his decision.</p> + +<p>When the baker's shop opened he may have bought another +twopenny roll. He certainly sat down and ate one, with a +dipper of water.</p> + +<p>In the later hours of the morning the door opened, and the +patron came in with a beaming face.</p> + +<p>"Have you read it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have read the article, sir."</p> + +<p>"Won't that be a good one? What did you think of it?"</p> + +<p>"That I ought not to use it."</p> + +<p>"Why?" asked the man, greatly astonished.</p> + +<p>"I can not be sure that it would not do injustice to the person +whom you have attacked. There are always two sides to +a case. I myself would not like to be publicly ridiculed in +that manner. Detraction leads to detraction, and hatred begets +hate."</p> + +<p>"But you must have money, my Boston lad. Have you +thought of that?" was the suggestion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p> + +<p>Franklin drew himself up in the strength and resolution of +young manhood, and made the following answer, which we +give, as we think, almost in his very words:</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to say, sir, that I think the article is scurrilous +and defamatory. But I have been at a loss, on account of my +poverty, whether to reject it or not. I therefore put it to this +issue. At night, when my work was done, I bought a twopenny +loaf, on which I supped heartily, and then wrapping +myself in my greatcoat slept very soundly on the floor until +morning, when another loaf and a mug of water afforded a +pleasant breakfast. Now, sir, since I can live very comfortably +in this manner, why should I prostitute my press to personal +hatred or party passion for a more luxurious living?"</p> + +<p>This experience may be regarded as temporizing, but it was +inward education in the right direction, a step that led upward. +It shows the trend of the way, the end of which is the "path +of the just, that leads more and more unto the perfect day."</p> + +<p>A young man who was willing to eat a twopenny roll and +to sleep on the floor of his pressroom for a principle, had in +him the power that lifts life, and that sustains it when lifted. +He who puts self under himself for the sake of justice has in +him the gravitation of the skies. Uncle Ben's counsels were +beginning to live in him. Jenny's girl's faith was budding +in his heart, and it would one day bloom. He was turning +to the right now, and he would advance. There are periods +in some people's lives when they do not write often to their best +friends; such a one had just passed with Ben. During the +Governor Keith misadventures he had not written home often, +as the reader may well imagine. But now that he had come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +back to Philadelphia and was prosperous, the memory of +loving Jenny began to steal back into his heart.</p> + +<p>He had heard that Jenny, now at sweet sixteen, was +famous for her beauty. He may have been jealous of her, we +do not know; but he was apprehensive that she might become +vain, and he regarded modesty, even at his early age of twenty-one +or twenty-two, as a thing very becoming a blooming girl.</p> + +<p>One day he wrote to her, "Jenny, I am going to send you +a present by the next ship to Boston town."</p> + +<p>The promise filled the girl's heart with delight. Her faith +in him had never failed, nor had her love for him changed.</p> + +<p>What would the present be?</p> + +<p>She went to her mother to help her solve this riddle.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it will be a ring," she said. "I would rather +have that from Ben than any other thing."</p> + +<p>"But he would not send a ring by ship," said her mother, +"but by the post chaise."</p> + +<p>"True, mother; it can not be that. It may be a spinet. +I think it is a spinet. He knows how we have delighted in +father's violin. He might like to send me a harp, but what is +a spinet but a harp in a box?"</p> + +<p>"I think it may be that, Jenny. He would send a spinet +by ship, and he knows how much we all love music."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and he must see how many girls are adding the music +of the spinet to their accomplishments."</p> + +<p>"Wouldn't a spinet be rather out of place in a candle +shop?" asked the mother.</p> + +<p>"Not out of place in the parlor of a candle shop," said +Jenny with dignity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you think that you could learn to play the spinet, +Jenny?"</p> + +<p>"I would, if Ben were to send me one. I have been true +to Ben all along. I have never given him up. He may get +out of place in life, but he is sure to get back again. A true +heart always does. I am sure that it is a spinet that he will +send. I dreamed," she added, "that I heard a humming sound +in the air something like a harp. I dreamed it in the morning, +and morning dreams come true."</p> + +<p>"A humming sound," said Josiah Franklin, who had come +within hearing; "there are some things besides spinets that +make humming sounds, and Ben must know how poor we are. +I am glad that his heart is turning home again, after his +<i>scattering</i> adventures with the Governor. It is not every +one who goes to sea without a rudder that gets back to port +again."</p> + +<p>Jenny dreamed daily of the coming ship and present. The +ship came in, and one evening at dark an old sailor knocked at +the door. He presently came in and announced that they had a +"boxed-up" thing for one Jane Franklin on board the ship. +Should he send it by the cartman to the house?</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes!" cried Jenny. "Now I know it is a spinet I +heard humming—I told you about it, mother."</p> + +<p>The girl awaited the arrival of the gift with a flushed cheek +and a beating heart. It came at last, and was brought in by +candlelight.</p> + +<p>It was indeed a "boxed-up" thing.</p> + +<p>The family gathered around it—the father and mother, the +boys and the girls.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span></p> + +<p>Josiah Franklin broke open the box with his great claw +hammer, which might have pleased an Ajax.</p> + +<p>"O Jenny!" he exclaimed, "that will make a humming +indeed. Ben has not lost his wits yet—or he has found them +again."</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is it, father?"</p> + +<p>"The most sensible thing in all the world. See there, it +is a spinning-wheel!"</p> + +<p>Jane's heart sank within her. Her dreams vanished into +the air—the delights of the return of Sindbad the Sailor were +not to be hers yet. The boys giggled. She covered her face +with her hands to hide her confusion and to gain heart.</p> + +<p>"I don't care," she said at last, choking. "I think Ben is +real good, and I will <i>forgive him</i>. I can spin. The wheel is +a beauty."</p> + +<p>The gift was accompanied by a letter. In it Benjamin told +her that he had heard that she had been much praised for her +beauty, but that it was industry and modesty that most merited +commendation in a young girl. The counsel was as homely +as much of that that Uncle Benjamin used to give little Benjamin, +but she choked down her feelings.</p> + +<p>"Benjamin was thinking of you as well as of me when he +sent me that present," she said to her mother. "I will make +music with the wheel, and the humming will make us all +happy. I think that Ben is real good—and a spinet would have +been out of place here. I will write him a beautiful letter in +return, and will not tell him how I had hoped for a spinet. It +is all better as it is. That is best which will do the most +good."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + +<p>If Franklin sent a practical spinning-wheel to Jenny when +she was a girl, with much advice in which there was no poetry, +such a sense of homely duties soon passed away. He came to +send her beautiful presents of fabrics, "black and purple +gowns," wearing apparel of elegant texture, and ribbons. +When he became rich it was his delight to make happy the +home of Jane Mecom—his poetic, true-hearted sister "Jenny," +whose heart had beat to his in every step of his advancing life.</p> + +<p>She became the mother of a large family of children, and +when one of them ran away and went to sea she took all the +blame of it to herself, and thought that if she had made his +home pleasanter for him he would not have left it. In her +self-blame she wrote to her brother to confess how she had failed +in her duty toward the boy. Franklin read her heart, and wrote +to her that the boy was wholly to blame, which could hardly +have been comforting. Jenny would rather have been to blame +herself. There was but little wrong in this world in her eyes, +except herself.</p> + +<p>She saw the world through her own heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h3>MR. CALAMITY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was a fine, busy old gentleman that young Franklin +met about the time that he opened his printing office, whose +course it will be interesting to follow. Almost every young +man sometimes meets a man of this type and character. He is +certain to be found, as are any of the deterrent people in the +Pilgrim's Progress. He is the man in whose eyes there is ruin +lurking in every form of prosperity, who sees only the dark side +of things—to whom, as we now say, everything "is going to +the dogs."</p> + +<p>We will call him Mr. Calamity, for that name represents +what he had come to be as a prophet.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p> + +<p>One day young Franklin heard behind him the tap, tap, +tap of a cane. It was a time when Philadelphia was beginning +to rise, and promised unparalleled prosperity. The cane +stopped with a heavy sound.</p> + +<p>"What—what is this I hear?" said Mr. Calamity. "You +are starting a printing office, they say. I am sorry, sorry."</p> + +<p>"Why are you sorry, sir?" asked the young printer.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p> +<p>"Oh, you are a smart, capable young man, one who in the +right place would succeed in life. I hate to see you throw +yourself away."</p> + +<p>"But is not this the right place?"</p> + +<p>"What, Philadelphia?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is growing."</p> + +<p>"That shows how people are deceived. Haven't you any +eyes?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes."</p> + +<p>"But what were they made for? Can't you see what is +coming?"</p> + +<p>"A great prosperity, sir."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my young man, how you are deceived, and how +feather-headed people have deceived you! Don't you know +that this show of prosperity is all delusion; that people of +level heads are calling in their bills, and that this is a hard +time for creditors? The age of finery has gone, and the age +of rags has come. Rags, sir, rags!"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, no. I thought the people were getting out of +debt. See how many people are building."</p> + +<p>"They are building to be ready for the crash—they do not +know what else to do with their money; calamity is coming."</p> + +<p>"But how do you know, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Know? It requires but little wit to know. I can feel +it in my head. The times are not what they used to be. William +Penn is dead, and none of his descendants are equal to +him. Look at the Quakers, see how worldly they are becoming! +Most people are living beyond their means! +Property," he added, "is all on the decline. In a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +years you will see people moving away from here. You will +hear that the Proprietors have failed. Young man, don't go +into business here. Let me tell you a secret, though I hate to +do it, as your heart is bent upon setting up the printing business +here; listen to me now—the whole province is going to fail. +Before us is bankruptcy. Do you hear it—that awful, awful +word <i>bankruptcy?</i> The Governor himself, in my opinion, is +on the way to bankruptcy now. The town will have to all go +out of business, and then there will be bats and owls in the garrets, +and the wharves will rot. I sometimes think that I will +have to quit my country."</p> + +<p>"Do other folks think as you do?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, don't they? All that have any heads with eyes. +Some folks have eyes for the present, some for the past, and +some for the future. I am one of those that have eyes for +the future. I expect to see grass growing in the streets before +I die, and I shall not have to live long to pluck buttercups under +the King's Arms. I pity young chickens like you that will +have no place to run to."</p> + +<p>"But, sir," said young Franklin, "suppose things do take +another turn. The young settlers are all building; the old +people are enlarging their estates. It is easy to borrow money, +and it looks to me that we will have here twice as many people +in another generation as we have now. If the city should grow, +what an opening there is for a printer! I shall take the risk."</p> + +<p>"Risk—risk? Jump off a ship on the high sea with an iron +ball on your feet! Go down, and stick there. Business, I tell +you, is going to die here, and who would want to read what +a stripling like you would write outside of business? You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +would print that this one had failed, that that one had failed, +and one don't collect bills handy from people who have failed. +I tell you that the whole province is about to fail, and Philadelphia +is going to ruin, and I advise you to turn right about and +pack up, and go to some other place. There will never be any +chance for you here."</p> + +<p>Tap, tap, tap, went his cane, and he moved away.</p> + +<p>Young Franklin started to go to his work with a heavy +heart. The cane stopped. Old Mr. Calamity looked around.</p> + +<p>"I've warned you," said he with a flourish of the cane. +"I tell you, I tell you everything is going back to the wilderness, +and I pity you, but not half so much as you will pity +yourself if you embark in the printing business, and print failures +for nothing, to fail yourself some day. This is the age of +rags, rags!"</p> + +<p>Tap, tap, tap, went on the cane, and the old gentleman +chuckled.</p> + +<p>Young Franklin went on in his business. What was he +to do? He saw everything with hopeful eyes. But he was +young. His heart told him to go on in his undertaking, and +he went on.</p> + +<p>He had been laughed at in Boston, and old Mr. Calamity +had risen up here to laugh at him again.</p> + +<p>He knew not how it was, but it was in him to become a +printer. As the young waterfowl knows the water as soon as it +toddles from his nest, so young Franklin from his boyhood saw +his life in this new element; the press was to be the source of +America's rise, power, and glory, the throne of the republic; +it was to make and mold and fulfill by its influence public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +opinion; the same public opinion was to rule America, and +the young printer of Philadelphia was to lead the way now, +and to reap the fruits of his spiritual resolution after he was +seventy years of age. He saw it, he felt it, he knew his own +mind. So he left behind old Mr. Calamity for the present, but +he was soon to meet him again.</p> + +<p>He had now taken a third step on the ladder of life. His +business should be built upon honor.</p> + +<p>The next time that he met Mr. Calamity, the old gentleman +gave him a view of the prospects of a printer.</p> + +<p>"If you think that you are going to get your foot on the +ladder of life by becoming a printer, you will find that you +have mistaken your calling. None of the great men of old were +printers, were they? Homer was no printer, was he?"</p> + +<p>"I have never heard that he was."</p> + +<p>"Nor did you hear of any one who ever printed the Iliad +or the Odyssey. No printer was ever heard of among +the immortals. A printer just prints—that is all. Solomon +never printed anything, did he?"</p> + +<p>"I never read that he did, sir."</p> + +<p>"Nor Shakespeare?"</p> + +<p>"I never heard that he did, sir."</p> + +<p>"A printer has no chance to rise; he just builds the ark +for Noah to sail in, and is left behind himself."</p> + +<p>"I hope to print some of my own thoughts, sir."</p> + +<p>"You do? Ha! ha! ha! Who do you think is going to +read them? Your own thoughts—that does give me a stitch +in the side, and makes me laugh so loud and swing my cane +so high that it sets the cats and dogs to running. See them go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +over the garden fence! I shall watch your course, and when +you begin to scatter your ideas about in the world, I hope I +will be living to gather some of them up. I hope they will +never lead a revolution!"</p> + +<p>Franklin's "Ça Ira" were the words that led the French +Revolution.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h3>FRANKLIN'S STRUGGLES WITH FRANKLIN.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">At</span> the age of fifteen Franklin had avowed himself a deist, +or theist, which must have grieved his parents, who were people +of positive Christian faith. He loved to argue, and when +he had learned the Socratic art of asking questions so as to +lead one to confuse himself, and of answering questions in the +subjunctive mood, he sought nothing more than disputations +in the stanch Puritan town. His intimate friends were deists, +but they came to early failure through want of faith or any +positive moral conviction. Governor Keith was a deist.</p> + +<p>The reader may ask what we mean by a deist here. A +deist or theist in Franklin's time was one who believed in a +God, but questioned the Christian faith and system. He was +not an atheist. He held that a personal governing power +directed all things after his own will and purpose. Under the +providence of this Being things came and went, and man could +not know how or why, but could simply believe that all that +was was for the good of all.</p> + +<p>At the age of twenty-two young Franklin began to see that +life without faith had no meaning, but was failure. In the +omnipotence of spiritual life and power the soul must share or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +die. Negations or denials did not satisfy him. This was a +positive world, governed by spiritual law. To disobey these +laws was loss and death.</p> + +<p>He had been doing wrong. He had done wrong in yielding +to his personal feelings in leaving home in the manner +which he did. He had committed acts of social wrong. He +had followed at times the law of the lower nature instead of +the higher. He had become intimate with two friends who +had led him into unworthy conduct, and over whom his own +influence had not been good. He saw that the true value of +life lies in its influence. There were things in his life that tended +to ruin influence. There were no harvests to be expected +from the barren rocks of negation and denials of faith in the +highest good. Sin gives one nothing that one can keep. He +must change his life, he must obey perfectly the spiritual laws +of his being. He saw it, and resolved to begin.</p> + +<p>Now began a struggle between Benjamin Franklin the +natural man and Benjamin Franklin the spiritual man that +lasted for life. It became his purpose to gain the spiritual mastery, +and to obey the laws of regeneration and eternal life.</p> + +<p>Here are his first resolutions:</p> + +<p>"Those who write of the art of poetry teach us that, if we +would write what may be worth reading, we ought always, before +we begin to form a regular plan and design of our piece; +otherwise we shall be in danger of incongruity. I am apt to +think it is the same as to life. I have never fixed a regular design +in life, by which means it has been a confused variety of +different scenes. I am now entering upon a new life; let me, +therefore, make some resolutions, and form some scheme of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +action, that henceforth I may live in all respects like a rational +creature.</p> + +<p>"1. It is necessary for me to be extremely frugal for some +time, till I have paid what I owe.</p> + +<p>"2. To endeavor to speak truth in every instance, to give +nobody expectations that are not likely to be answered, but +aim at sincerity in every word and action; the most amiable +excellence in a rational being.</p> + +<p>"3. To apply myself industriously to whatever business +I take in hand, and not divert my mind from my business by +any foolish project of growing suddenly rich; for industry and +patience are the surest means of plenty.</p> + +<p>"4. I resolve to speak ill of no man whatever, not even in a +matter of truth; but rather by some means excuse the faults +I hear charged upon others, and, upon proper occasions, speak +all the good I know of everybody."</p> + +<p>But there must be a personal God, since he himself had personality, +and he must seek a union of soul with his will beyond +these mere moral resolutions.</p> + +<p>At the age of twenty-two he composed a litany after the +manner of the Episcopal Church, but adapted to his own +conditions. In this he prays for help in the points where he +had found himself to be morally and spiritually weak.</p> + +<p>These petitions and resolutions show his inward struggles. +They reveal his ideals, and to fulfill these ideals became the end +of his life. For the acts of wrong which he had done in his +period of adventures, and the unworthy life that he had then +led, he tried to make reparation. The spiritual purpose of Benjamin +Franklin had obtained the mastery over the natural man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +Honor was his star, and more spiritual light was his desire and +quest.</p> + +<p>He married Miss Read, the young woman who had laughed +at him when he had entered Philadelphia eating his penny +roll, with two rolls of bread under his arm, and his superfluous +clothing sticking out of his pocket. He had neglected her +during his adventures abroad, but she forgave him, and he had +become in high moral resolution another man now.</p> + +<p>As a printer in Philadelphia his paper voiced the public +mind and heart on all which were then most worthy. To publish +a paper that advocates the best sentiments of a virtuous +people is the shortest way to influence in the world. Franklin +found it so. The people sought in him the representative, +and from the printing office he was passed by natural and easy +stages to the halls of legislation.</p> + +<p>So these resolutions to master himself may be regarded as +another step on the ladder of life. To benefit the world by +inventions is a good thing, but to lift it by an example of self-control +and an unselfish life is a nobler thing, and on this plane +we find young Franklin standing now. Franklin is the master +of Franklin, and the influence of Silence Dogood through the +press is filling the province of Pennsylvania. The paper which +he established in Philadelphia was called the Pennsylvania Gazette. +In connection with this he began to publish a very +popular annual called Poor Richard's Almanac, about which +we will tell you in another chapter.</p> + +<p>Right doing is the way to advancement—Franklin had this +resolution; a newspaper that voices the people is a way to advancement—such +a one Franklin had founded; and good humor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +is a way to advancement, and of this Franklin found an +expression in Poor Richard's Almanac which has not yet ceased +to be quoted in the world. It was the means of conveying +Silence Dogood's special messages to every one. It made the +whole world happier. Franklin, on account of the wise sayings +in the almanac, himself came to be called "Poor Richard."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h3>THE MAGICAL BOTTLE.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin</span> is now a man of character, benevolence, wisdom, +and humor. He is a printer, a publisher, a man whose thoughts +are influencing public opinion. He is a very prosperous man; he +is making money and reputation, but it is not the gaining of +either of these that is true success, but of right influence. It +is not the answer to the question, What are you worth? or What +is your popularity? but What is your influence? that determines +the value of a man.</p> + +<p>He had founded life on right principles, and he had well +learned the trade in his youth that leads a poor young man of +right principles and nobility to success. He took the right +guideboard, and the "Please-everybody" Governor did him a +good service when he showed him that to become a printer in +Philadelphia would bring him influence, fame, and fortune. +People who are well meaning, beyond the ability to fulfill their +intentions, sometimes reveal to others what may be of most +use to them. It was not altogether an unfortunate day when +the wandering printer boy met Governor Keith.</p> + +<p>In the midst of his prosperity Silence Dogood was constantly +seeking out inventions to help people. When he was +about thirty-four years of age, in the Poor Richard days,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> +he saw that the forests were disappearing, and that there would +be a need for the people to practice economy in the use of +fuel. The fireplaces in the chimneys were great consumers of +wood, and in many of them, to use the housewife's phrase, +"the heat all went up the chimney." But that was not all; +many of the chimneys of the good people smoked, and in making +a fire rooms would be filled with smoke, or, to use again the +housewife's term, "the smoke would all come out into the +room."</p> + +<p>When this was so the people would all flee to cold rooms +with smarting eyes. New houses in which chimneys smoked +were sometimes taken down or altered to make room for new +chimneys that would draw. Franklin sought to bring relief +to this sorry condition of affairs.</p> + +<p>He invented the Franklin stove, from which the heat would +go out into the room, and not "up the chimbly," to use a +provincial word. This cheerful stove became a great comfort +to the province, and to foreign countries as well. It saved fuel, +and brought the heat of the fire into the room.</p> + +<p>He long afterward began to study chimneys, and after much +experiment found that those that smoked need not be taken +down, but that only a draught was needed to cause the smoke +to rise in rarefied air. The name of the Franklin stove added +very greatly to Poor Richard's wisdom, in making for Franklin +an American reputation, which also extended to Europe. +His fame arose along original ways. Surely no one ever walked +in such ways before.</p> + +<p>He formed a club called the Junto, which became very prosperous, +and gave strength to his local reputation. He also began<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> +a society for the study of universal knowledge, which was called +the Philosophical Society.</p> + +<p>A man can do the most when he is doing the most. One +thing leads to another; one thing feeds another, and one does +not suffer in health or nerves from the many things that one +loves to do. It is disinclination or friction that wears one +down. People who have been very busy in what they most +loved to do have usually lived to be old, and come down to old +age in the full exercise of their powers.</p> + +<p>While Franklin was thus seeking how he could make himself +useful to every one in many ways—for a purpose of usefulness +finds many paths—his attention was called to a very curious +discovery that had been made in the Dutch city of Leyden, +in November, 1745. It was an electrical bottle called the +Leyden jar.</p> + +<p>Nature herself had been discharging on a stupendous scale +her own Leyden jars through all generations, but no one seems +to have understood these phenomena until this memorable year +brought forth the magical little bottle which was a flashlight +in the long darkness of time.</p> + +<p>The Greeks had found that amber when rubbed would attract +certain light substances, and the ancient philosophers +and doctors had discovered the value of an electric shock from +a torpedo in rheumatic complaints; that sparks would follow +the rubbing of the fur of animals in cold air had also been noticed, +but of magnetism, and of electricity, which is a current +of magnetism, the world was ignorant, except as to some of +its more common and obvious effects.</p> + +<p>In 1600 Dr. Gilbert, of England, discovered that many other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> +substances besides amber could be made to develop an attractive +power. He also discovered that there are many substances +that can not be electrically excited.</p> + +<p>In 1650 Otto von Guericke, the inventor of the air-pump, +made a machine which looked like a little grindstone—a wheel +of sulphur mounted on a turning axle, which being used with +friction produced powerful electrical sparks and lights. He +found by experiments with this machine that bodies thus exerted +by friction may impart electricity to other bodies, and that +bodies so electrified may repel as well as attract.</p> + +<p>Sir Isaac Newton made an electrical machine of glass, and +Stephen Gray, in 1720, said that if a large amount of electricity +could be <i>stored</i>, great results might be expected from it.</p> + +<p>Charles François Dufay detected that there were two kinds +of electricity, which he called "vitreous" and "resinous."</p> + +<p>A great discovery was coming. The first beams of a new +planet were rising. How did there come into existence the +"magical bottle" known as the Leyden jar?</p> + +<p>At Leyden three philosophers were experimenting in electricity. +"We can produce electrical effects," said one. "If +we could accumulate and retain electricity we would have +power."</p> + +<p>They electrified a cannon suspended by silk cords. A +few minutes after ceasing to turn the handle of the electrical +machine which supplied the cannon with fluid, the charge was +gone.</p> + +<p>"If we could surround an electrified body with a nonconducting +substance," said Professor Musschenbroek, "we could +imprison it; we could accumulate and store it." He added:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span> +"Glass is a nonconductor of electricity, and water is a good +conductor. If I could charge with electricity water in a bottle, +I could possess it and control it like other natural powers."</p> + +<p>He attempted to do this. He suspended a wire from a +charged cannon to the water in a bottle, but for a time no result +followed.</p> + +<p>One day, however, Mr. Cuneus, one of the scientists, while +engaged in this experiment, chanced to touch the conductor +with one hand and the electrified bottle with the other. It was +a mere accident. He leaped in terror. What had happened? +He had received an electric shock. What did it mean? A +revolution in the use of one of the greatest of the occult forces +of Nature.</p> + +<p>Terror was followed by amazement. Mr. Cuneus told Professor +Musschenbroek what had happened.</p> + +<p>The professor repeated the experiment, with the same result.</p> + +<p>If electricity could be secured, accumulated, and discharged, +what might not follow as the results of further experiments?</p> + +<p>It was several days before the professor recovered from the +shock. "I would not take a second shock," he said, "for the +kingdom of France!"</p> + +<p>Thus the Leyden jar came into use. The news of the experiment +flew over Germany and Europe. Scientific people +everywhere went to making Leyden jars and imprisoning electricity.</p> + +<p>Society took up the invention as a wonder toy. Gunpowder +was discharged from the point of the finger by persons charged +on an insulating stool. Electrical kisses passed from bold lips +to lips in social circles. Even timid people mounted up on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +cakes of resin that their friends might see their hair stand on +end. Sir William Watson, of London, completed the electrical +fountain by coating the bottle in and out with tinfoil.</p> + +<p>The great news reached America. Franklin heard of it; +no ears were more alert than his to profit by suggestions like +this.</p> + +<p>Mr. Peter Collinson, of London, sent to him an account of +Professor Musschenbroek's magical bottle.</p> + +<p>He told his friends of the Junto Club of the invention, and +set them all to rubbing electric substances for sparks.</p> + +<p>He had invented many useful things. A new force had +fallen under the control of man. He must investigate it; he +must experiment with it; he too must have a magical bottle.</p> + +<p>"I never," he wrote in 1747, "was before engaged in any +study that so totally engrossed my attention and time as this +has lately done; for what with making experiments when I +can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaintances +who from the novelty of the thing come continually in +crowds to see them, I have during some months past had little +leisure for anything else."</p> + +<p>What was magnetism? What was electricity? What secrets +of Nature might the magical bottle reveal? To what use +might the new power which might be stored and imprisoned +be put? Silence Dogood, ponder night and day over the +curious toy. The world waits for you to speak, for Nature is +about to reveal one of her greatest secrets to you—you who +gave two penny rolls to the poor woman and child on the +street, after Deborah Read, your wife now, had had her good +laugh. Your good wife will laugh again some day, when you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +have further poked around among electrical tubes and bottles, +and have brought your benevolent mind to bear upon some of +the secrets contained in the magical bottle. You have added +virtue to virtue; you are adding intelligence to intelligence; +such things grow. Discoveries come to those who are prepared +to receive them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h3>THE ELECTRIFIED VIAL AND THE QUESTIONS IT RAISED.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> came from Europe to America at this time some +electrical tubes, which being rubbed produced surprising results. +To the curious they were toys, but to Franklin they +were prophecies. There were three Philadelphians who joined +with Franklin in the study of the effects that could be produced +by these tubes and the Leyden vial.</p> + +<p>Franklin's son William was verging on manhood. He was +beyond the years that we find him experimenting with his +father in the old pictures. He became the last royal Governor +of New Jersey some years afterward, and a Tory, and his +politics at that period was a sore grief to his father's heart. +But he was a bright, free-hearted boy now, nearly twenty, and +his father loved him, and the two were harmonious and were +companions for each other.</p> + +<p>Franklin, we may suppose, interested the boy in the bristling +tubes and the magical bottle. The stored electricity in +the latter was like the imprisoned genii of the Arabian Nights. +Let the fairy loose, he suddenly mingled with native elements, +and one could not gather him again. But another could be +gathered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Philadelphia philosophers wondered greatly at the new +effects that Franklin was able to produce from the tubes and +the bottle. Did not the genii in the vial hold the secret of +the earth, and might not the earth itself be a magnet, and +might not magnetism fill interstellar space?</p> + +<p>The wonder grew, and its suggestions. One of the Philadelphia +philosophers, Philip Sing, invented an electrical machine. +A like machine had been made in Europe, but of this +Mr. Sing did not know.</p> + +<p>The Philadelphia philosophers discovered the power of metallic +points to draw off electricity.</p> + +<p>"Electricity is not created by friction," observed one of these +men. "It is only collected by it."</p> + +<p>"And all our experiments show," argued Franklin, "that +electricity is positive and negative."</p> + +<p>During the winter of 1746-'47 these men devoted as much +of their time as they could spare to electrical experiments.</p> + +<p>"William," said one of the philosophers to the son of Franklin +one day, "you have brought your friends here to see the +vial genii; he is a lively imp. Let me show you some new +things which I found he can do."</p> + +<p>He brought out a bottle of spirits and poured the liquid into +a plate. "Stand up on the insulating stool, my boy, and let +me electrify you, and see if the imp loves liquor."</p> + +<p>The lively lad obeyed. He pointed his finger down to +the liquor in the plate. It burst into flame, startling the +audience.</p> + +<p>"Now," said another of the philosophers, "let me ask you +to give me a magic torch."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span></p> + +<p>He presented to his finger a candle with an alcoholic wick. +The candle was at once lighted, emitting sparks as it began to +burn.</p> + +<p>"Hoi, hoi!" said the philosopher to the young visitors, +"what do you think of a young man whose touch is fire? We +have a Faust among us, sure!"</p> + +<p>"Now, girls, which of you would like to try an experiment?" +we may suppose Father Franklin to say, in the spirit +of Poor Richard.</p> + +<p>William stepped down, and an adventurous girl took his +place on the experimental stool.</p> + +<p>"You have all heard of the electric kiss," said Poor Richard. +"Let this young lady give you one. I will prepare her +for it."</p> + +<p>He did.</p> + +<p>Another girl stepped up to receive it. She expected to receive +a spark from her friend's lips; but instead of a spark she +received a shock that caused her to leap and to bend double, +and to utter a piercing cry.</p> + +<p>"I don't think that the kissing of young men and young +women in public is altogether in good taste," said the philosophers, +"but if any of you young men want to salute this lively +young lady in that way, there will be in this case no objections."</p> + +<p>But none of the young men cared to be thrown into convulsions +by the innocent-looking lass, who seemed to feel no discomfort.</p> + +<p>Experiments like these filled the city and province with +amazement. The philosopher made a spider of burned cork<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +that would <i>run</i>, and cause other people to run who had not +learned the wherefore of the curious experiment.</p> + +<p>The wonderful Leyden vial became Franklin's companion. +He liked ever to be experimenting in what the new force +would do. What next? what next? How like lightning was +this electricity! How could he increase electrical force?</p> + +<p>He says at the end of a long narrative:</p> + +<p>"We made what we called an <i>electrical battery</i>, consisting +of eleven panes of large sash-glass, armed with thin leaden +plates pasted on each side, placed vertically, and supported at +two inches distance on silk cords, with thick hooks of leaden +wire, one from each side, standing upright, distant from each +other, and convenient communications of wire and chain, from +the giving side of one pane to the receiving side of the other, +that so the whole might be charged together."</p> + +<p>Franklin at this time was a stanch royalist. He made a +figure of George II, with a crown, and so arranged it that the +powerful electrical force might be stored in the <i>crown</i>.</p> + +<p>"God bless him!" said the philosopher.</p> + +<p>A young man seeing that the crown was very attractive, attempted +to remove it. It was a thing that the philosopher had +expected.</p> + +<p>The youth touched the crown. He reeled, and started back +with a stroke that filled him with amazement.</p> + +<p>"So be it with all of King George's enemies!" said the philosophers. +"Never attempt to discrown the king."</p> + +<p>"God bless him!" said Franklin. His son always continued +to say this, but Franklin himself came to see that he who +discrowns kings may be greater than kings, and that it became<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +the duty of a people to discrown tyrannical kings, and to make +a king of the popular will.</p> + +<p>Franklin now resolved to give up his business affairs to +others, to refuse political office, and to devote himself to science. +The latter resolution he did not keep. He went to live +on a retired spot on the Delaware, where he had a large garden, +and could be left to his experiments and thoughts upon +them. With him went the magical bottle and his interesting +son William.</p> + +<p>The power of metallic points to draw off lightning now +filled his mind. "Could the lightning be controlled?" he began +to ask. "Could the power of the thunderbolt be disarmed?"</p> + +<p>Every element can be made to obey its own laws. Water +will bear up iron if the iron be hollow. But deeply and more +deeply must the thoughts engage the mind of the philosopher. +"Is lightning electricity? Does electricity fill all space?" He +wrote two philosophical papers at this critical period of his life, +when he sought to give up money-making and political life +for the study of that science which would be most useful to +man. He who gives up gains. He who is willing to deny himself +the most shall have the most. He that loseth his life shall +save it. He who seeketh the good of others shall find it in +himself.</p> + +<p>One of these papers was entitled "Opinions and Conjectures +concerning the Properties and Effects of the Electrical Matter, +and the Means of preserving Ships and Buildings from +Lightning, arising from Experiments and Observations at +Philadelphia in 1749."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p> + +<p>In this treatise, which at last made his fame, he shows the +similarity of electricity to lightning, and gives a description of +an experiment in which a little lightning-rod had drawn away +electricity from an artificial storm cloud. He says:</p> + +<p>"If these things are so, may not the knowledge of this power +of points be of use to mankind in preserving houses, churches, +ships, etc., from the stroke of lightning, by directing us to fix +on the highest part of those edifices upright rods of iron made +sharp as a needle, and gilt to prevent rusting, and from the foot +of those rods a wire down the outside of the building into the +ground, or down round one of the shrouds of a ship, and down +her side till it reaches the water? Would not these pointed rods +probably draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it +came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that +most sudden and terrible mischief?"</p> + +<p>A great discovery was at hand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h3>THE GREAT DISCOVERY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a June day, 1752—one of the longest days of the +year. Benjamin Franklin was then forty-six years of age.</p> + +<p>The house garden was full of bloom; the trees were in +leafage, and there was the music of blooms in the hives of the +bees.</p> + +<p>Beyond the orchards and great trees the majestic Delaware +rolled in purple splendor, dotted with slanting sails.</p> + +<p>Nature was at the full tide of the year. The river winds +swept over the meadows in green waves, where the bobolinks +toppled in the joy of their songs.</p> + +<p>It had been a hot morning, and billowy clouds began to +rise in the still heat on the verge of the sky.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin sat amid the vines and roses of his door.</p> + +<p>"William," he said to his son, "I am expecting a shower to-day. +I have long been looking for one. I want you to remain +with me and witness an experiment that I am about to make."</p> + +<p>Silence Dogood, or Father Franklin, then brought a kite +out to the green lawn. The kite had a very long hempen +string, and to the end of it, which he held in his hand, he began +to attach some silk and a key.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When I was a boy," said Franklin, "and lived in the town +of Boston by the marshes, I made a curious experiment with a +kite. I let it tow me along the water where I went swimming. +I have always liked flying kites. I hope that this one will +bring me good luck should a shower come."</p> + +<p>"What do you expect to do with it, father?"</p> + +<p>"If the cloud comes up with thunder, and lightning +be electricity, I am going to try to secure a spark from the +sky."</p> + +<p>The air was still. The cloud was growing into mountain-like +peaks. The robins and thrushes were singing lustily in +the trees, as before a shower. The men in the cornfields and +gardens paused in their work.</p> + +<p>Presently a low sound of thunder rolled along the sky. The +cloud now loomed high and darkened in the still, hot air.</p> + +<p>"It is coming," said Franklin, "and the cloud will be a +thunder gust. It is early in the season for such a cloud as that. +See how black it grows!"</p> + +<p>The kite was made of a large silk handkerchief fastened to +a perpendicular stick, on the top of which was a piece of sharpened +iron wire. The philosopher examined it carefully.</p> + +<p>"What if you should receive a spark from the cloud, +father?" asked the young man.</p> + +<p>"I would then say lightning was electricity, and that it +could be controlled, and that human life might be protected +from the thunderbolt."</p> + +<p>"But would not that thwart the providence of God?"</p> + +<p>"No, it would merely cause a force of Nature to obey its +own laws so as to protect life instead of destroying it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span></p> + +<p>The sky darkened. The sun went out. The sea birds flew +inland and screamed. The field birds stood panting on the +shrubs with drooping wings.</p> + +<p>A rattling thunder peal crossed the sky. The wind +began to rise, and to cause the early blasted young fruit to +fall in the orchards. The waves on the Delaware curled +white.</p> + +<p>"Let us go to the cattle-shed," said Father Franklin. "I +have been laughed at all my life, and do not care to have my +neighbors tell the story of my experiment to others if I should +fail."</p> + +<p>The two went together to the cattle-shed on the green +meadow.</p> + +<p>The wind was roaring in the distance. The poultry were +running home, and the cattle were seeking the shelter of the +trees.</p> + +<p>The cloud was now overhead. Dark sheets of rain in the +horizon looked like walls of carbon reared against the sky. The +lightning was sharp and frequent. There came a vivid flash +followed by a peal of thunder that shook the hills.</p> + +<p>"The cloud is overhead now," said Franklin.</p> + +<p>He ran out into the green meadow and threw the kite +against the wind.</p> + +<p>It rose rapidly and was soon in the sky, drifting in the +clouds that seemed full of the vengeful fluid.</p> + +<p>At the termination of the hempen cord dangled the +key, and the silk end was wound around the philosopher's +hand.</p> + +<p>The young man took charge of a Leyden jar which he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +brought to the shed, in which to collect electricity from the +clouds, should the experiment prove successful.</p> + +<p>The cloud came on in its fury. The rain began to fall. +Franklin and his son stood under the shed.</p> + +<p>The air seemed electrified, but no electricity appeared in +the hempen string. Franklin presented his knuckle to the key, +but received no spark.</p> + +<p>What was that?</p> + +<p>The hempen string began to bristle like the hair of one electrified. +Was it the wind? Was it electricity?</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin now touched the key with thrilling emotion, +while his son looked on with an excited face. It was a +moment of destiny not only to the two experimenters in the +dashing rain, but to the world. If Franklin should receive a +spark from the key, it would change the currents of the world's +events.</p> + +<p>Flash!</p> + +<p>It came clear and sharp. The heavens had responded to +law—to the command of the human will guided by law.</p> + +<p>Again, another spark.</p> + +<p>The boy touches the key. He, too, is given the evidence +that has been given to his father.</p> + +<p>The two looked at each other.</p> + +<p>"Lightning is electricity," said Silence Dogood. "It can +be drawn away from points of danger; no one need be struck +by lightning if he will protect himself."</p> + +<p>"God himself," once said a writer, "could not strike one by +lightning if one were insulated, without violating his own +laws."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> + +<p>And now came the consummation of one of the grandest experiments +of time. He charged the Leyden jar from the +clouds.</p> + +<p>"Stand back!"</p> + +<p>He touched his hand boldly to the magical bottle. A +shock thrilled him. His dreams had come true. He had conquered +one of the most potent elements on earth.</p> + +<p>The storm passed, the clouds broke, the wind swept by, and +the birds sang again over the bending clover. Night serene with +stars came on. That was probably the happiest day in all +Franklin's eventful life. Like the patriarch of old, "his children +were about him." He shared his triumph with the son +whom he loved.</p> + +<p>But—he sent a paper on the results of his observation in +electricity to the Royal Society at London, in which he announced +his discovery that lightning was electricity. The society +did not deem it worth publishing; it was a neglected manuscript, +and as for his theory in regard to the electric fluid and +universality, that, we are told by Franklin's biographers, "was +laughed at."</p> + +<p>But his views had set all Europe to experimenting. Scientists +everywhere were proving that his theories were true. +France had become very much excited over the discovery, and +was already hailing the philosopher's name with shouts of admiration. +Franklin's fame filled Europe, and the greatest of +British societies began to honor him. It was Doctor Franklin +now!—The honorary degree came to him from many institutions.—Doctor +from England, Doctor from France, Doctor +from American colleges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> + +<p>The boy who had shared his penny rolls with the poor +woman and her child sat down to hear the world praising him.</p> + +<p>The facts that lightning was electricity or electricity was +lightning, that it was positive and negative, that it could be +controlled, that life could be made safe in the thunder gust, +were but the beginning of a series of triumphs that have come +to make messengers of the lightning, and brought the nations of +the world in daily communication with each other. But the +wizardlike Edison has shown that the influences direct and +indirect of that June day of 1752 may have yet only begun. +What magnetism and its currents are to reveal in another century +we can not tell; it fills us with silence and awe to read +the prophecies of the scientists of to-day. The electrical +mystery is not only moving us and all things; we are +burning it, we are making it medicine, health, life. What may +it not some day reveal in regard to a spiritual body or the human +soul?</p> + +<p>The centuries to come can only reveal what will be the end +of Franklin's discovery that lightning might be controlled to +become the protector and the servant of man. Even his imagination +could hardly have forecast the achievements which +the imp of the magical bottle would one day accomplish in this +blind world. It is not that lightning is electricity, but that +electricity is subject to laws, that has made the fiery substance +the wonder-worker of the age.</p> + +<p>If Uncle Ben, the poet, could have seen this day, how would +his heart have rejoiced!</p> + +<p>Jane Mecom—Jenny—heard of the fame of her brother +by every paper brought by the post. She delighted to tell her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +old mother the weekly news about Benjamin. One day, when +he had received honors from one of the great scientific +societies, Abiah said to her daughter:</p> + +<p>"You helped Ben in his early days—I can see now that you +did."</p> + +<p>"How, mother?"</p> + +<p>"By believing in him when hardly any one else did. We +build up people by believing in them. My dim eyes see it all +now. I love to think of the past," she continued, "when you +and Ben were so happy together—the days of Uncle Benjamin. +I love to think of the old family Thanksgivings. What wonderful +days were those when the old clock-cleaner came! How +he took the dumb, dusty clock to pieces, and laid it out on the +table! How Ben would say, 'you can never make that clock +tick again!' and you, Jenny, whose faith never failed, would +answer, 'Yes, Ben, he can!' How the old man would break +open a walnut and extract the oil from the meat, and apply +it with a feather to the little axles of the wheels, and then put +the works together, and the clock would go better than before! +Do you remember it, Jane? How, then, your wondering eyes +would look upon the clock miracle and delight in your faith, +and say, 'I told you so, Ben.' How he would kiss you in your +happiness that your prophecy had come true. He had said +'No' that you might say 'Yes.'"</p> + +<p>"Do you think that his thoughts turn home, mother?"</p> + +<p>There was a whir of wings in the chimney.</p> + +<p>"More to a true nature than a noisy applause of the crowd +is the simple faith of one honest heart," said Abiah Folger in +return. "In the silence and desolation of life, which may come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +to all, such sympathy is the only fountain to which one can turn. +Our best thoughts fly homeward like swallows to old chimneys, +where they last year brooded over their young, and center in +the true hearts left at the fireside. Every true heart is true to +his home, and to the graves of those with whom it shared the +years when life lay fair before it. Yes, Jane, he thinks of +you."</p> + +<p>She was right. Jenny had helped her brother by believing +in him when he most needed such faith.</p> + +<p>There is some good angel, some Jenny, who comes into +every one's life. Happy is he who feels the heart touch of +such an one, and yields to such unselfish spiritual visions. To +do this is to be led by a gentle hand into the best that there is +in life.</p> + +<p>In sacred hours the voices of these home angels come +back to the silent chambers of the heart. We then see that +our best hopes were in them, and wish that we could retune +the broken chords of the past. The home voice is always true, +and we find it so at last.</p> + +<p>Franklin had little of his sister's sentiment, but when he +thought of the old days, and of the simple hearts that were true +to him there, he would say, "Beloved Boston." His heart was +in the words. Boston was the town of Jenny.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>HOME-COMING IN DISGUISE.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> is a very delightful fiction, which may have blossomed +from fact, which used to be found in schoolbooks, under +the title of "The Story of Franklin's Return to his Mother +after a Long Absence."</p> + +<p>It would have been quite like him to have returned to Boston +in the guise of a stranger. Some one has said that he had +a joke for everything, and that he would have put one into the +Declaration of Independence had he been able.</p> + +<p>The tendency to make proverbs that Franklin showed in +his early years grew, and if he were not indeed as wise as King +Solomon, no one since the days of that Oriental monarch has +made and "sought out" so many proverbs and given them to +the world.</p> + +<p>The maxims of Poor Richard, which were at first given to +the world through an almanac, spread everywhere. They were +current in most Boston homes; they came back to the ears of +Jamie the Scotchman—back, we say, for some of them were +the echoes of Silence Dogood's life in the Puritan province.</p> + +<p>Poor Richard's Almanac was a lively and curious miscellany, +and its coming was an event in America. Franklin put the wisdom +that he gained by experience into it. In the following<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +resolution was the purpose of his life at this time: "I wished to +live," he says, "without committing any fault at any time, and +to conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company +might lead me into."</p> + +<p>"But—but," he says, "I was surprised to find myself so much +fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction +of seeing them diminish." In the spirit of this effort to correct +life and to learn wisdom from experience, he gave Poor Richard's +Almanac annually to the world. Like some of the proverbs +of Solomon, it taught the people life as he himself learned +it. For years Franklin lived in Poor Richard, and it was +his pulse beat, his open heart, that gave the annual its power. +All the sayings of Poor Richard were not original with +Franklin. When a critical proverb, or a line from one of the +poets, would express his idea or conviction better than he could +himself, he used it. For example, he borrowed some beautiful +lines from Pope, who in turn had received the leading thought +from a satire of Horace.</p> + +<p>While Franklin was learning wisdom from life, and expressing +it through Poor Richard, he was studying French, Italian, +and Spanish, and making himself the master of philosophy. +"He who would thrive must rise at five," he makes Poor +Richard say. He himself rose at five in the morning, and began +the day with a bath and a prayer. Intelligence to intelligence!</p> + +<p>Such was his life when Poor Richard was evolved.</p> + +<p>Who was Poor Richard, whose influence came to lead the +thought of the time?</p> + +<p>Poor Richard was a comic almanac, or a character assumed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +by Benjamin Franklin, for the purpose of expressing his views +of life. Having established a paper, Franklin saw the need of +an annual and of an almanac, and he chose to combine the two, +and to make the pamphlet a medium of hard sense in a rough, +keen, droll way.</p> + +<p>He introduces himself in this curious annual as "Richard +Saunders," "Poor Richard." He has an industrious wife +named Bridget. He publishes his almanac to earn a little +money to meet his pressing wants. "The plain truth of the +matter is," says this pretended almanac maker, "I am excessive +poor, and my wife, good woman, is, I tell her, excessive proud; +she cannot bear, she says, to sit spinning in her gown of tow, +while I do nothing but gaze at the stars; and has threatened +more than once to burn all my books and rattling-traps (as she +calls my instruments) if I do not make some profitable use of +them for the good of my family. The printer has offer'd me +some considerable share of the profits, and I have thus began to +comply with my dame's desire."</p> + +<p>This Titian Leeds was a pen name for his rival publisher, +who also issued an almanac. The two had begun life in Philadelphia +together as printers.</p> + +<p>The way in which he refers to his rival in his new almanac, +as a man about to die to fulfill the predictions of astrology, was +so comical as to excite a lively interest. Would he die? If not, +what would the <i>next</i> almanac say of him? Mr. Leeds (Keimer) +had a reputation of a knowledge of astronomy and astrology. +In what way could Franklin have introduced a character to the +public in the spirit of good-natured rivalry that would have +awakened a more genuine curiosity?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span></p> + +<p>The next year Poor Richard announced that his almanac +had proved a success, and told the public the news that they +were waiting for and much desired to hear: his wife Bridget had +profited by it. She was now able to have a dinner-pot of her +own, and something to put into it.</p> + +<p>But how about Titian Leeds, who was to die after the +astrological prediction? The people awaited the news of the +fate of this poor man, as we await the tidings of the end of a +piece of statesmanship. He thus answers, "I can not say positively +whether he is dead or alive," but as the author of the rival +almanac had spoken very disrespectfully of him, and as Mr. +Leeds when living was a gentleman, he concludes that Mr. +Leeds must be dead.</p> + +<p>In these comic annuals there is not only the almanacs and +the play upon Titian Leeds, but a large amount of rude wisdom +in the form of proverbs, aphorisms, and verses, most of which is +original, but a part of which, as we have said, is apt quotation. +The proverbs were everywhere quoted, and became a part of the +national education. They became popular in France, and filled +nearly all Europe. They are still quoted. Let us give you +some of them:</p> + +<p>"Who has deceived thee so oft as thyself?"</p> + +<p>"Fly pleasures, and they will follow thee."</p> + +<p>"Let thy child's first lesson be obedience, and the second +will be what thou wilt."</p> + +<p>"Industry need not wish."</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"In things of moment, on thyself depend,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nor trust too far thy servant or thy friend;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">With private views, thy friend may promise fair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And servants very seldom prove sincere."</span><br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> + +<p>Besides these quaint sayings, which became a part of the +proverbial wisdom of the world, Franklin had a comical remark +for every occasion, as, when a boy, he advised his father to say +grace over the whole pork barrel, and so save time at the table. +He once admonished Jenny in regard to her spelling, and that +after she was advanced in life, by telling her that the true way +to spell wife was <i>yf</i>. After the treaty of peace with England, +he thought it only a courtesy that America should return deported +people to their native shores. Once in Paris, on receiving +a cake labeled <i>Le digne Franklin</i>, which excited the jealousy +of Lee and Dean, he said that the present was meant for +Lee-Dean-Franklin, that being the pronunciation of the French +label. Every event had a comical side for him.</p> + +<p>Let us bring prosperous Benjamin Franklin back to Boston +to see his widowed mother again, after the old story-book manner. +She is nearly blind now, and we may suppose Jamie the +Scotchman to be halting and old.</p> + +<p>He comes into the town in the stagecoach at night. Boston +has grown. The grand old Province House rises above +it, the Indian vane turning hither and thither in the wind. +The old town pump gleams under a lantern, as does the +spring in Spring Lane, which fountain may have led to +the settlement of the town. On a hill a beacon gleams over +the sea. He passes the stocks and the whipping-post in the +shadows.</p> + +<p>There is a light in the window of the Blue Ball. He sees +it. It is very bright. Is his mother at work now that she is +nearly blind?</p> + +<p>He dismounts. He passes close to the old window. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +father is not in the room; he never will be there again. But +an aged man is there. Who is he?</p> + +<p>The man is reading—what? The most popular pamphlet +or little book that ever appeared in the colonies; a droll +story.</p> + +<p>He knocks at the door. The old man rises and opens the +door; the bell is gone.</p> + +<p>"Abiah, there's a stranger here."</p> + +<p>"Ask him who he is."</p> + +<p>"Say that he used to work here many years ago, and that +he knew Josiah Franklin well, and was acquainted with Ben."</p> + +<p>"Tell him to come in," said the bent old woman with white +hair.</p> + +<p>The stranger entered, and avoided questions by asking them.</p> + +<p>"What are you reading to-night, my good friend?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"The Old Auctioneer," answered the aged man. "Have +you read it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; it is on the taxes."</p> + +<p>"So it is—I've read it twice over. I'm now reading it to +Abiah. Let me tell you a secret—her son wrote it. My opinion +is that it is the smartest piece of work that ever saw the +light on this side of the water. What's yourn?"</p> + +<p>"There's sense in it."</p> + +<p>"What did he say his name was?" asked Abiah.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever read any of Poor Richard's maxims?" +asked the stranger quickly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes; we have taken the Almanac for years. Ben +publishes it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What did he say?" asked Abiah. "I can not hear as well +as I once could.—Stranger, I heard you when you spoke loud +at the door."</p> + +<p>"Repeat some of 'Poor Richard's' sayings," said the +stranger.</p> + +<p>"You may well say 'repeat,'" said the old man. "I used +to hear Ben Franklin say things like that when he was a 'prentice +lad."</p> + +<p>"Like what, my friend?"</p> + +<p>"Like 'The noblest question in the world is what good may +I do in it?' There! Like 'None preaches better than the +ant, and she says nothing.' There!"</p> + +<p>"I see, I see, my good friend, you seem to have confidence +in Poor Richard?"</p> + +<p>"Sir, I taught him much of his wisdom—he and I used to +be great friends. I always knew that he had a star in his soul +that would shine—I foresaw it all. I have the gift of second +sight. I am a Scotchman."</p> + +<p>"And you prophesied good things to him when he was a +boy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, or, if I did not, I only spoke in a discouraging +way to encourage him. He and I were chums; we used to sit +on Long Wharf together and <i>prognosticate</i> together. That +was a kind of Harvard College to us. Uncle Ben was living +then."</p> + +<p>"Maybe the stranger would like you to read The Old Auctioneer," +said Abiah to the Scotchman. "My boy wrote that—he +told you. My boy has good sense—Jamie here will tell you +so. I'm older now than I was."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, read, and let me rest. When the bell rings for +nine I will go to the inn."</p> + +<p>"Maybe we can keep you here. We'll talk it over later. +I want to hear Ben's piece. I'm his mother, and they tell me +it is interesting to people who are no relation to him.—Jamie, +you read the piece, and then we will talk over the past. It +seems like meeting Ben again to hear his pieces read."</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman read, and while he did so Abiah, +wrinkled and old, looked often toward the stranger out of her +dim eyes, while she listened to her son's always popular story +of The Old Auctioneer.</p> + +<p>"That is a very good piece," said Abiah Franklin; "and +now, stranger, let me say that your voice sounds familiar, and +I want you to tell me in a good strong tone who you be. I +didn't hear you give any name."</p> + +<p>"Is it almost nine?" asked the stranger.</p> + +<p>Jamie opened the door.</p> + +<p>A bell smote the still air, a silverlike bell. It spoke nine +times.</p> + +<p>"I never heard that bell before," said the stranger.</p> + +<p>Suddenly music flooded the air; it seemed descending; +there were many bells—and they were singing.</p> + +<p>"The Old North chimes," said the Scotchman; "they have +just been put up. I wish Ben could hear them; I sort of carry +him in my heart."</p> + +<p>"Don't speak! It is beautiful," said the stranger. "Hear +what they are saying."</p> + +<p>"O Jamie, Jamie, <i>father</i> used to play that tune on his +violin."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<i>Father!</i>" The old woman started.</p> + +<p>"Ben, Ben, how could you! Come here; my eyes are failing +me, Ben, but my heart will never fail me.—Jamie, prepare +for him his old room, and leave us to talk together!"</p> + +<p>"I will go out to Mrs. Mecom's, and tell her that Benjamin +has come home."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, go and call Jenny."</p> + +<p>They talked together long: of Josiah, now gone; of Uncle +Benjamin, long dead; and of Parson Sewell, and the deacons +of the South Church, who had passed away.</p> + +<p>The door opened. Jenny again stood before him. She led +on a boy by the hand, and said to her portly brother:</p> + +<p>"This, Benjamin, is Benjamin."</p> + +<p>They talked together until the tears came.</p> + +<p>He heard the whir of the swallows' wings in the chimney.</p> + +<p>"The swallows come back," he said, "but they will never +come again. It fills my heart with tenderness to hear these +old home sounds."</p> + +<p>"No, <i>they</i> will never come back from the mosses and ferns +under the elms," said his mother. "The orioles come, the +orchards bloom, and summer lights up the hills, and the leaves +fall, but they will know no more changes or seasons. And I +am going after their feet into the silence, Ben; I have almost +got through. You have been a true son in the main, and Jenny +has never stepped aside from the way. Always be good to +Jenny."</p> + +<p>"Jenny, always be true to mother, and I will be as true to +you."</p> + +<p>"Brother, I shall always be true to my home."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h3>"THOSE PAMPHLETS."</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Benjamin Franklin</span> loved to meet Samuel Franklin, +Uncle Benjamin's son, who also had caught the gentle philosopher's +spirit, and was making good his father's intention. Samuel +was a thrifty man in a growing town.</p> + +<p>"It is the joy of my life to find you so prosperous," said +Franklin, "for it would have made your father's heart +happy could he have known that one day I would find you so. +Samuel, your father was a good man. I shall never cease to +be grateful for his influence over me when I was a boy. He +was my schoolmaster."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my father was a good man, and I never saw it as I +do now. I was not all to him that I ought to have been. He +was a poor man; he lived as it were on ideas, and people +were accustomed to look upon him as a man who had failed +in life."</p> + +<p>"He will never fail while you are a man of right influence," +said Franklin. "He lives in you."</p> + +<p>"I feel his influence more and more every day," said +Samuel.</p> + +<p>"Samuel Franklin, I do. Success does not consist in popularity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> +or money-making. Right influence is success in life. I +have been an unworthy godson of your father, but I am more +than ever determined to carry out the principles that he taught +me; they are the only things that will stand in life; as for the +rest, the grave swallows all. Your father's life shall never be +a failure if my life can bring to it honor.</p> + +<p>"Samuel, I have not always done my best, but I resolve +more and more to be worthy of the love of all men when I +think of what a character your father developed. He thought +of himself last. He did not die poor. His hands were empty, +but not his heart, and there sleeps no richer man in the Granary +burying ground than he.</p> + +<p>"Samuel, he parted with his library containing the notes +of his best thoughts in life in his efforts to come to America +to give me the true lessons in life because I bore his name. It +was a brotherly thought indeed that led my father who loved +him to name me for him."</p> + +<p>"You speak of his library—his collection of religious books +and pamphlets, which he wrote over with his own ideas; you +have touched a tender spot in my heart. He wanted that I +should have those pamphlets, and that I should try to recover +them through some London agent. You are going to London. +Do you think that they could be recovered after so many +years?"</p> + +<p>"Samuel, there is a strange thing that I have observed. It +is this: When a man looks earnestly for a thing that some one +has desired him to have, his mind is curiously influenced and has +strange directions. It is like blindfolded children playing hot +and cold. There is some strange instinct in one who seeks a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> +hidden object for his own or others' good that leads his feet into +mysterious ways. I have much faith in that hidden law. +Samuel, I may be able to find those pamphlets; I thought of +them when I was in London. If I do, I will buy them at whatever +cost, and will bring them to you, and may both of us try +to honor the name of that loving, forgiving, noble man until +we see each other again. It may be that when I shall come +here another time, if I do, I will bring with me the pamphlets."</p> + +<p>"If you were to find them, I would indeed believe in a special +Providence."</p> + +<p>The two parted. Poor Uncle Benjamin had sold his books +for money, but was his life a failure, or was he never living +more nobly than now?</p> + +<p>Franklin went to the Granary burying ground, where the +old man slept. Great elms stood before the place. He thought +of what his parents had been, how they had struggled and +toiled, and how glad they were that Uncle Benjamin had come +to them for his sake. He resolved to erect a monument there.</p> + +<p>He recalled Uncle Benjamin's teaching, that a man rises by +overcoming his defects, and so gains strength.</p> + +<p>He had tried to profit by the old man's lesson in answer +to his own question, "Have I a chance?"</p> + +<p>He had not only struggled to make strong his conscious +weaknesses of character, but those of his mental power as well.</p> + +<p>His old pedagogue, Mr. Brownell, had been unable to teach +him mathematics. In this branch of elementary studies he had +proved a failure and a dunce. But he had struggled against +this defect of Nature, as against all others, with success.</p> + +<p>He was going to London as the agent of the colonies. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +would carry back to England those principles that the old man +had taught him, and would live them there. His Uncle Benjamin +had written those principles in his "pamphlets," and +again in his own life. Would he ever see these documents +which had in fact been his schoolbooks, but which had come +to him without the letter, because the old man had been too +poor to keep the books?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h3>A STRANGE DISCOVERY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin</span> went to London.</p> + +<p>Franklin loved old bookstores. There were many in London, +moldy and musty, in obscure corners, some of them in +cellars and in narrow passageways, just off thronging streets.</p> + +<p>One day, when he was sixty years of age, just fifty years +after his association with Uncle Benjamin, he wandered out +into the byways of the old London bookstores.</p> + +<p>It was early spring; the winter fogs of London had disappeared, +the squares were turning green, the hedgerows blooming, +the birds were singing on the thorns. Such a sunny, blue +morning might have called him into the country, but he turned +instead into the flowerless ways of the book stalls. He wandered +about for a time and found nothing. Then he thought +of old Humphrey, of whom he had bought books perhaps out +of pity. There was something about this man that held him; +he seemed somehow like a link of the unknown past. He compelled +him to buy books that he did not want or need.</p> + +<p>"This is a fine spring morning," said old Humphrey, as he +saw the portly form of Franklin enter the door. "I have been +thinking of you much of late. I do not seem to be able to have +put you out of my mind; and why should I, a fine gentleman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +like you, and uncommonly civil. I have something that I +have been allotting on showing you. It is very curious; it is a +library of thirty-six volumes of pamphlets, and it minds me that +a more interesting collection of pamphlets was never made. I +read them myself in lonesome days when there is no trade. +Let me show you one of the volumes."</p> + +<p>"No, never mind, my friend. I could not buy the whole +library, however interesting it might be. I will look for something +smaller. This is a very old bookstore."</p> + +<p>"Ay, it is that. It has been kept here ever since the times +of the Restoration, and before. My wife's father used to keep +it when he was an old man and I was a boy. And now I am +an old man. I must show you one of those books or pamphlets. +They are all written over."</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin sat down on a stool in the light, and +took up an odd volume of the Canterbury Tales.</p> + +<p>Old Humphrey lighted a candle and went into a dark recess. +He presently returned, bringing one of the thirty-six volumes +of pamphlets.</p> + +<p>"My American friend, if one liked old things, and the comments +of one dead and gone, this library of pamphlets would +be food for thought. Just look at this volume!"</p> + +<p>He struck the book against a shelf to remove the dust, +and handed it to Franklin.</p> + +<p>The latter adjusted his spectacles to the light, and turned +over the volume.</p> + +<p>"As you say," he said to old Humphrey, "it is all written +over."</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 266px;"> +<img src="images/illus-235.jpg" width="266" height="400" alt="A strange discovery." title="A strange discovery." /> +<span class="caption">A strange discovery.</span> +</div> + +<p>"And uncommonly interesting comments they are. That<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +library of pamphlets and comments, in my opinion, is as valuable +as Pepys's Diary.</p> + +<p>Old Humphrey had struck the right chord. In Pepys's +Diary, which was kept for nine years during the gay and exciting +period of the reign of Charles II, one lives, as it were, +amid the old court scenes.</p> + +<p>Franklin turned over the leaves of the volume. "It is a +curious book," said he.</p> + +<p>The light was poor, and he took the book to the door. +Above the tall houses of the narrow street was a rift of sunny +blue sky.</p> + +<p>"There is something in the handwriting that looks familiar," +said he. "It seems as though I had seen that writing +somewhere before. Where did you find these books?"</p> + +<p>"They came to me from my wife's father, who kept the +storeway until he was nigh upon ninety years old. He set +great store by these books, which led me to read them.</p> + +<p>"When Pepys's Diary was printed I was reminded of them, +and read them over again, the comments and all. The person +who made those notes had a very interesting mind. I think +him to have been a philosopher."</p> + +<p>The ink on the margin of the volume was fading, and +Franklin strained his eyes to read the comments. Suddenly +he turned and came into the store and sat down.</p> + +<p>"Father Humphrey, bring me another volume."</p> + +<p>Father Humphrey lighted the candle again and went into +the same dark and tomblike recess, and brought out two more +volumes, striking them against the corners of shelves to remove +from them the dust and mold.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span></p> + +<p>He noticed that his patron seemed overcome. Franklin +was not an emotional man, but his lip quivered.</p> + +<p>"You think that the book is interesting?"</p> + +<p>He lifted his face and seemed lost in thought.</p> + +<p>"Ecton—Ecton—Ecton," he said. "Uncle Tom lived +there—Uncle Tom, who started the subscription for the chime +of bells."</p> + +<p>He had found the word "Ecton" in the pamphlets, and +he again began to turn the leaves.</p> + +<p>"Squire Isted," he said, "Squire Isted." He had found +the name of Squire Isted on one of the leaves. He had heard +the name in his youth.</p> + +<p>"The World's End," he said. He stood up and turned +round and round.</p> + +<p>"How queer he acts!" thought Father Humphrey. "I +thought him a very calm man. What is it about the World's +End?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is the name of an old tavern that I have found here. +I had some great-uncles that used to have a farm and forge +near an inn of that name. That was very long ago, before I +was born. Old names seem to me like voices of the past."</p> + +<p>He put his spectacles to his eyes and held the book again +up to the light.</p> + +<p>He presently said: "Luke Fuller—that is an old English +name; there was such a one who was ousted for nonconformity +in the days of the Conventicles."</p> + +<p>He turned round and lifted his face and stood still, like a +statue.</p> + +<p>Was he going mad? Poor old Father Humphrey began to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +look toward the door to see if there were clear way of escape +for him should the strange man become violent.</p> + +<p>Presently he said:</p> + +<p>"Earls—Barton," and lifted his brows.</p> + +<p>Then he said:</p> + +<p>"Mears—Ashby," and lifted his brows higher.</p> + +<p>"What, sir, is it about Earls—Barton, and Mears—Ashby?" +asked the timid Father Humphrey.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are <i>here</i>. I've heard of these places before—it +was many years ago. Some folks came over to America from +there."</p> + +<p>He turned to the book again. "An Essay on the Toleration +Act," said he. "Banbury," he continued. He dropped +the book by his side, and lifted his brows again.</p> + +<p>Poor Father Humphrey now thought that his customer +had indeed gone daft, and was beginning to repeat an old +nursery rhyme that that name suggested.</p> + +<p>The book went up to the light again. Old Humphrey, +frightened, passed him and went to the door, so that he might +run if his strange visitor should be incited to do him harm.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a very alarming expression came over the book-finder's +face. What would he do next, this calm, grand old +man, who was going out of his senses in this unfortunate +place?</p> + +<p>He dropped the book by his side again, and said, as in the +voice of another, a long-gone voice:</p> + +<p>"Reuben of the Mill—Reuben of the Mill!"</p> + +<p>Poor Father Humphrey thought he was summoning the +ghost of some strange being from the recesses of the cellar. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +began to walk away, when the supposed mind-shattered American +seemed to be returning to himself, and said in a very calm +and dignified manner:</p> + +<p>"Father Humphrey, you must think that I have been acting +strangely. There are some notes here that recall old names +and places. They carried my thoughts away back to the +past."</p> + +<p>The timid man came into the shop hopeful of a bargain.</p> + +<p>"It is a useful book, I should think," said Franklin, as if +holding himself in restraint.</p> + +<p>He took the two other volumes that Father Humphrey had +brought him and began to look them over.</p> + +<p>"Father Humphrey, what do you want for the whole library +of the pamphlets?"</p> + +<p>"I do not exactly know what price to fix upon them. They +might be valuable to an antiquarian some day, perhaps to some +solicitor, or to a library. I would be glad to sell them to you, +for somehow—and I speak out of my heart, and use no trade +language—somehow I want you to buy them. Would five +pounds be too much for the thirty volumes?"</p> + +<p>"No, no. There are but few that would want them or give +them room. I will pay you five pounds for them. I will take +one volume away, but for the present you shall keep the others +for me."</p> + +<p>He left the store. It was a bright day. Happy faces +passed him, but he saw them not. He walked, indeed, the +streets of London, but it was the Boston of his childhood that +was with him now. He wondered at what he had found—he +wondered if there were mysterious influences behind life; for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +he was certain that these pamphlets were those that his godfather +Uncle Benjamin had so valued as a part of himself, and +that the notes on the margin of the leaves were in the handwriting +of the same kind-hearted man whose influence had so +molded his young life.</p> + +<p>He went to his apartments, and sat down at his table and +read the pamphlet and the notes. He found in the notes the +very thoughts and the same expressions of thought that he had +received from Uncle Benjamin in his childhood.</p> + +<p>What a life had been his, and how much he owed to this +honest, pure-minded old man!</p> + +<p>He started up.</p> + +<p>"I must go back to Father Humphrey," he said, "and find +of whom he obtained these books. If these are Uncle Benjamin's +pamphlets, this is the strangest incident in all my life; +it would look as though there was a finger of Providence in it. +I must go back—I must go back."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<h3>OLD HUMPHREY'S STRANGE STORY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> his usual serene manner—for he very rarely became excited, +notwithstanding that his conduct and his absentmindedness +had surprised old Humphrey—Mr. Franklin made his way +again to the bookstore in the alley.</p> + +<p>Old Humphrey welcomed him with—</p> + +<p>"Well, I am glad to see you again, my American patron. +Did you find the volume interesting?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Father Humphrey, that was an interesting book, and +there were some very curious comments in it. The notes on +the Conventicles and the Toleration Act greatly interested me. +The man who was the compiler of that book of pamphlets +seems to have been a poet, and to have had relatives who were +advocates of justice. I was struck by many wise comments +that I found in it written in a peculiar hand. Father Humphrey, +who do you suppose made those notes? Where did you +find those pamphlets? How did they come to you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, that would be hard to say. Those volumes of +pamphlets have been in the store many years, and I have often +tried to find a purchaser for them. They must have come down +from the times of the Restoration. I wouldn't wonder if they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +were as old as Cromwell's day. There is much about Banbury +in them, and old Lord Halifax."</p> + +<p>"Old Lord Halifax!" said Franklin in surprise, walking +about with a far-away look in his face again and his hands behind +him. "I did not find that name in the volume that I took +home. I had an uncle who received favors from old Lord +Halifax."</p> + +<p>"You did, hey? Where did he live?"</p> + +<p>"In Ecton, or in Nottingham."</p> + +<p>"Now, that is curious. It may be that he made the library +of pamphlets."</p> + +<p>"No, no; if he had, he would never have sold them. He +was a well-to-do man. But you have not answered my questions +as to how the library of pamphlets came to you."</p> + +<p>"I can't. I found them here when I took charge of the +store. My wife's father, as I said, used to keep the store. He +died suddenly in old age, and left the store to my wife. He +had made a better living than I out of my business. So I took +the store. I found the books here. I do not know where my +father-in-law obtained them. It was his business to buy rare +books, and then find a way to some antiquarian of means who +might want them. The owner's name was not left in these +books. I have looked for it many times. But there are names +of Nottingham people there, and when old Lord Halifax used +to visit London I tried to interest him in them, but he did not +care to buy them."</p> + +<p>"Father Humphrey, what was your wife's father's +name?"</p> + +<p>"His name was Axel, sir. He was a good man, sir. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> +attended the conventicles, sir, and became a Brownite, sir, +and——"</p> + +<p>Was the American gentleman going daft again?</p> + +<p>He stopped at the name of <i>Axel</i>, and lifted his brows. He +turned around, and bowed over with a look of intense interest.</p> + +<p>"Did you say Axel, Father Humphrey?"</p> + +<p>"Axel, your honor. Axel. I once heard him say that several +of these pamphlets were suppressed after the Restoration, +and that they were rare and valuable. I heard him say that +they would be useful to a historian, sir."</p> + +<p>"I will pay you for the books, and you may hold them in +trust for me. They will be sent for some day, or it may be that +I will call for them myself. My uncle owned those books. It +would have been the dearest thing of his life could the old man +have seen what has now happened. Father Humphrey, one's +heart's desires bring about strange things. They shape events +after a man is dead. It seems to me as though I had been directed +here. Father Humphrey, what do you think of such things?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know. From the time that I first saw you +my mind was turned to the pamphlets. I don't know why. +Perhaps the owner's thought, or desires, or prayers led me. +It is all very strange."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is very strange," said Franklin, again walking to +and fro with his hands behind him. "I wish that all good +men's works could be fulfilled in this way."</p> + +<p>"How do you know that they are not?"</p> + +<p>"Let us hope that they are."</p> + +<p>"This is all very strange."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Very strange, very strange. It is the greatest of blessings +in life to have had good ancestors. Uncle Ben was a +good old man. I owe much to him, and now I seem to have +met with him again—Uncle Benjamin, my father's favorite +brother, who used to carry me sailing and made the boat a +schoolroom for me in the harbor of Boston town."</p> + +<p>He added to himself in an absent way: "Samuel Franklin +and I have promised to live so as to honor the character of this +old man. I have a great task before me, and I can not tell +what the issue will be, but I will hold these pamphlets and +keep them until I can look into Samuel's face and say, 'England +has done justice to America, and your father's influence +has advanced the cause of human rights in the world.'"</p> + +<p>Would that day ever come?</p> + +<p>He went to Ecton, in Nottinghamshire, with his son, +and there heard the chimes in the steeple that had been +placed there by Thomas Franklin's influence. He visited +the graves of his ancestors and the homes of many poor +people who bore the Franklin name. He found three letters +that his Uncle Benjamin had written home. He read in +them the names of himself and Jenny. How his heart must +have turned home on that visit! A biographer of Franklin +tells his story in a beautiful simplicity that leaves no call for +fictitious enlargement. He says: "Franklin discovered a +cousin, a happy and venerable old maid; 'a good, clever +woman,' he wrote, 'but poor, though vastly contented with her +situation, and very cheerful'—a genuine Franklin, evidently. +She gave him some of his Uncle Benjamin's old letters to read, +with their pious rhymings and acrostics, in which occurred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +allusions to himself and his sister Jane when they were children. +Continuing their journey, father and son reached Ecton, where +so many successive Franklins had plied the blacksmith's hammer. +They found that the farm of thirty acres had been sold +to strangers. The old stone cottage of their ancestors was used +for a school, but was still called the Franklin House. Many +relations and connections they hunted up, most of them old and +poor, but endowed with the inestimable Franklinian gift of +making the best of their lot. They copied tombstones; they +examined the parish register; they heard the chime of bells +play which Uncle Thomas had caused to be purchased for the +quaint old Ecton church seventy years before; and examined +other evidences of his worth and public spirit."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<h3>THE EAGLE THAT CAUGHT THE CAT.—DR. FRANKLIN'S ENGLISH +FABLE.—THE DOCTOR'S SQUIRRELS.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Dr. Franklin was abroad the first time after the misadventure +with Governor Keith, and was an agent of the colonies, +his fame as a scientist gave him a place in the highest +intellectual circles of England, and among his friends were several +clergymen of the English Church and certain noblemen +of eminent force and character.</p> + +<p>When in 1775, while he was again the colonial agent, the +events in America became exciting, his position as the representative +American in England compelled him to face the rising +tide against his country. He was now sixty-nine years of +age. He was personally popular, although the king came to +regard him with disfavor, and once called him that "insidious +man." But he never failed, at any cost of personal reputation, +to defend the American cause.</p> + +<p>His good humor never forsook him, and the droll, quaint +wisdom that had appeared in Poor Richard was turned to +good account in the advocacy of the rights of the American +colonies.</p> + +<p>One evening he dined at the house of a nobleman. It was +in the year of the Concord fight, when political events in America<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +were hurrying and were exciting all minds in both countries.</p> + +<p>They talked of literature at the party, but the political +situation was uppermost in the minds of all.</p> + +<p>A gentleman was present whose literary mind made him +very interesting to such circles.</p> + +<p>"The art of the illustration of the principles of life in +fable," he said, "is exhausted. Æsop, La Fontaine, Gay, and +others have left nothing further to be produced in parable +teaching."</p> + +<p>The view was entertaining. He added:</p> + +<p>"There is not left a bird, animal, or fish that could be +made the subject of any original fable."</p> + +<p>Dr. Franklin seemed to be very thoughtful for a time.</p> + +<p>"What is your opinion, doctor?" asked the literary gentleman.</p> + +<p>"You are wrong, sir. The opportunity to produce +fables is limitless. Almost every event offers the fabric of a +fable."</p> + +<p>"Could you write a fable on any of the events of the present +time?" asked the lord curiously.</p> + +<p>"If you will order pen and ink and paper, I will give you +a picture of the times in fable. A fable comes to me now."</p> + +<p>The lord ordered the writing material.</p> + +<p>What new animals or birds had taken possession of Franklin's +fancy? No new animals or birds, but old ones in new +relations.</p> + +<p>Franklin wrote out his fable and proceeded to read it. It +was a short one, but the effect was direct and surprising. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +lord's face must have changed when he listened to it, for it +was a time when such things struck to the heart.</p> + +<p>The fable not only showed Dr. Franklin's invention, but +his courage. It was as follows: "Once upon a time an eagle, +scaling round a farmer's barn and espying a hare, darted down +upon him like a sunbeam, seized him in his claws, and remounted +with him to the air. He soon found that he had a +creature of more courage and strength than a hare, for which, +notwithstanding the keenness of his eyesight, he had mistaken +a cat.</p> + +<p>"The snarling and scrambling of his prey were very inconvenient, +and, what was worse, she had disengaged herself from +his talons, grasped his body with her four limbs, so as to +stop his breath, and seized fast hold of his throat with her +teeth.</p> + +<p>"'Pray,' said the eagle, 'let go your hold, and I will release +you.'</p> + +<p>"'Very fine,' said the cat; 'I have no fancy to fall from +this height and be crushed to death. You have taken me up, +and you shall stoop and let me down.' The eagle thought it +necessary to stoop accordingly."</p> + +<p>The eagle, of course, represented England, and the cat +America.</p> + +<p>Dr. Franklin was a lover of little children and animals—among +pet animals, of the American squirrel.</p> + +<p>When he returned to England the second time as an agent +of the colonies, he wished to make some presents to his English +friends who had families.</p> + +<p>He liked not only to please children, but to give them those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +things which would delight them. So he took over to England +for presents a cage full of pranky little squirrels.</p> + +<p>Among the families of children whom he loved was Dr. +Shipley's, the bishop, who had a delightful little daughter, +and to her the great Dr. Franklin, who was believed to command +the visible heavens, made a present of a cunning American +squirrel.</p> + +<p>The girl came to love the pet. It was a truly American +squirrel; it sought liberty. Franklin called it Mungo.</p> + +<p>The girl seems to have given the little creature his will, +and let him sometimes go free among the oaks and hedgerows +of the fair, green land. But one day it was caught by a dog +or cat, or some other animal, and killed. His liberty proved +his ruin. Poor Mungo!</p> + +<p>There was sorrow in the bishop's home over the loss of the +pet, and the poor little girl sought consolation from the philosopher.</p> + +<p>But, philosopher that he was, he could not recall to life +the little martyr to liberty. So he did about all that can be +done in like cases: he wrote for her an epitaph for her pet, setting +forth its misfortunes, and giving it a charitable history, +which must have been very consoling. He did not indulge in +any frivolous rhymes, but used the stately rhythms that befit +a very solemn event.</p> + +<p>There is a perfect picture of the mother heart of Franklin +in this little story. The world has ever asked why this man +was so liked. The answer may be read here: A sympathy, +guided by principle, that often found expression in humor.</p> + +<p>As in the case of good old Sam Adams, the children followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +him. Blessed are those whom mothers and children love. It +is the heart that has power. A touch of sympathy outlives +tales of achievements of power, as in the story of Ulysses's dog. +It is he who sympathizes the most with mankind that longest +lives in human affections.</p> + +<p>A man's character may be known by the poet that the man +seeks as his interpreter. Franklin's favorite poet as he grew +old was Cowper. In all his duties of life he never lost that +heart charm, the <i>grandfather</i> charm; it was active now when +children still made his old age happy.</p> + +<p>How queerly he must have looked in England with his cage +of little squirrels and the children following him in some good +bishop's garden!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + +<h3>OLD MR. CALAMITY AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin's</span> paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, which appeared +in the year 1729, at first published by Franklin and +Meredith, and always very neatly printed, had grown, and its +income became large. It did much of the thinking for the +province. But Franklin made it what it was by his energy, +perseverance, and faith. He returned to America, and the +paper voiced his opinions.</p> + +<p>In the period of his early struggle, he was wheeling some +printing paper in a wheelbarrow along the streets toward his +office when he heard the tap, tap, tap of an old man's cane.</p> + +<p>He looked around. It was the cane of old Mr. Calamity. +This man had advised him not to begin publishing.</p> + +<p>"Young man——"</p> + +<p>"Good morning, sir. I hope it finds you well."</p> + +<p>"It must be hard times when an editor has to carry his +printing paper in a wheelbarrow."</p> + +<p>"The oracle said, 'Leave no stone unturned if you would +find success.'"</p> + +<p>"Well, my young friend, if there is anybody that obeys the +oracle in Pennsylvania it is you. You dress plainly; you do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +not indulge in many luxuries; you attend the societies and clubs +that seek information; you ought to succeed, but you won't."</p> + +<p>The old man lifted his cane and brought it down on the +flagging stones with a pump.</p> + +<p>"You won't, <i>now!</i>"</p> + +<p>He stood still for a moment to add to the impression of his +words.</p> + +<p>"What is this I hear? The province is about to issue paper +money? What did I tell you long ago? This is an age of +rags. Paper money is rags. Governor Keith's affairs have +all gone to ruin; it is unfortunate that he went away. And +you are going to print the paper money for the province, are +you? Listen to me: in a few years it will not be worth the +paper it is printed on, and you will be glad to follow the example +of Governor Keith, and get out of Philadelphia. The +times are hard, but they are going to be harder. What hope +is there for such a man as you?"</p> + +<p>Franklin set down his wheelbarrow.</p> + +<p>"My good sir, I am doing honest work. It will tell—I have +confidence that it will tell."</p> + +<p>"Tell! Tell who?"</p> + +<p>"The world."</p> + +<p>"The world! The owls have not yet ceased to hoot in +woods around Philadelphia, and he has a small world that is +bounded by the hoot of an owl."</p> + +<p>"My father used to say that he who is diligent in his business +shall stand before kings," quoting the Scripture.</p> + +<p>"Well, you may be as honest and as diligent in your business +as you will, it is a small chance that you will ever have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +of standing before kings. What are you standing before now?—a +wheelbarrow. That is as far as you have got. A promising +young man it must be to stand before a wheelbarrow and talk +about standing before kings!"</p> + +<p>"But, sir, I ought not to be standing before a wheelbarrow. +I ought to be going on and coining time."</p> + +<p>"Well, go right along; you are on the way to Poverty Corner, +and you will not need any guide post to find it; take up +the handles of the wheelbarrow and go right on. Maybe the +king will send a coach for you some day."</p> + +<p>He did—more than one king did.</p> + +<p>Franklin took the handles of the wheelbarrow, wondering +which was the true prophet, his father's Scripture or cautious +old Mr. Calamity. As he went on he heard the tap, tap, tap +of the cane behind him, and a low laugh at times and the word +"kings."</p> + +<p>He came to the office, and taking a huge bundle of printing +paper on his shoulder went in. The cane passed, tap, tap, tapping. +It had an ominous sound. But after the tap, tap, tap +of the cane had gone, Franklin could still hear his old father's +words in his spiritual memory, and he believed that they were +true.</p> + +<p>We must continue the story of Mr. Calamity, so as to picture +events from a Tory point of view. The incident of the +wheelbarrow would long cause him to reproach the name of +Franklin.</p> + +<p>The Pennsylvania Gazette not only grew and became a +source of large revenue, so that Franklin had no more need +to wheel to his office printing paper with his own hands, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +it crowned with honor the work of which he was never ashamed. +The printing of the paper money of the province added to his +name, the success that multiplies success began its rounds with +the years, and middle life found him a rich man, and his late +return from England a man with the lever of power that molds +opinion.</p> + +<p>Poor old Mr. Calamity must have viewed this growth and +prosperity with eyes askance. His cane tapped more rapidly +yearly as it passed the great newspaper office, notwithstanding +that it bore more and more the weight of years.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin was a magnanimous man. He never +wasted time in seeking the injury of any who ridiculed and belittled +him. He had the largest charity for the mistakes in +judgment that men make, and the opportunities of life were +too precious for him to waste any time in beating the air where +nothing was to be gained. Help the man who some time sought +to injure you, and the day may come when he will help you, +and such Peter-like experiences are among life's richest harvests. +The true friendship gained by forgiveness has a breadth +and depth of life that bring one of the highest joys of heaven +to the soul.</p> + +<p>"I will study many things, for I must be proficient in +something," said the poet Longfellow when young. Franklin +studied everything—languages, literature, science, and art. +His middle life was filled with studies; all life to him was a +schoolroom. His studies in middle life bore fruit after he was +threescore and ten years of age. They helped to make his paper +powerful.</p> + +<p>Franklin's success greatly troubled poor old Mr. Calamity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +After the printer made the great discovery that electricity was +lightning, the old man opposed the use of lightning-rods.</p> + +<p>"What will that man Franklin do next?" he said. "He +would oppose the Lord of the heavens from thundering and +lightning—he would defy Providence and Omnipotent Power. +Why, the next thing he may deny the authority of King George +himself, who is divinely appointed. He is a dangerous man, the +most dangerous man in all the colony."</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Calamity warned the people against the innovations +of this dangerous man.</p> + +<p>One day, as he was resting under the great trees on the +Schuylkill, there was brought to him grievous news. A clerk +in the Pennsylvania Assembly came up to him and asked:</p> + +<p>"Do you know what has been done? The Assembly has +appointed Franklin as agent to London; he is to go as the agent +of all the colonies."</p> + +<p>"Sho! What do the colonies want of an agent in London? +Don't the king know how to govern his colonies? +And if we need an agent abroad, why should we send a printer +and a lightning-rod man? Clerk, sit down! That man Franklin +is a dangerous leader. 'An agent of the colonies in London!' +Why, I have seen him carrying printing paper in a +wheelbarrow. A curious man that to send to the court of +England's sovereign, whose arms are the lion and the unicorn."</p> + +<p>"But there is a movement in England to tax the colonies."</p> + +<p>"And why shouldn't there be? If the king thinks it is advisable +to tax the colonies for their own support, why should +not his ministers be instructed to do so? The king is a power<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +divinely ordained; the king can do no wrong. We ought to +be willing to be taxed by such a virtuous and gracious sovereign. +Taxation is a blessing; it makes us realize our privileges. +Oh, that Franklin! that Franklin! there is something peculiarsome +about him; but the end of that man is to fall. First +carrying about printing paper in a wheelbarrow, then trifling +with the lightning in a thunderstorm, and now going to the +court of England as a representative of the colonies. The +world never saw such an amazing spectacle as that in all its history. +Do you know what the king may yet be compelled to do? +He may yet have to punish his American colonies. Clouds are +gathering—I can see. Well, let Franklin go, and take his +wheelbarrow with him! What times these are!"</p> + +<p>Franklin was sent to England again greatly to the discomfort +of Mr. Calamity.</p> + +<p>The English Parliament passed an act called the Stamp +Act, taxing the colonies by placing a stamp on all paper to be +used in legal transactions. It was passed against the consent +of the colonies, who were allowed to have no representatives +in the foreign government, and the measure filled the colonies +with indignation. There were not many in America like Mr. +Calamity who believed the doctrine that the king could do +no wrong. King George III approved of the Stamp Act, not +only as a means of revenue, but as an assertion of royal authority.</p> + +<p>The colonies were opposed to the use of the stamped paper. +Were they to submit to be governed by the will of a foreign +power without any voice in the measures of the government +imposed upon them? Were their lives and property at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +command of a despotism, without any source of appeal to justice?</p> + +<p>The indignation grew. The spirit of resistance to the +arbitrary act of tyranny was everywhere to be met and +seen.</p> + +<p>From the time of his arrival in London, in 1764, at the age +of fifty-nine, Franklin gave all his energies for a long time +to opposing the Stamp Act, and, after it had passed, to securing +its repeal. He was, as it were, America in London.</p> + +<p>The Stamp Act, largely through his influence, was at last +repealed, and joy filled America. Processions were formed in +honor of the king, and bonfires blazed on the hills. In Boston +the debtors were set free from jail, that all might unite in the +jubilee.</p> + +<p>Franklin's name filled the air.</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Calamity heard of it amid the ringing of bells.</p> + +<p>"Franklin, Franklin," he said on the occasion, turning +around in vexation and taking a pinch of snuff, "why, I have +seen him carrying printing paper in a wheelbarrow!"</p> + +<p>Philadelphia had a day of jubilee in honor of the repeal +of the Stamp Act, and Mr. Calamity with cane and snuffbox +wandered out to see the sights. The streets were in holiday +attire, bells were ringing, and here and there a shout for Franklin +went up from an exulting crowd. As often as the prudent +old gentleman heard that name he turned around, pounding +his cane and taking a pinch of snuff.</p> + +<p>He went down to a favorite grove on the banks of the +Schuylkill. He found it spread with tables and hung with +banners.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Sir," he said to a local officer, "is there to be a banquet +here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, your Honor, <i>the</i> banquet is to be here. Have you +not heard?"</p> + +<p>"What is the banquet to be for?"</p> + +<p>"In honor of Franklin, sir."</p> + +<p>Mr. Calamity turned round on his cane and took out his +snuffbox.</p> + +<p>There was an outburst of music, a great shout, and a hurrying +of people toward the green grove.</p> + +<p>Something loomed in air.</p> + +<p>The old gentleman, putting his hand over his eye as a shade, +looked up in great surprise.</p> + +<p>"What—what is that?"</p> + +<p>What indeed!</p> + +<p>"A boat sailing in the air?" He added, "Franklin must +have invented that!"</p> + +<p>"No," said the official, "that is the great barge."</p> + +<p>"What is it for?"</p> + +<p>"It will exhibit itself shortly," said the official.</p> + +<p>It came on, covered with banners that waved in the river +winds.</p> + +<p>The old man read the inscription upon it—"<i>Franklin</i>."</p> + +<p>"I told you so," he said.</p> + +<p>"It will thunder soon," said the official. "Don't you see +it is armed with guns?"</p> + +<p>The barge stopped at the entrance of the grove. A discharge +of cannon followed from the boat, which was forty +feet long. A great shout followed the salute. The whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +city seemed cheering. The name that filled the air was +"<i>Franklin</i>."</p> + +<p>Mr. Calamity turned around and around, planting his cane +down in a manner that left a circle, and then taking out of his +pocket his snuffbox.</p> + +<p>He saw a boy cheering.</p> + +<p>"Boy!"</p> + +<p>"Sir?"</p> + +<p>"What are <i>you</i> shouting for?"</p> + +<p>"For the Stamp Act, sir!"</p> + +<p>"That is right, my boy."</p> + +<p>"No, for Franklin!"</p> + +<p>"For Franklin? Why, I have seen him carrying a lot of +printing paper through the streets in a wheelbarrow! May +time be gracious to me, so that I may see him hanged! Boy, +see here——"</p> + +<p>But the banners were moving into the green grove, and the +boy had gone after them.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin returned to Philadelphia the most popular +man in the colonies, and was elected a delegate to the Continental +Congress.</p> + +<p>"Only Heaven can save us now," said troubled Mr. Calamity. +"There's treason in the air!"</p> + +<p>The old gentleman was not a bad man; he saw life on the +side of shadow, and had become blind to the sunny side of life. +He was one of those natures that are never able to come out of +the past.</p> + +<p>The people amid the rising prosperity ceased to believe in +old Mr. Calamity as a prophet. He felt this loss of faith in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +him. He assumed the character of the silent wise man at +times. He would pass people whom he had warned of the +coming doom, shaking his head, and then turning around would +strike his cane heavily on the pavement, which would cause the +one he had left behind to look back. He would then lift his +cane as though it were the rod of a magician.</p> + +<p>"Old Mr. Calamity is coming," said a Philadelphia schoolboy +to another, one new school day in autumn. "See, he +is watching Franklin, and is trying to avoid meeting him."</p> + +<p>Their teacher came along the street.</p> + +<p>"Why, boys, are you watching the old gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"He is trying to avoid meeting Mr. Franklin, sir."</p> + +<p>"Calamity comes to avoid Industry," said the teacher, as he +saw the two men. Franklin was the picture of thrift, and his +very gait was full of purpose and energy. "I speak in parable," +said the teacher, "but that old gentleman is always in a state +of alarm, and he seems to find satisfaction in predicting evil, +and especially of Mr. Franklin. The time was when the young +printer avoided him—he was startled, I fancy, whenever he +heard the cane on the pavement; he must have felt the force +of the suggestion that Calamity was after him. Now he has +become prosperous, and the condition is changed. Calamity +flees from him. See, my boys, the two men."</p> + +<p>They stopped on the street.</p> + +<p>Mr. Calamity passed them on the opposite side, and Mr. +Franklin came after him, walking briskly. The latter stopped +at the door of his office, but the old gentleman hurried on. +When he reached the corner of the street he planted his cane +down on the pavement and looked around. He saw the popular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +printer standing before his office door on the street. The +two looked at each other. The old man evidently felt uncomfortable. +He turned the corner, out of sight, when an extraordinary +movement appeared.</p> + +<p>Mr. Calamity reached back his long, ruffled arm, and his +cane, in view of the philosopher, the teacher, and the boys, +and shook the cane mysteriously as though he were writing in +the air. He may have had in mind some figure of the ancient +prophets. Up and down went the cane, around and around, +with curves of awful import. It looked to those on the street +he had left as though the sharp angle of the house on the corner +had suddenly struck out a living arm in silent warning.</p> + +<p>The arm and cane disappeared. A head in a wide-rimmed hat +looked around the angle as if to see the effect of the writing +in the air. Then the arm and cane appeared again as +before. It was like the last remnant of a cloud when the body +has passed.</p> + +<p>The teacher saw the meaning of the movement.</p> + +<p>"Boys," said he, "if you should ever be pursued by Mr. +Calamity in any form, remember the arm and cane. See +Franklin laugh! Industry in the end laughs at Calamity, and +Diligence makes the men who 'stand before kings.' It is the +law of life. Detraction is powerless before will and work, and +as a rule whatever any one dreams that he may do, he will do."</p> + +<p>The boys had received an object lesson, and would long +carry in their minds the picture of the mysterious arm and cane.</p> + +<p>In a right intention one is master of the ideal of life. If +circumstances favor, he becomes conscious that life is no longer +master of him, but that he is the master of life. This sense of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +power and freedom is noble; in vain does the shadow of +Calamity intrude upon it; the visions of youth become a part +of creations of the world; the dream of the architect is a mansion +now; of the scientist, a road, a railway over rivers and +mountains; of the orator and poet, thoughts that live. Even +the young gardner finds his dreams projected into his farm. So +ideals become realities, and thoughts become seeds that multiply. +Mr. Calamity may shake his cane, but it will be behind a +corner. Happy is he who makes facts of his thoughts that were +true to life!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIV.</h2> + +<h3>OLD MR. CALAMITY AND THE TEARING DOWN OF THE KING'S +ARMS.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Our</span> gentlemanly friend Mr. Calamity was now very, very +old, long past the milestone of eighty. As Philadelphia +grew, the streets lengthening, the fine houses rising higher +and higher, he began to doubt that he was a prophet, and +he shunned Benjamin Franklin when the latter was in the +country.</p> + +<p>One day, long before the Stamp Act, he passed the Gazette +office, when the prosperous editor appeared.</p> + +<p>"It's coming," said he, tap, tapping on. "What did I tell +you?"</p> + +<p>"What is coming?" asked our vigorous king of prosperity.</p> + +<p>"War!" He became greatly excited. "Indians! they're +coming with the tommyhawk and scalping knife, and we'll need +to be thankful if they leave us our heads."</p> + +<p>There were indeed Indian troubles and dire events at that +time, but not near Philadelphia.</p> + +<p>Time passed. He was a Tory, and he heard of Concord and +Lexington, and he ceased to read the paper that Franklin +printed, and his cane flew scatteringly as it passed the office +door. To him that door was treason.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span></p> + +<p>One evening he lifted his cane as he was passing.</p> + +<p>"The king will take the puny colonies in his mighty arms +and dash them against the high rock of the sea. He will +dash them in pieces 'like a potter's vessel.' What are we to +the throne of England!"</p> + +<p>He heard of Bunker Hill, and his old heart beat free +again.</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you?" he said. "King George took the +rebels in his arms and beat them against Bunker Hill. He'll +plant his mighty heel on Philadelphia some day, and may it +fall on the head of Benjamin Franklin, for of all rebels he is +the most dangerous. Oh, that Franklin! He is now advocating +the independence of the colonies!"</p> + +<p>The Provincial Congress began to assemble, and cavalcades +went out to meet the members as they approached the city on +horseback. The Virginia delegation were so escorted into the +city with triumph. The delegates were now assembling to declare +the colony free. Independence was in the air.</p> + +<p>Terrible days were these to Mr. Calamity. As often as he +heard the word "independence" on the street his cane would fly +up, and after this spasm his snuffbox would come out of his +pocket for refreshment. His snuffbox was silver, and on it +in gold were the king's arms.</p> + +<p>He was a generous man despite his fears. He was particularly +generous with his snuff. He liked to pass it around on +the street, for he thereby displayed the king's arms on his snuffbox.</p> + +<p>When the Massachusetts delegates came, the city was filled +with joy. But Samuel Adams was the soul of the movement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> +for independence, and after his arrival independence was +more and more discussed, which kept poor old Mr. Calamity's +cane continually flying. But his feelings were terribly wounded +daily by another event of common occurrence. As he passed +the snuffbox to the Continentals he met, and showed the royal +arms upon it, they turned away from him; they would not take +snuff from the royal snuffbox. These were ominous times +indeed.</p> + +<p>The province of Pennsylvania had decreed that no one +should hold any office derived from the authority of the king. +For a considerable period there was no government in Pennsylvania, +no authority to punish a crime or collect a debt, but all +things went on orderly, peacefully, and well.</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Calamity used to sit under the great elm tree at +Shakamaxon in the long summer days and extend his silver +snuffbox to people as they passed. The tree was full of singing +birds; flowers bloomed by the way, and the river was +bright; but to him the glory of the world had fled, for the +people no longer would take snuff from the box with the royal +arms.</p> + +<p>One day a lady passed who belonged to the days of the +Penns and the Proprietors.</p> + +<p>"Madam Bond," said he, "comfort me."</p> + +<p>A patriot passed. The old man held out the snuffbox. +The man hesitated and started back.</p> + +<p>"The royal arms will have to go," said the patriot.</p> + +<p>"Where from?" said the old man excited.</p> + +<p>"From everywhere. We are about to decree a new world."</p> + +<p>"They will never take these golden arms from that snuffbox.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +Sir, do you know that box was given to the Proprietor +by Queen Charlotte herself?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the golden arms will have to come off it; they will +have to come down everywhere. No—I thank you," he continued. +"I can not ever take snuff again out of a snuffbox +like that."</p> + +<p>Poor old Mr. Calamity turned to the lady.</p> + +<p>"What am I to do? Where am I to go? You do pity me, +don't you?"</p> + +<p>A little girl passed near. He held out the box. The girl +ran. The poor old man began to tremble.</p> + +<p>"I have trembling fits sometimes," said he. "Take a pinch +of snuff with me; it will steady me. Take a pinch of snuff for +Queen Charlotte's sake."</p> + +<p>He shook like the leaves of the elm tree in the summer +wind.</p> + +<p>Dame Bond hesitated.</p> + +<p>He trembled more violently. "Do you hesitate to honor +the name of Queen Charlotte?" he said.</p> + +<p>The woman took a pinch of snuff in memory of the days +gone. He grew calmer.</p> + +<p>"That strengthens me," he said. "What am I to do? The +things that I see daily tear me all to pieces. It broke my heart +to see that child run away. I can not cross the sea, and if they +were to tear down the king's arms from the State House I +would die. I would tremble until I grew cold and my breath +left me. You do pity me, don't you? I sometimes grow cold +now when I tremble."</p> + +<p>It was June. A bugle rang out in the street.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What is that?" he asked of a volunteer who passed by.</p> + +<p>"It is the summons."</p> + +<p>"For what?"</p> + +<p>"For the assembling of the people."</p> + +<p>"In God's name, for what? Is a royal messenger coming?"</p> + +<p>"No. They are going to tear down the king's arms from +all the buildings at six, and are going to pile them up on tar +barrels and make a bonfire of them when the sun goes down. +The flame will ascend to heaven. That will be the end of the +reign of King George III in this province forever!"</p> + +<p>The old man trembled again.</p> + +<p>"I am cold," he said.—"Dame Bond, take another pinch +of snuff out of the silver box with the golden arms—it helps +me."</p> + +<p>Dame Bond once more paid her respects to Queen Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"Before God, you do not tell me, sir, that they are going +to take down the king's arms from the State House?"</p> + +<p>"The king's arms are to be torn down from all the buildings, +my aged friend; from the inns, the shops, the houses, the +State House, and all."</p> + +<p>"Dame Bond, my limbs fail. I shall never go home again. +Tell the family as you pass that I shall not return to tea with +them. Let me pass the evening here, where Penn made his +treaty with the Indians. To-night is the last of Pennsylvania. +I never wish to see another morning."</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 269px;"> +<img src="images/illus-269.jpg" width="269" height="400" alt="The destruction of the royal arms." title="The destruction of the royal arms." /> +<span class="caption">The destruction of the royal arms.</span> +</div> + +<p>At seven o'clock in the long, fiery day the great bell +rang. The bugle sounded again. People ran hither and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +thither. A rocket flared across the sky, and a great cry +went up:</p> + +<p>"Down with the arms!"</p> + +<p>A procession headed with soldiers passed through the streets +of the city bearing with them a glittering sign. Military music +filled the air.</p> + +<p>The old man's daughter Mercy came to see him under the +tree and to persuade him to go home with her.</p> + +<p>"Mercy—daughter—what are they carrying away?"</p> + +<p>"The king's arms from the State House; that is all, +father."</p> + +<p>"All! all! Say you rather that it is the world!"</p> + +<p>The roseate light faded from the high hills and the waters. +The sea birds screamed, and cool breezes made the multitudinous +leaves of the tree to quiver.</p> + +<p>"Mercy—daughter—and what was that?"</p> + +<p>"They are lighting a bonfire, father."</p> + +<p>"What for?"</p> + +<p>"To burn the king's arms."</p> + +<p>"What will we do without a king?"</p> + +<p>"They will have a Congress."</p> + +<p>A great shout went up on a near hill.</p> + +<p>"But, Mercy—daughter—a Congress is men. A Congress +is not a power ordained. Oh, that I should ever live to see a +day like this! 'Twas Franklin did it. I can see it all—it was +he; it was the printer boy from Boston."</p> + +<p>Darkness fell. It was nine o'clock now. There was a discharge +of firearms, and a great flame mounted up from the pile +on the hill, and put out the stars and filled the heavens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Father, let us go home."</p> + +<p>"No, let me stay here under the tree."</p> + +<p>"Why, father?"</p> + +<p>"The palsy is coming upon me—I can feel it coming, and +here I would die."</p> + +<p>"Oh, father, return with me, for my sake!"</p> + +<p>"Well, help me, then."</p> + +<p>She lifted him, and they went back slowly to the street.</p> + +<p>The city was deserted. The people were out to the hill. +There was a crackling of dry boards in the bonfire, and the +flame grew redder and redder, higher and higher.</p> + +<p>They came to the State House. The old man looked up. +The face of the house was bare; the king's arms were gone.</p> + +<p>He sank down on the step of an empty house and began +to tremble. He took out his silver snuffbox and held it +shaking.</p> + +<p>"For Queen Charlotte's sake, daughter," he said.</p> + +<p>She touched the box, to please him.</p> + +<p>"Gone," he said; "the king's arms are gone, and I have no +wish to survive them. I feel the chill coming on—'tis the last +time. Take the silver box, daughter; for my sake hide it, and +always be true to the king's arms upon it. As for me, I shall +never see the morning!"</p> + +<p>He lay there in the moonlight, his eyes fixed on the State +House where the king's arms had been.</p> + +<p>The people came shouting back, bearing torches that were +going out. Houses were being illuminated.</p> + +<p>He ceased to tremble. They sent for a medical man and +for his near kin. These people were among the multitude.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +They came late and found him lying in the moonlight white +and cold.</p> + +<p>The bells are ringing. Independence is declared. The +king's rule in the province is gone forever. Benjamin Franklin's +name commands the respect of lovers of liberty throughout +the world. He is fulfilling the vision of Uncle Benjamin, +the poet. He has added virtue to virtue, intelligence to intelligence, +benevolence to benevolence, faith to faith. So the +ladder of success ascends. Like his great-uncle Tom, his influence +has caused the bells to ring; it will do so again.</p> + +<p>Franklin heard of his great popularity in America while +in England.</p> + +<p>"Now I will call for the pamphlets," he said. He again +walked alone in his room. He faced the future. "Not yet, +not yet," he added, referring to the pamphlets. "The struggle +for liberty has only begun. I will order the pamphlets +when the colonies are free. The hopes in them will then be +fulfilled, and not until then."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<h3>JENNY AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Franklin</span> was suddenly recalled to America.</p> + +<p>He stood at Samuel Franklin's door.</p> + +<p>Samuel Franklin was an old man now.</p> + +<p>"I have come to Boston once more," said Benjamin Franklin. +"I would go to my parents' graves and the grave of +Uncle Ben. But they are in the enemy's camp now. Samuel, +I found your father's pamphlets in London."</p> + +<p>"Is it possible? Where are they now?"</p> + +<p>"I will return them to you when the colonies shall be free. +The reading of them shall be a holiday in our old lives."</p> + +<p>"I may never live to see that day. Benjamin, I am an old +man. I want that you should will those pamphlets to my +family."</p> + +<p>The old men went out and stood by the gate late in the +evening. The moon was rising over the harbor; it was a +warm, still night. Sentries were pacing to and fro, for Boston +was surrounded by sixteen thousand hostile men in arms.</p> + +<p>The nine o'clock bell rang.</p> + +<p>"I must go back to the camp," said Franklin, for he had +met Samuel within the American lines.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Cousin Benjamin, these are perilous times," said Samuel. +"Justice is what the world needs. Make those pamphlets live, +and return them with father's name honored in yours to my +family."</p> + +<p>"I will do so or perish. I am in dead earnest."</p> + +<p>He ascended the hill and looked down on the British camps +in Boston town.</p> + +<p>Franklin had been sent to Cambridge as a commissioner +to Washington's army at this time. It was October, 1775.</p> + +<p>He longed to see his sister Jane—"Jenny"—once more. +His sister was now past sixty years of age. Foreseeing the +siege of Boston, he had written to her to come to Philadelphia +and to make her home with him. But she was unwilling to +remove from her own city and old home, though she was forced +to find shelter within the lines of the American army.</p> + +<p>One night, after her removal from Boston, there came a +gentle knock at the door of her room. She opened it guardedly, +and looked earnestly into the face of the stranger.</p> + +<p>"Jenny!"</p> + +<p>"My own brother!—do I indeed see you alive? Let me +put my hand into yours once more."</p> + +<p>He drew her to him.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, I have longed for this hour."</p> + +<p>"But what brings you here at this time? You did not +come wholly to see me? Sit down, and let us bring up all the +past again."</p> + +<p>He sat down beside her, holding her hand.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, you ask what brings me here. Do you remember +Uncle Ben?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Whose name you bear? Never shall I forget him. The +memory of a great man grows as years increase."</p> + +<p>"Jenny, I've heard the bells in Ecton ring, and I found in +Nottinghamshire letters from Uncle Benjamin, and they coupled +your name when you was a girl with mine when I was a +boy; do you remember what he said to us on that showery +summer day when all the birds were singing?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Ben—I must call you 'Ben'—he said that 'more +than wealth, more than fame, more than anything, was the +power of the human heart, and that that power grows by +seeking the good of others.'"</p> + +<p>"What he said was true, but that was not all he said."</p> + +<p>"He told you to be true to your country—to live for the +things that live."</p> + +<p>"Jenny, that is why I am here. He told you to be true to +your home. You have been that, Jenny. You took care of +father when he was sick for the last time, and you anticipated +all his wants. I love you for that, Jenny."</p> + +<p>"But it made me happy to do it, and the memory of it +makes me happy now."</p> + +<p>"And mother, you were her life in her old age. They are +gone, both gone, but your heart made them happy when their +steps were retreating. O Jenny, Jenny, your hair is turning +gray, and mine is gray already. You have fulfilled Uncle +Benjamin's charge under the trees. You have been true to +your home."</p> + +<p>"I only wish that I could have done more for our folks; +and you, Ben—I can see you now as you were on that summer +day—you have been true to your country."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Jenny, do you remember the old writing-school master, +George Brownell? You do? Well, I have a great secret +for you. I used to tell my affairs to you many years ago. I +am in favor of the <i>independence</i> of the colonies; and when +Congress shall so declare, I shall put my name, that the old +schoolmaster taught me to write, to the Declaration."</p> + +<p>"Ben, it may cost you your life!"</p> + +<p>"Then I will leave Uncle Ben's name in mine to the martyrs' +list. I must be true to my country as you have been to +your family—I must live for the things that live. I am Uncle +Ben's pamphlet, Jenny. I know not what may befall me. This +may be the last time that I shall ever visit Boston town—my +beloved Boston—but I have found power with men by seeking +their good, and my prayer is that I may one day meet you again, +and have you say to me that I have honored Uncle Ben's +name. I would rather have that praise from you than from any +other person in the world: 'More than wealth, more than +fame, more than anything, is the power of the human heart.'"</p> + +<p>It was night. The camp of Washington was glimmering +far away. Boston Neck was barricaded. There was a ship in +the mouth of the Charles. A cannon boomed on Charlestown's +hills.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, I must go. When shall we meet again? Not +until I have put Uncle Ben's name to the declaration of American +liberty and independence is won. I must prepare the +minds of the people to resolve to become an independent nation. +My sister, my own true sister, what events may pass before we +shall see each other again! When you were younger I made +you a present of a <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'spinnnig'">spinning</ins>-wheel; later I sent you finery. I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +wish to leave you now this watch. The hours of the struggle +for human liberty are at hand. Count the hours!"</p> + +<p>They parted at the gate. The leaves were falling. It was +the evening of the year. He looked back when he had taken a +few steps. He was nearly seventy years of age. Yet his great +work of life was before him—it was yet to do, while white-haired +Jenny should count the hours on the clock of time.</p> + +<p>Sam Adams had grasped the idea that the appeal to arms +must end in the independence of the colonies. Franklin saw +the rising star of the destiny of the union of the colonies to secure +justice from the crown. He left Boston to give his whole +soul to this great end.</p> + +<p>The next day they went out to Tuft's Hill and looked +down on the encamped town, the war ships, and the sea. It +was an Indian summer. The trees were scarlet, the orchards +were laden with fruit, and the fields were yellow with corn.</p> + +<p>Over the blue sea rose the Castle, now gone. The smoke +from many British camps curled up in the still, sunny air.</p> + +<p>The Providence House Indian (now at the farm of the late +Major Ben Perley Poore) gleamed over the roofs of the State +House and its viceregal signs, which are now as then. Boston +was three hills then, and the whole of the town did not appear +as clearly from the hills on the west—the Sunset Hills—as +now.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, liberty is the right of mankind, and the cause of +liberty is the cause of mankind," said Franklin. "Why should +England hold provinces in America to whom she will allow no +voice in her councils, whose people she may tax and condemn +to prisons and death at the will of the king? I have told you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +my heart. America has the right of freedom, and the colonies +must be free!"</p> + +<p>They walked along the cool hill ways, and he looked longingly +back at the glimmering town.</p> + +<p>"Beloved Boston!" he said. "So thou wilt ever be to me!" +He turned to his sister: "I used to tell my day dreams to you—they +have come true, in part. I have been thinking again. If +the colonies could be made free, and I were to be left a rich +man, I would like to make a gift to the schools of Boston, +whose influence would live as long as they shall last. Sister, +I was too poor in my boyhood to answer the call +of the school bells. I would like to endow the schools there +with a fund for gifts or medals that would make every boy +happy who prepares himself well for the work of life, be he rich +or poor. I would like also to establish there a fund to help +young apprentices, and to open public places of education and +enjoyment which would be free to all people."</p> + +<p>"You are Silence Dogood still," said Mrs. Mecom. "Day +dreams in your life change into realities. I believe that all you +now have in your heart to do will be done. Benjamin, these +are great dreams."</p> + +<p>"It may be that I will be sent abroad again."</p> + +<p>"Benjamin, we may be very old when we meet again. But +the colonies will be made free, and you will live to give a medal +to the schools of Boston town. I must prophesy for you now, +for Uncle Benjamin is gone. I began life with you—you carried +me in your arms and led me by the hand. We used to +sit by the east windows together; may we some day sit down together +by the windows of the west and review the book of life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +and close the covers. We may then read in spirit the pamphlets +of Uncle Ben."</p> + +<p>There was a thunder of guns at the Castle. War ships were +coming into the harbor from the bay. Franklin beheld them +with indignation.</p> + +<p>"The people must not only have justice," he said, "they +must have liberty."</p> + +<p>They returned by the Cambridge road under the bowery +elms. It would be a long time before they would see each +other again.</p> + +<p>In such beneficent thoughts of Boston the Franklin medal +had its origin. It was coined out of his heart, that echoed +wherever it went or was destined to go, "Beloved Boston!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<h3>THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.—A MYSTERY.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> fame of Benjamin Franklin now filled America. On +the continent of Europe he was held to be the first citizen of +America. In France he was ranked among the sages and philosophers +of antiquity, and his name associated with the greatest +benefactors of the human race. It was his electrical discovery +that gave him this solid and universal fame, but his Poor +Richard's proverbs, which had several times been translated +into French, were greatly quoted on the continent of Europe, +and made his popularity as unique as it was general.</p> + +<p>The old Boston schoolmaster who probably taught little Ben +to flourish with his pen could have little dreamed of the documents +of state to which this curious characteristic of the pen +would be attached. Four of these documents were papers that +led the age, and became the charters of human freedom and +progress and began a new order of government in the world. +They were the Declaration of Independence, the Alliance with +France, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the draft of +the Constitution of the United States.</p> + +<p>In his service as agent of the colonies and as a member of +the Continental Congress his mind clearly saw how valuable to +the American cause an alliance with France and other Continental<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +powers would be. While in Europe as an agent of the +colonies he gave his energy and experience to assisting a secret +committee to negotiate foreign aid in the war. It was a time of +invisible ink, and Franklin instructed this committee how to +use it. He saw that Europe must be engaged in the struggle +to make the triumph of liberty in America complete and permanent.</p> + +<p>It was 1776. Franklin was now seventy years old and was +in America. The colonies had resolved to be free. A committee +had been chosen by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia +to prepare a draft for a formal Declaration of Independence, +a paper whose principles were destined to emancipate +not only the united colonies but the world. The committee +consisted of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John +Adams, Robert R. Livingston, and Roger Sherman. Mr. Jefferson +was appointed by this committee to write the Declaration, +and he made it a voice of humanity in the language of +the sages. He put his own glorious thoughts of liberty into it, +and he made these thoughts trumpet tones, and they, like the +old Liberty Bell, have never ceased to ring in the events of the +world.</p> + +<p>When Jefferson had written the inspired document he +showed it to Franklin and Adams, and asked them if they had +any suggestions to offer or changes to make.</p> + +<p>Franklin saw how grandly and adequately Jefferson had +done the work. He had no suggestion of moment to offer. +But the composition was criticised in Congress, which brought +out Franklin's wit, as the following story told by an eye-witness +will show:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<p>"When the Declaration of Independence was under the +consideration of Congress, there were two or three unlucky expressions +in it which gave offense to some members. The +words 'Scotch and other foreign auxiliaries' excited the ire of +a gentleman or two of that country. Severe strictures on the +conduct of the British king in negativing our repeated repeals +of the law which permitted the importation of slaves were disapproved +by some Southern gentlemen, whose reflections were +not yet matured to the full abhorrence of that traffic. Although +the offensive expressions were immediately yielded, +these gentlemen continued their depredations on other parts +of the instrument. I was sitting by Dr. Franklin, who perceived +that I was not insensible to ('<i>that I was writhing under</i>,' +he says elsewhere) these mutilations.</p> + +<p>"'I have made it a rule,' said he, 'whenever in my power, +to avoid becoming the draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by +a public body. I took my lesson from an incident which I +will relate to you. When I was a journeyman printer, one of +my companions, an apprenticed hatter, having served out his +time, was about to open shop for himself. His first concern +was to have a handsome signboard, with a proper inscription. +He composed it in these words, <i>John Thompson, Hatter, makes +and sells Hats for ready Money</i>, with a figure of a hat subjoined. +But he thought he would submit it to his friends for +their amendments. The first he showed it to thought the +word <i>hatter</i> tautologous, because followed by the words <i>makes +hats</i>, which showed he was a hatter. It was struck out. The +next observed that the word <i>makes</i> might as well be omitted, +because his customers would not care who made the hats; if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +good and to their mind they would buy, by whomsoever made. +He struck it out. A third said he thought the words <i>for ready +money</i> were useless, as it was not the custom of the place to sell +on credit. Every one who purchased expected to pay. They +were parted with; and the inscription now stood, 'John +Thompson sells hats.' '<i>Sells</i> hats?' says his next friend; +'why, nobody will expect you to give them away. What, then, +is the use of that word?' It was stricken out, and <i>hats</i> followed, +the rather as there was one painted on the board. So +his inscription was reduced ultimately to <i>John Thompson</i>, with +the figure of a hat subjoined.'"</p> + +<p>"We must all hang together," said Mr. Hancock, when the +draft had been accepted and was ready to be signed.</p> + +<p>"Or else we shall hang separately," Franklin is reported +to have answered.</p> + +<p>John Hancock, President of the Congress, put his name to +the document in such a bold hand that "the King of England +might have read it without spectacles." Franklin set +his signature with its looped flourish among the immortals. +In the same memorable month of July Congress appointed +Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to prepare a national +seal.</p> + +<p>The plan submitted by Franklin for the great seal of the +United States was poetic and noble. It is thus described:</p> + +<p>"Pharaoh sitting in an open chariot, a crown on his head +and a sword in his hand, passing through the divided waters +of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites. Rays from a pillar +of fire in the cloud, expressive of the Divine presence and +command, beaming on Moses, who stands on the shore, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> +extending his hand over the sea, causes it to overflow Pharaoh. +Motto: 'Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.'"</p> + +<p>This device was rejected by Congress, which decided upon +a more simple allegory, and the motto <i>E Pluribus Unum</i>.</p> + +<p>It was a time of rejoicing in Philadelphia now, and of the +great events Jefferson was the voice and Franklin was the soul.</p> + +<p>The citizens, as we have shown, tore down all the king's +arms and royal devices from the government houses, courtrooms, +shops, and taverns. They made a huge pile of tar barrels +and placed these royal signs upon them. On a fiery July +night they put the torch to the pile, and the flames curled up, +and the black smoke rose in a high column under the moon +and stars, and the last vestige of royalty disappeared in the +bonfire.</p> + +<p>Franklin heard the Liberty Bell ring out on the adoption +of the Declaration of Independence by Congress. He saw +the bonfire rise in the night of these eventful days, and heard +the shouts of the people. He had set his hand to the Declaration. +He desired next to set it to a treaty of alliance with +France. Would this follow?</p> + +<p>A very strange thing had happened in the colonies some +seven months or more before—in November, 1775. A paper +was presented to Congress, coming from a mysterious source, +that stated that a stranger had arrived in Philadelphia who +brought an important message from a foreign power, and who +wished to meet a committee of Congress in secret and to make +a confidential communication.</p> + +<p>Congress was curious, but it at first took no official notice of +the communication. But, like the Cumæan sibyl to Tarquin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +the message came again. It was not received, but it made an +unofficial impression. It was repeated. Who was this mysterious +stranger? Whence came he, and what had he to +offer?</p> + +<p>The curiosity grew, and Congress appointed a committee +consisting of John Jay, Dr. Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson +to meet the foreigner and to receive his proposition.</p> + +<p>The committee appointed an hour to meet the secret messenger, +and a place, which was one of the rooms of Carpenters' +Hall.</p> + +<p>At the time appointed they went to the place and waited +the coming of the unknown ambassador.</p> + +<p>There entered the room an elderly man of dignified appearance +and military bearing. He was lame; he may have been +at some time wounded. He spoke with a French accent. It +was plainly to be seen that he was a French military officer.</p> + +<p>Why had he come here? Where had he been hiding?</p> + +<p>The committee received him cautiously and inquired in regard +to the nature of his mission.</p> + +<p>"His Most Christian Majesty the King of France," said he, +"has heard of your struggle for a defense of your rights and +for liberty. He has desired me to meet you as his representative, +and to express to you his respect and sympathy, and to +say to you in secrecy that should the time come when you +needed aid, his assistance would not be withheld."</p> + +<p>This was news of moment. The committee expressed their +gratitude and satisfaction, and said:</p> + +<p>"Will you give us the evidence of your authority that we +may present it to Congress?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span></p> + +<p>His answer was strange.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said he, drawing his hand across his throat, +"I shall take care of my head."</p> + +<p>"But," said one of the committee, "in an event of such +importance we desire to secure the friendly opinion of Congress."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," making the same gesture, "I shall take care +of my head." He then said impressively: "If you want arms, +you may have them; if you want ammunition, you may have +it; if you want money, you may have it. Gentlemen, I shall +take care of my head."</p> + +<p>He went out and disappeared from public view. He is +such a mysterious character in our history as to recall the +man with the Iron Mask. Did he come from the King of +France? None knew, or could ever tell.</p> + +<p>Diplomacy employed secret messengers at this time. It was +full of suggestions, intrigues, and mysteries.</p> + +<p>But there was one thing that this lame but courtly French +officer did: he made an impression on the minds of the committee +that the colonies had a friend in his "Most Christian +Majesty the King of France," and from him they might hope +for aid and for an alliance in their struggle for independence. +Here was topic indeed for the secret committee.</p> + +<p>On the 26th of September, 1776, Congress elected three +ambassadors to represent the American cause in the court of +France; they were Silas Deane, Arthur Lee, and Benjamin +Franklin. Before leaving the country Franklin collected all +the money that he could command, some four thousand pounds, +and lent it to Congress. Taking with him his two grandsons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +he arrived at Nantes on the 7th of December of that year, and +he received in that city the first of the many ovations that his +long presence in France was destined to inspire. He went to +Paris, and took up his residence at Passy, a village some two +miles from the city, on a high hill overlooking the city and +the Seine. It was a lovely place even in Franklin's day. Here +have lived men of royal endowments—Rossini, Bellini, Lamartine, +Grisi. The arrival of Franklin there, where he lived +many years, made the place famous. For Franklin, as a +wonder-worker of science and as an apostle of human liberty, +was looked upon more as a god than a man in France—a Plato, +a Cato, a Socrates, with the demeanor of a Procion.</p> + +<p>His one hope now was that he would be able to set the +signature which he had left on the Declaration of Independence +on a Treaty of Alliance between the States of America and his +Most Christian Majesty the King of France. Will he, O shade +of the old schoolmaster of Boston town?</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman, the type of the man who ridicules and +belittles one, but claims the credit of his success when that one +is successful, was very old now. Fine old Mr. Calamity, who could +only see things in the light of the past, would prophesy no more. +A young man with a purpose is almost certain to meet men like +these in his struggles. Not all are able to pass such people +in the Franklin spirit. He heard what such men had to say, +tried to profit by their criticism, but wasted no time or energy +in dispute or retaliation. The seedtime of life is too short, +and its hours are too few, to spend in baffling detraction. Time +makes changes pleasantly, and tells the truth concerning all +men. A high purpose seeking fulfillment under humble circumstances<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +is sure to be laughed at. It is that which stands +alone that looks queer.</p> + +<p>After Samuel Adams, Franklin was among the first of those +leaders whose heart sought the independence of the colonies. +The resolution for independence, passed on July 4, 1776, set +ringing the Liberty Bell on the State House of Philadelphia. +Couriers rode with the great news of the century and of the +ages to Boston, which filled the old town with joy.</p> + +<p>They brought a copy of the Declaration with them, and a +day was appointed for the reading of it from the front window +of the State House, under the shadow of the king's arms, the +classic inscription, and the lion and the unicorn.</p> + +<p>Old, tottering Jamie the Scotchman was among those who +heard the great news with an enkindled heart. He, who had +so laughed at little Ben's attempts for the public welfare, now +claimed more and more to have been the greatest friend of the +statesman's youth. It was the delight of his ninety or more +years to make this claim wherever he went, and when the +courier brought the news of the Declaration, we may see him +going to Jane Mecom's house.</p> + +<p>"You all know what a friend I was to that boy, and how +I encouraged him, a little roughly it may be, but I always meant +well. Jane, on the day the Declaration is read in public I +want you to let me go with you to hear it."</p> + +<p>They go together; she a lusty woman in full years, and +he who had <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'longed'">long</ins> outlived his generation.</p> + +<p>The street in front of the old State House is filled with +people. The balcony window is thrown up, and out of the +Council Chamber, now popularly known as the Sam Adams<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +room, there appears the representative of Sam Adams and of +five members of the Boston schools who had signed the Declaration. +The officers of the State are there, and over the street +shines the spire of the South Church and gleams the Province +House Indian. The children are there; aged idlers who loitered +about the town pump; the women patriots from Spring +Lane. The New England flag, of blue ground with the cross +of St. George on a white field, floats high over all.</p> + +<p>A voice rends the clear air. It read:</p> + +<p>"When in the course of human events," and it marches on +in stately tones above the silence of the people. At the words +"all men are created free and equal," the name of Franklin +breaks upon the stillness. Jamie the Scotchman joins in the +rising applause, and he proudly turns to Jane Mecom and +says:</p> + +<p>"Only to think what a friend I was to him, too!"</p> + +<p>They return by the Granary burying ground. A tall, gray +monument holds their attention. It is one that the people +loved to visit then, and that touches the heart to-day. At the +foot of the epitaph they read again, as they had done many +times before:</p> + +<div class='center'> +<i>"Their youngest son,</i><br /> +<i>in filial regard to their memory,</i><br /> +<i>places this stone."</i><br /> +</div> + +<p>"His heart was true to the old folks," said Jamie.</p> + +<p>It was the monument that Benjamin Franklin had erected +to his parents.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<h3>ANOTHER SIGNATURE.—THE STORY OF AUVERGNE SANS TACHE.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Some</span> years ago I stood on the battlements of Metz, once +a French but now a German town. Below the town, with its +grand esplanade, on which is a heroic statue of Marshal Ney, +rolls the narrow Moselle, and around it are the remains of fortifications +that are old in legend, song, and story.</p> + +<p>It was here, near one of these old halls, that a young Frenchman +saw, as it were, a vision, and the impression of that hour +was never lost, but became a turning point in American history.</p> + +<p>There had come a report to the English court that Washington +had been driven across the Jerseys, and that the American +cause was lost.</p> + +<p>There was given at this time a military banquet at Metz. +The Duke of Gloucester, brother of George III, was present, +and among the French officers there was a marquis, lately married, +who was a favorite of the French court. He had been +brought up in one of the heroic provinces of Auvergne, and he +had been associated with the heroes of Gatinais, whose motto +was <i>Auvergne sans tache</i>. The Auvergnese were a pastoral +people, distinguished for their courage and honor. In +this mountainous district was the native place of many eminent +men, among them Polignac.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p> + +<p>The young French marquis who was conspicuous at the +banquet on this occasion was named Lafayette.</p> + +<p>The Duke of Gloucester was in high spirits over his cups +on this festal night.</p> + +<p>"Our arms are triumphant in America!" he exclaimed. +"Washington is retreating across the Jerseys."</p> + +<p>A shout went up with glittering wine-cups: "So ever flee +the enemies of George III!"</p> + +<p>"Washington!" The name rang in the young French officer's +ears. He had in his veins the blood of the mountaineers, +and he loved liberty and the spirit of the motto <i>Auvergne +sans tache</i>.</p> + +<p>He may never have heard the name of Washington before, +or, if he had, only as of an officer who had given Braddock unwelcome +advice. But he knew the American cause to be that +of liberty, and Washington to be the leader of that cause.</p> + +<p>And Washington "was retreating across the Jerseys." +Where were the Jerseys? He may never have heard of the +country before.</p> + +<p>He went out into the air under the moon and stars. There +came to him a vision of liberty and a sense of his duty to the +cause. The face of America, as it were, appeared to him. +"When first I saw the face of America, I loved her," he said +many years afterward to the American Congress.</p> + +<p>Washington was driven back in the cause of liberty. Lafayette +resolved to cross the seas and to offer Washington his +sword. He felt that liberty called him—liberty for America, +which might mean liberty for France and for all mankind.</p> + +<p>About this time Benjamin Franklin began to receive letters<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +from this young officer, filled with the fiery spirit of the mountaineers. +The officer desired a commission to go to America +and enter the army. But it was a time of disaster, and faith +in the American cause was very low. The marquis resolved +to go to America at his own expense.</p> + +<p>He sailed for that country in May, 1777. He landed off +the coast of the Carolinas in June, and made his memorable +ride across the country to Philadelphia in that month. Baron +de Kalb accompanied him.</p> + +<p>On landing on the shores of the Carolinas, he and Baron +de Kalb knelt down on the sand, at night under the stars, and +in the name of God dedicated their swords to liberty.</p> + +<p>The departure of these two officers for America filled all +France with delight. Lafayette had seen that it would be so; +that his going would awaken an enthusiasm in the circles of the +court and among the people favorable to America; that it +would aid the American envoys in their mission. It was +the mountain grenadiers that made the final charges at the +siege of Yorktown under the inspiring motto of <i>Auvergne +sans tache</i> (Auvergne without a stain).</p> + +<p>Franklin now dwelt at beautiful Passy on the hill, and his +residence there was more like a princely court than the house +of an ambassador. He gave his heart and life and influence +to seeking an alliance between France and the States. The +court was favorable to the alliance, but the times and the constitution +of the kingdom made the king slow, cautious, and +diplomatic.</p> + +<p>The American cause wavered. The triumphs of Lord Howe +filled England with rejoicing and Passy with alarm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the midst of the depression at Passy there came a messenger +from Massachusetts who brought to Franklin the news +of Burgoyne's surrender. When Dr. Franklin was told that +this messenger was in the courtyard of Passy, he rushed out to +meet him.</p> + +<p>"Sir, is Philadelphia taken?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>Franklin clasped his hands.</p> + +<p>"But, sir, I have other news. Burgoyne and his army are +prisoners of war!"</p> + +<p>Great was the rejoicing at Passy and in Paris. The way +to an alliance appeared now to open to the envoys.</p> + +<p>"O Mr. Austin," Dr. Franklin used to say to the young +messenger from Massachusetts, "you brought us glorious +news!"</p> + +<p>The tidings was followed by other news in Passy. December +17, 1777, was a great and joyful day there. A minister +came to the envoys there to announce that the French Government +was ready to conclude an agreement with the United +States, and to make a formal treaty of alliance to help them in +the cause of independence.</p> + +<p>The cause was won, but the treaty was yet delayed. There +were articles in it that led to long debates.</p> + +<p>But in these promising days Franklin was a happy man. +He dressed simply, and he lived humbly for an envoy, though +his living cost him some thirteen thousand dollars a year. He +did not conform to French fashions, nor did the French expect +them from a philosopher. He did not even wear a wig, +which most men wore upon state occasions. Instead of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +wig he wore a fur cap, and one of his portraits so represents +him.</p> + +<p>While the negotiations were going on, a large cake was +sent one day to the apartment where the envoys were assembled. +It bore the inscription <i>Le digne Franklin</i> +(the worthy Franklin). On reading the inscription, Mr. +Silas Deane, one of the ambassadors, said, "As usual, +Franklin, we have to thank you for our share in gifts like +these."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said Franklin. "This cake is designed for all +three of us. Don't you see?—Le (Lee) Digne (Deane) Franklin."</p> + +<p>He could afford to be generous and in good humor.</p> + +<p>February 6, 1778, was one of the most glorious of all in +Franklin's life. That day the treaties were completed and put +upon the tables to sign. The boy of the old Boston writing +school did honor to his schoolmaster again. He put his name +now after the conditions of the alliance between France and +the United States of America.</p> + +<p>The treaty was celebrated in great pomp at the court.</p> + +<p>The event was to be publicly announced on March 20, +1778. On that day the envoys were to be presented to the king +amid feasts and rejoicings.</p> + +<p>Would Franklin wear a wig on that great occasion? His +locks were gray and thin, for he was seventy-two years old, and +his fur cap would not be becoming amid the splendors of Versailles.</p> + +<p>He ordered one. The hairdresser came with it. He could +not fit it upon the philosopher's great head.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is too small," said Franklin. "Monsieur, it is impossible."</p> + +<p>"No, monsieur," said the perruquier, "it is not that the wig +is too small; it is that your head is too large!"</p> + +<p>What did Franklin need of a wig? He dressed for the occasion +in a plain suit of black velvet, with snowy ruffles and +silver buckles. When the chamberlain saw him coming, he +hesitated to admit him. Admit a man to the royal presence +in his own head alone? But he allowed the philosopher to go +on in his velvet, ruffles, and silver buckles, and his independent +appearance filled the court with delight.</p> + +<p>There was another paper that he must now have begun to +see in his clear visions. The treaty of alliance would lead to +the triumph of the American cause. That end must be followed +by a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the +United States. Would he sign that treaty some day and again +honor the old Boston schoolmaster? We shall see.</p> + +<p>But how did young Lafayette meet his duties in the dark +days of America—he whose motto was "Auvergne without +a stain?"</p> + +<p>The day of his test came again at a banquet. It was at +York. Let us picture this pivotal scene of his life and of +American history.</p> + +<p>After the triumphs of Gates at Saratoga, Washington became +unpopular, and Congress appointed a Board of War, whose +object it became to place Lafayette at the head of the Northern +army, and thus give him a chance to supersede his chief.</p> + +<p>The young Frenchman was loyal to Washington, and the +motto <i>Auvergne sans tache</i> governed his life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span></p> + +<p>Let us suppose him to meet his trusty old friend Baron +de Kalb, the German temperance general, at this critical +hour.</p> + +<p>"Baron de Kalb, we stood together side by side at Metz, and +we knelt down together that midsummer night when we first +landed on Carolina's sands, and then we rode together across +the provinces. These are events that I shall ever love to recall. +To-night we stand together again in brotherhood of soul. +Baron, the times are dark and grow more perilous, and it may +be I now confide in thee for the last time."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Lafayette," answered De Kalb, "I myself feel 'tis +so. You may live and rise, but I may fall. But wherever I +may go I shall draw this sword that I consecrated with thine +to liberty. It may be ours to meet by chance again, but, Lafayette, +we shall never be as we are now. Thou well hast said +the hour is dark. Open thy soul, then, Lafayette, to me."</p> + +<p>"Baron, it burns my brain and shrinks my heart to say that +the hour is dark not only for the cause but for our chief, for +Washington. In halls of state, in popular applause, the rising +star is Gates. Factions arise, cabals combine, and this new +Board of War has sent for me. In some provincial room that +flattery decorates they are to make for me a feast. What means +the feast? 'Tis this: to offer me the Northern field. And +why? To separate my sword from Washington. 'If thy right +hand offend thee, cut it off!' I'm loyal to the cause, and +must obey this new-made Board of War; but on that night, +if so it be that I have the opportunity, I shall arise, and, against +all flatteries, take my stand. I then and there will proclaim +in clear-cut words my loyalty to Washington. He is the cause;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +in him it stands or falls; to gain a world for self, my heart could +never be untrue to him. Day after day, month after month, +year after year, he leads the imperiled way, yet holds his faith +in God and man. The hireling Hessians roll their drums +through ports and towns; the wily Indian joins the invader; +his army is famine-smitten and thinned with fever, and drill +in rags, while Congress meets in secret halls but to impede his +plans and criticise; and while he holds the scales and looks +toward the end, and makes retreat best serve the cause, what +rivals rise! See brilliant Gates appear! Does he not know +this rivalry and hear the plaudits that surround the name of +Saratoga? I've shared my thoughts with Washington, young +as I am, and he has honored me with his esteem. I have heard +him say: 'O Lafayette, I stand alone in all the world! I +dream no dreams of high ambition. I love the farm more than +the field—my country home more than the halls of state I +serve. In a cause like this I hold that it is not unsubstantial +victories but generalship that wins.'</p> + +<p>"One day he spoke like this: 'Marquis, I stood one winter +night upon a rocking boat and crossed the Delaware. It was +a bitter night; no stars were in the sky; the lanterns' rays +scarce fell upon the waters; the oars rose and fell, though they +were frozen, for they were plied by strong and grizzly fishermen; +the snow fell pitiless, with hail and sleet and rain. The +night was wind, and darkness was the air. The army followed +me, where I could not see. Our lips were silent. These +stout and giant men, from Cape Ann and from wintry wharfages +of Marblehead, knew their duty well, and safe we crossed +the tide.' In that lone boat, amid the freezing sleet and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> +darkness deep, the new flag of the nation's hope marched in +darkness.</p> + +<p>"Baron de Kalb, there is a spirit whose pinions float upon +the wings of time. She comes to me in dreams and visions in +such hours as these. I saw her on the fortress walls of Metz; I +knew her meaning and her mission saw. Where liberty is, +there is my country, and all I am I again offer to her +cause. Hear me this hour; the presence of that spirit falls +on me now as at Metz. I go to the feast that is waiting for me; +there my soul must be true and speak the truth, and for the +truth there is no judgment day. At Metz I left myself for +liberty; at York I shall be as true to honor. I hold unsullied +fame to be more than titles—<i>Auvergne sans tache</i>. My resolution +makes my vision clear. Baron de Kalb, mark you my +words in this prophetic hour: the character of Washington +will free one day the world, and lead the Aryan race and liberty +and peace. It is not his genius—minds as great have been; +it is not his heart—there have been hearts as large; it is not his +sword, for swords have been as brave, but it is himself that +makes sure the cause. He shall win liberty, and give to men +their birthright and to toil a field of hope; to industry the +wealth that it creates, and to the toiler his dues. So liberty to +brotherhood shall lead, and brotherhood to peace, and brotherhood +and peace shall bring to unity all human families, and +men shall live no more in petty strife for gain, but for the souls +of men. The destinies then, as in Virgil's eye, shall spin life's +web, and to their spindles say, 'Thus go forever and forever +on!' He is the leader appointed by Heaven for sublime +events. I am sent to him as a knight of God. I go to York.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +I was true at Metz to liberty, and in the council hall I shall +be true, whatever is offered me, to Washington, our Washington +beloved! to the world's great commoner! Farewell."</p> + +<p>The feast for Lafayette was spread at York in a blazing +hall; red wine filled the crystal cups. Silken banners waved +and disclosed the magic name of "Lafayette." The Board +of War was there, proud Gates, and the men of state. The +<i>Fleur de lis</i> was there and blew across the national banners. +Lafayette came. A shout arose as he appeared. +The Board of War was merry, and the wine was spilled +and toasts were drunk to all the heroes of the war except +Washington. The name of Lafayette was hailed with adulation; +then all was still. The grand commissioner had waved +his hand. He bowed, and gave to Lafayette a sealed paper; +he raised his cup, and rose and bowed, and said, "Now drink ye +all to him, our honored guest, commander of the Army of +the North." The oak room rang with cheers; the glasses +clinked and gleamed.</p> + +<p>The board and guests sat down. There, tall and grand +above the council, towered the form of Lafayette. He stood +there silent, then raised a crystal cup, and said: "I thank you, +friends, and I would that I were worthier of your applause. +You have honored many worthy names, but there is one name +that you have omitted in your many toasts, and that one name +to me stands above all the other heroes of the world! <i>I</i> drink +to him!" He lifted high the cup, and said, "I pledge my +honor, my sword, and all I am to Washington!"</p> + +<p>He stood in silence; no other cup with his was raised. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +left the hall, and walked that night the square of York beneath +the moon and stars as he had done at Metz.</p> + +<p>He poured forth his soul, thinking again the thoughts of +Metz, and making again the high resolves that he had made +on Carolina's sands with Baron de Kalb:</p> + +<p>"O Liberty! the star of hope that lights each noble cause, +uniting in one will the hearts of men, and massing in one force +the wills of men. The stars obey the sun; the earth, the stars; +the nations, those who rise o'er vain ambitions and become the +cause. Thou gavest Rome the earth and Greece the sea; thou +sweepest down the Alps, and made the marbles bloom like +roses, for thy heroes' monuments! I hear thy voice, and I obey, +as all the true have bowed who more than self have loved +mankind!"</p> + +<p>The coming of Franklin to Passy and the going of Lafayette +from Metz were among the great influences of the age +of liberty. Count Rochambeau followed Lafayette after the +alliance, and brought over with him among his regiments the +grenadiers of Auvergne—<i>Auvergne sans tache</i>, which motto +they honored at Yorktown.</p> + +<p>Jenny's heart beat with joy as she heard of the coming of +Lafayette. In these years of the great struggle for human +liberty she looked at the watch and counted the hours.</p> + +<p>Franklin had long been the hope of the country. America +looked to him to secure the help of France in the long struggle +for liberty. Into this hope humble Jane Mecom entered with +a sister's confidence and pride.</p> + +<p>She awaited the news from Philadelphia, which was the seat +of government, with the deepest concern. The nation's affairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +were her family affairs. She heard it said daily that if Franklin +secured the aid of the French arms, the cause of liberty in +America would be won. It was the kindly hand that led her +when a girl that was now moving behind these great events.</p> + +<p>One July day, at the full tide of the year, she was standing +in the bowery yard of her simple home, thinking of her brother +and the hope of the people in him. She moved, as under a +spell of thought, out of the gate and toward Beacon Hill. She +met Jamie the Scotchman on her way.</p> + +<p>"An' do you think that he will be able to do it?" said +Jamie. By "it" he meant the alliance of France with the +colonies. "Surely it is a big job to undertake, but if he should +succeed, Jane, I want you always to remember what a friend +I was to him. Where are you going, Jane?"</p> + +<p>"To the old tree on Beacon Hill, where Uncle Ben used to +talk to me in childhood."</p> + +<p>"May I go with you, Jane? They say that a fleet has been +sighted off Narragansett Bay. We shall know when the post +comes in."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jamie, come with me. I love to talk of old times +with you."</p> + +<p>"And what a friend I was to <i>him</i>."</p> + +<p>It was a fiery day. Cumulus clouds were piling up in the +fervid heats. The Hancock House gardens, where now the +State House is, were fragrant with flowers, and the Common +below was a sea of shining leaves.</p> + +<p>A boom shook the air.</p> + +<p>"What was that, Jane?"</p> + +<p>"It came from the Castle."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Perhaps there is news."</p> + +<p>Another boom echoed from the Dorchester Hills, and a +puff of smoke rose from the Castle.</p> + +<p>"There is news, Jamie; the Castle is firing a salute."</p> + +<p>"I think the French fleet has arrived; if so, <i>his</i> work is behind +it, and I always was such a friend to him, too!"</p> + +<p>The Castle thundered. There was news.</p> + +<p>A magistrate came riding over the hills on horseback, going +to the house of John Hancock.</p> + +<p>"Hey!" cried Jamie, "an' what is the news?"</p> + +<p>"The French fleet has arrived at Newport. Count Rochambeau +is landing there. Hurrah! this country is free!"</p> + +<p>Jane sat down under the old tree, as she had done when a +girl in Uncle Benjamin's day. She saw the flag of the Stripes +and Stars leap, as it were, into the air over the Hancock gardens. +She had always revered John Hancock since he had +heroically written to Washington at the time of the siege, +"Burn Boston, if there is need, and leave John Hancock a +beggar!"</p> + +<p>Who was that hurrying up from the broad path of the Common +toward the Hancock mansion? Jane rose up and looked. +It was Samuel Adams, the so-called "last of the Puritans," a +man who had almost forgotten his own existence in his efforts +to unite the colonies for the struggle for liberty, and who had +said to an agent of General Gage who offered him bribes if he +would make his peace with the king, "I have long ago made +my peace with the King of kings, and no power on earth can +make me recreant to my duties to my country."</p> + +<p>The Castle thundered on from the green isle in the harbor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +People were hurrying to and fro and gathering about the +grounds of the first President of the Provincial Congress. +Business stopped. The hearts of the people were thrilled. The +independence of the American colonies now seemed secure.</p> + +<p>There went up a great shout in front of the Hancock +house. It was—</p> + +<p>"Franklin! Rochambeau! Franklin!"</p> + +<p>Jamie the Scotchman echoed the cheer from his lusty lungs.</p> + +<p>"Franklin!" he cried, waving his hat, "Franklin now and +forever!"</p> + +<p>His face beamed. "Only think, Jane, what a friend I +used to be to him! What do you suppose gave his hand such +power in these affairs of the nation?"</p> + +<p>"It was his heart, Jamie."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, Jane, that was it—it was the heart of Franklin—of +Ben, and don't you never forget what a friend I used to be +to him."</p> + +<p>The coming of Rochambeau, under the influence of the +poor tallow chandler's son, was a re-enforcement that helped to +gain the victory of liberty. When Cornwallis was taken, Jane +Mecom heard the Castle thunder again over the sea; and when +Rochambeau came to Boston to prepare for the re-embarkation +of the French army, she saw her brother's hand behind all these +events, and felt like one who in her girlhood had been taken +into the counsels of the gods. Her simple family affairs had +become those of the nation.</p> + +<p>She knew the springs of the nation's history, and she loved +to recall the days when her brother was Silence Dogood, +which he had never ceased to be.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<h3>FRANKLIN SIGNS THE TREATY OF PEACE.—HOW GEORGE III +RECEIVES THE NEWS.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown brought +the war to an end. The courier from the army came flying +into Philadelphia at night. The watchman called out, "Past +twelve o'clock, and all is well!" "Past one o'clock, and all is +well!" and "Past two o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken!" The +people of the city were in the streets early that morning. Bells +pealed; men saluted each other in the name of "Peace."</p> + +<p>Poor George III! He had stubbornly sought to subdue +the colonies, and had honestly believed that he had been divinely +appointed to rule them after his own will. No idea that +he had ever been pigheaded and wrong had ever been driven +into his dull brain. His view of his prerogative was that whatever +he thought to be best was best, and they were ungrateful +and stiff-necked people who took a different view, and that it +was his bounden duty to punish such in his colonies for their +obstinacy.</p> + +<p>It was November 25th in London—Sunday. A messenger +came flying from the coast to Pall Mall. He was bearing exciting +news. On he went through London until he reached +the house of George Germain, Minister of American Affairs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +The messenger handed to Lord George a dispatch. The minister +glanced at it and read the fate of the New World, and +must have stood as one dazed:</p> + +<p>"Cornwallis has surrendered!"</p> + +<p>Lord Walsingham, an under-Secretary of State, was at the +house. To him he read the stunning dispatch. The two took +a hackney coach and rode in haste to Lord Stormont's.</p> + +<p>"Mount the coach and go with us to Lord North's. Cornwallis +is taken!"</p> + +<p>Lord Stormont mounted the coach, and the three rode to +the office of the Secretary of State.</p> + +<p>The prime minister received the news, we are told, "as he +would have taken a ball into his heart."</p> + +<p>"O God, it is all over!" he exclaimed, pacing up and down +the room, and again and again, "O God, it is over!"</p> + +<p>The news was conveyed to the king that half of his empire +was lost—that his hope of the New World was gone. How was +the king affected? Says a writer of the times, who gives us a +glance at this episode:</p> + +<p>"He dined on that day," he tells us, "at Lord George Germain's; +and Lord Walsingham, who likewise dined there, was +the only guest that had become acquainted with the fact. The +party, nine in number, sat down to the table. Lord George +appeared serious, though he manifested no discomposure. Before +the dinner was finished one of his servants delivered him a +letter, brought back by the messenger who had been dispatched +to the king. Lord George opened and perused it; then +looking at Lord Walsingham, to whom he exclusively directed +his observation, 'The king writes,' said he, 'just as he always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +does, except that I observe he has omitted to note the hour +and the minute of his writing with his usual precision.' This +remark, though calculated to awaken some interest, excited no +comment; and while the ladies, Lord George's three daughters, +remained in the room, they repressed their curiosity. But they +had no sooner withdrawn than Lord George, having acquainted +them that from Paris information had just arrived of the old +Count de Maurepas, first minister, lying at the point of death, +'It would grieve me,' said he, 'to finish my career, however far +advanced in years, were I first minister of France, before I had +witnessed the termination of this great contest between England +and America.' 'He has survived to see that event,' replied +Lord George, with some agitation. Utterly unsuspicious +of the fact which had happened beyond the Atlantic, he conceived +him to allude to the indecisive naval action fought at +the mouth of the Chesapeake early in the preceding month of +September between Admiral Graves and Count de Grasse, an +engagement which in its results might prove most injurious +to Lord Cornwallis. Under this impression, 'My meaning,' +said he, 'is, that if I were the Count de Maurepas I should +wish to live long enough to behold the final issue of the war +in Virginia.' 'He has survived to witness it completely,' answered +Lord George. 'The army has surrendered, and you +may peruse the particulars of the capitulation in that paper,' +taking at the same time one from his pocket, which he delivered +into his hand, not without visible emotion. By his permission +he read it aloud, while the company listened in profound silence. +They then discussed its contents as affecting the ministry, +the country, and the war. It must be confessed that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +were calculated to diffuse a gloom over the most convivial +society, and that they opened a wide field for political speculation.</p> + +<p>"After perusing the account of Lord Cornwallis's surrender +at Yorktown, it was impossible for all present not to feel a +lively curiosity to know how the king had received the intelligence, +as well as how he had expressed himself in his note to +Lord George Germain, on the first communication of so painful +an event. He gratified their wish by reading it to them, observing +at the same time that it did the highest honor to his +Majesty's fortitude, firmness, and consistency of character. The +words made an impression on his memory, which the lapse of +more than thirty years has not erased; and he here commemorates +its tenor as serving to show how that prince felt +and wrote under one of the most afflicting as well as humiliating +occurrences of his reign. The billet ran nearly to this +effect:</p> + +<p>"'I have received with sentiments of the deepest concern +the communication which Lord George Germain has made me +of the unfortunate result of the operations in Virginia. I particularly +lament it on account of the consequences connected +with it, and the difficulties which it may produce in carrying +on the public business, or in repairing such a misfortune. But +I trust that neither Lord George Germain, nor any member of +the cabinet, will suppose that it makes the smallest alteration +in those principles of my conduct which have directed me in +past time, and which will always continue to animate me under +every event in the prosecution of the present contest.' +Not a sentiment of despondency or of despair was to be found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +in the letter, the very handwriting of which indicated composure +of mind."</p> + +<p>Franklin was still envoy plenipotentiary at beautiful Passy. +He received the thrilling news, and wondered what terms the +English Government would now seek to make in the interests +of peace.</p> + +<p>The king was shaken in mind and becoming blind. He +was opposed to any negotiations for peace, and threatened +to abdicate. He sank into a pitiable state of insanity some +years after, was confined in a padded room, and even knew +not when the battle of Waterloo was fought, and when +his own son died he was not called to the funeral ceremonies.</p> + +<p>But negotiations were begun, or attempted, with Dr. Franklin +at Paris. Passy was again the scene of great events.</p> + +<p>Mr. Adams, as a representative of the United States, arrived +in Paris. Mr. Gay, another representative, was there; +conference after conference was held with the English ambassador, +and the final conference was held with the English ministers +on November 29, 1782.</p> + +<p>On the 18th of January, 1782, at Versailles, the representatives +of England, France, and Spain signed the preliminaries +of peace, declaring hostilities suspended, in the presence +of Mr. Adams and Dr. Franklin. These preliminaries were +finally received as a definitive treaty of peace, and on Wednesday, +September 3, 1783, this Treaty of Peace was signed in +Paris.</p> + +<p>When the preliminary treaty was signed, Franklin rushed +into the arms of the Duc de la Rochefoucault, exclaiming:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My friend, could I have hoped at my age to enjoy such +happiness?" He was then seventy-six years old.</p> + +<p>So again the handwriting of the old Boston school appeared +in the great events of nations. It was now set to peace.</p> + +<p>It would not seem likely that it would ever again adorn +any like document. Franklin was old and gray. He had +signed the Declaration, the Treaty of Alliance, and now the +Treaty of Peace. He had done his work in writing well. It +had ended well. Seventy-six years old; surely he would rest +now at Passy, or return to some Philadelphia seclusion and +await the change that must soon fall upon him.</p> + +<p>But this glorious old man has not yet finished the work +begun by Silence Dogood. Those are always able to do the +most who are doing many things. It is a period of young men +now; it was a time of old men then. People sought wisdom +from experience, not experiment.</p> + +<p>The peace is signed. The bells are ringing, and oppressed +peoples everywhere rejoice. There is an iris on the cloud of +humanity. The name of Franklin fills the world, and in most +places is pronounced like a benediction.</p> + +<p>From a tallow-chandler's shop to palaces; from the companionship +of Uncle Ben, the poet, to that of royal blood, people +of highest rank, and the most noble and cultured of mankind; +from being laughed at, to being looked upon with universal +reverence, love, and awe.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<h3>THE TALE OF AN OLD VELVET COAT.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Franklin appeared to sign the Treaty of Peace between +England and the United States, he surprised the ministers, +envoys, and his own friends by wearing an old velvet coat. +What did his appearance in this strange garment mean?</p> + +<p>We must tell you the story, for it is an illustration of his +honorable pride and the sensitiveness of his character. There +was a time when all England, except a few of his own friends, +were laughing at Franklin. Why?</p> + +<p>Men who reach honorable success in life always pass through +dark days—every sun and star is eclipsed some day—and Franklin +had one day of eclipse that burned into his very soul, the +memory of which haunted him as long as he lived.</p> + +<p>It was that day when he, after a summons, appeared before +the Council of the Crown as the agent of the colonies, and was +openly charged with dishonor. It is the day of the charge of +dishonor that is the darkest of all life. To an honorable man +it is the day of a false charge of dishonor that leaves the deepest +sting in memory.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"My life and honor both together run;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Take honor from me, and my life is done."</span><br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span></p> + +<p>But how came Franklin, the agent of the colonies in London, +to be called before the Privy Council and to be charged +with dishonor?</p> + +<p>While he was in London and the colonies were filled with +discontent and indignation at the severe measures of the crown, +there came to him a member of Parliament who told him that +these measures of which the colonies complained had been +brought about by certain men in the colonies themselves; that +the ministry had acted upon the advice of these men, and had +thought that they were acting justly and wisely. Two of the +men cited were Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson and Andrew +Oliver, both belonging to most respected and powerful families +in the colonies.</p> + +<p>Franklin could not believe these statements against his +countrymen, and asked for the proof. The member of Parliament +brought to him a package of letters addressed to +public men on public affairs, written by Lieutenant-Governor +Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, which proved to him that the severe +action of the ministry against Boston and the province had +been brought about by Bostonians themselves. Franklin asked +permission to send these letters to Boston in the interests of justice +to the ministry. The request was granted. The letters +were sent to Boston, and were read in private to the General +Assembly of the province. As an agent of the colonies, Franklin +could not have done less in the interests of justice, truth, +and honorable dealing.</p> + +<p>But the use of these letters angered the ministry, and +Franklin was called before the Privy Council to answer the +charge of surreptitiously obtaining private correspondence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +and using it for purposes detrimental to the royal government.</p> + +<p>To persons whose whole purpose of life is to live honorably +such days as these come and develop character. +Every one has some lurking enemy eager to misinterpret him +to his own advantage. The lark must fly to the open sky +when he sees the serpent coiling among the roses, or he must +fight and dare the odds. Woe be to the wrongdoer who triumphs +in such a case as this! He may gain money and ease, +and laugh at his adversary, but when a man has proved untrue +to any man for the sake of his own advantage, it may be written +of him, "He went out, and it was night." A short chapter +of a part of a biography or history may be an injustice, and +seem to show that there is no God in the government of the +world, but a long chapter of full history reveals God on the +high throne of his power, and justice as his strength and glory. +The Roman emperors built grand monuments to atone for their +injustice, cruelty, and vice-seeking lives, but these only blackened +their names by recalling what they were, and defeated +their builders' ends. In this world all long chapters of history +read one way: that character is everything, and that time +tells the truth about all things. Justice is the highest expectation +of life; it is only wise so to live that one's "expectation +may not be disappointed." The young man can not be +too soon led to see that "he that is spiritual judgeth all +things, and that no man judgeth him."</p> + +<p>It was the year 1773, when Franklin was sixty-eight years +of age, that this dark and evil day came. A barrister named +Wedderburn, young in years and new to the bar, a favorite of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> +Lord North, and one who was regarded as "a wonderfully smart +young man," was to present the case of the government against +him.</p> + +<p>The case filled all England with intense interest. The +most notable men of the kingdom arranged to be present at +the hearing. Thirty-five members of the Privy Council were +present, an unusual number at such an assembly. Lord North +was there; the Archbishop of Canterbury; even Dr. Priestley +was there.</p> + +<p>Dr. Franklin appeared on this memorable day in a velvet +coat. He took a place in the room in a recess formed by a +chimney, a retired place, where he stood motionless and silent. +The coat was of Manchester velvet, and spotted.</p> + +<p>Wedderburn addressed the Council. He was witty, brilliant, +careless of facts. His address on that occasion was the talk of +all England in a few days, and it led him to a career of fame +that would have been success had it had the right foundation. +But nothing lasts that is not sincere. Everything in this +world has to be readjusted that is not right.</p> + +<p>"How these letters," said he, "came into the possession +of any one but the right owners is a mystery for Dr. Franklin +to explain."</p> + +<p>He then spoke of Mr. Whatley, to whom the letters were first +consigned, and proceeded thus:</p> + +<p>"He has forfeited all the respect of societies and of men. +Into what companies will he hereafter go with an unembarrassed +face, or the honest intrepidity of virtue? Men will +watch him with a jealous eye; they will hide their papers from +him, and lock up their escritoires. He will henceforth esteem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +it a libel to be called a <i>man of letters;</i> this man of <i>three</i> letters. +(<i>Fur</i>—a thief.)"</p> + +<p>The manner of the orator thrilled the august company. It +is thus described by Jeremy Bentham:</p> + +<p>"I was not more astonished at the brilliancy of his lightning +than astounded by the thunder that accompanied it. As +he stood, the cushion lay on the council table before him; his +station was between the seats of two of the members, on the +side of the right hand of the lord president. I would not, for +double the greatest fee the orator could on that occasion have +received, been in the place of that cushion; the ear was stunned +at every blow; he had been reading perhaps in that book in +which the prince of Roman orators and rhetoric professors instructs +his pupils <ins title="Transcriber's Note: this word not present in original text'">about</ins> how to make impression. The table groaned +under the assault. Alone, in the recess on the left hand of the +president, stood Benjamin Franklin, in such position as not +to be visible from the situation of the president, remaining the +whole time like a rock, in the same posture, his head resting on +his left hand; and in that attitude abiding the pelting of the +pitiless storm."</p> + +<p>Franklin, the agent of the colonies, stood in his humble +place, calm and undisturbed to all outward appearance, but he +was cut to the quick as he heard this assembly of representative +Englishmen laughing at his supposed dishonor.</p> + +<p>Says one of that day, "At the sallies of the orator's sarcastic +wit all the members of the Council, the president himself +not excepted, frequently laughed outright."</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin went home, and put away his spotted +velvet coat. He might want it again. It would be a reminder<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +to him—a lesson of life. He might wear it again +some day.</p> + +<p>The next day, being Sunday, the eminent Dr. Priestley came +to take breakfast with him.</p> + +<p>Dr. Franklin said: "Let me read the arraignment twice +over. I have never before been so sensible of the power of +a good conscience. If I had not considered the thing for +which I have been so much insulted the best action of my +life, and which I certainly should do again under like circumstances, +I could not have supported myself."</p> + +<p>Franklin held an office under the crown. On Monday +morning a letter was brought to him from the postmaster-general. +It read:</p> + +<p>"The king finds it necessary to dismiss you from the office +of deputy postmaster-general in America."</p> + +<p>Dismissed in disgrace at the age of sixty-eight! And England +laughing. He had nothing left to comfort him now but +his conscience—that was the everything.</p> + +<p>The old spotted velvet coat; he brought it out on the day +of the treaty. It was some nine or more years old now. He +stood like a culprit in it one day; it should adorn him now in +the hour of his honor.</p> + +<p>He was facing eighty years.</p> + +<p>He prepared to leave France, where his career had been +one of such honor and glory that his fame filled the world.</p> + +<p>The court made him a parting present. It was a portrait +of the king set in a frame of <i>four hundred diamonds<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>!</i></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<h3>IN SERVICE AGAIN.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> has been said that Franklin forgot to be old. Verging +upon eighty, he had asked to be recalled from France, and he +dreamed of quiet old age among his grandchildren on the +banks of the Schuylkill, where so many happy years of +his middle life had been spent. He was recalled from France, +but, as we have before stated, this was an age in America when +men sought the councils of wisdom and experience.</p> + +<p>Pennsylvania needed a President or Governor who could lay +the foundations of early legislation with prudence, and she +turned to the venerable Franklin to fill the chair of state. He +was nominated for the office of President of Pennsylvania, and +elected, and twice re-elected; and we find him now, over +eighty years of age, in activities of young manhood, and bringing +to the office the largest experience of any American.</p> + +<p>He was among the first of most eminent Americans to +crown his life after the period of threescore and ten years with +the results of the scholarship of usefulness.</p> + +<p>We have recently seen Gladstone, Tennyson, King William, +Bismarck, Von Moltke, Whittier, Holmes, and many other men +of the enlightened world, doing some of their strongest and most +impressive work after seventy years of age, and some of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +setting jewels in the crown of life when past eighty. We have +seen Du Maurier producing his first great work of fiction at +sixty, and many authors fulfilling the hopes of years at a like +age.</p> + +<p>We have a beautiful pen picture of Franklin in these +several years, in his youth's return when eighty years were past. +It shows what is possible to a life of temperance and beneficence, +and it is only such a life that can have an Indian summer, a +youth in age.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Franklin's house," wrote a clergyman who visited +him in his old age, "stands up a court, at some distance from +the street. We found him in his garden, sitting upon a grass-plot, +under a very large mulberry tree, with several other gentlemen +and two or three ladies. When Mr. Gerry introduced +me, he rose from his chair, took me by the hand, expressed his +joy at seeing me, welcomed me to the city, and begged me to +seat myself close to him. His voice was low, but his countenance +open, frank, and pleasing. I delivered to him my letters. +After he read them he took me again by the hand, and, +with the usual compliments, introduced me to the other gentlemen.</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 266px;"> +<img src="images/illus-319.jpg" width="266" height="400" alt="Franklin's last days." title="Franklin's last days." /> +<span class="caption">Franklin's last days.</span> +</div> + +<p>"Here we entered into a free conversation, and spent our +time most agreeably until it was quite dark. The tea table was +spread under the tree, and Mrs. Bache, who is the only daughter +of the doctor and lives with him, served it out to the company. +She had three of her children about her. They seemed +to be excessively fond of their grandpa. The doctor showed +me a curiosity he had just received, and with which he was +much pleased. It was a snake with two heads, preserved in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +a large vial. It was taken near the confluence of the Schuylkill +with the Delaware, about four miles from this city. It +was about ten inches long, well proportioned, the heads perfect, +and united to the body about one fourth of an inch below the +extremities of the jaws. The snake was of a dark brown, approaching +to black, and the back beautifully speckled with +white. The belly was rather checkered with a reddish color +and white. The doctor supposed it to be full grown, which +I think is probable; and he thinks it must be a <i>sui generis</i> of +that class of animals. He grounds his opinion of its not being +an extraordinary production, but a distinct genus, on the perfect +form of the snake, the probability of its being of some age, +and there having been found a snake entirely similar (of which +the doctor has a drawing, which he showed us) near Lake +Champlain in the time of the late war. He mentioned the +situation of this snake if it was traveling among bushes, and +one head should choose to go on one side of the stem of a bush +and the other head should prefer the other side, and neither +of the heads would consent to come back or give way to the +other. He was then going to mention a humorous matter that +had that day occurred in the convention in consequence of his +comparing the snake to America, for he seemed to forget that +everything in the convention was to be kept a profound secret. +But this secrecy of convention matters was suggested to him, +which stopped him and deprived me of the story he was going +to tell.</p> + +<p>"After it was dark we went into his house, and he invited +me into his library, which is likewise his study. It is a very +large chamber and high studded. The walls are covered with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +bookshelves filled with books; besides, there are four large alcoves +extending two thirds of the length of the chamber, filled +in the same manner. I presume this is the largest and by far +the best private library in America.</p> + +<p>"He seemed extremely fond, through the course of the visit, +of dwelling on philosophical subjects, and particularly that of +natural history, while the other gentlemen were swallowed up +with politics. This was a favorable circumstance for me, for +almost the whole of his conversation was addressed to me; and I +was highly delighted with the extensive knowledge he appeared +to have of every subject, the brightness of his memory, and +the clearness and vivacity of all his mental faculties, notwithstanding +his age. His manners are perfectly easy, and everything +about him seems to diffuse an unrestrained freedom and +happiness. He has an incessant vein of humor, accompanied +with an uncommon vivacity, which seems as natural and involuntary +as his breathing. He urged me to call on him again, +but my short stay would not admit. We took our leave at ten, +and I retired to my lodgings."</p> + +<p>The convention to frame a Constitution for the United +States assembled at this time in Philadelphia. Dr. Franklin +was elected to bring his ripe statesmanship into this great work.</p> + +<p>He was a poet in old age. When past eighty he fulfilled +one of the hopes of Uncle Ben. When the Constitution had +been adopted by a majority of the States, the event was celebrated +by a grand festival in Philadelphia. There were a long +procession of the trades, an oration, the booming of cannon, +and the ringing of bells. Some twenty thousand people joined +in the festivities. They wanted a poet for the joyful occasion.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +Poets were not many in those days. Who should appear? It +was Silence Dogood, the Poor Richard of a generation gone.</p> + +<p>To the draft of the Constitution of the United States Benjamin +Franklin placed his signature, and thus again honored his +Boston writing-master of seventy years ago.</p> + +<p>But he gave to this august assembly an influence as noble +as his signature to the document that it produced. Franklin +had been skeptical in his youth, and a questioner of religious +teachings in other periods of his life. Mature thought had +convinced him of the glory of the Christian faith, of the doctrine +of immortality and the power of prayer. The deliberations +in the Constitutional Assembly were long, and they were +sometimes bitter. In the midst of the debates, the divisions of +opinion and delays, Dr. Franklin arose one day—it was the 28th +of June, 1787—and moved</p> + +<p>"That henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of +Heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly +every morning before we proceed to business; and that +one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate +in that service."</p> + +<p>In an address supporting this resolution he said: "I have +lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live the more convincing +proofs I see of this truth: <i>That</i> <span class="smcap">God</span> <i>governs in the affairs of +men!</i> And if a sparrow can not fall to the ground without his +notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? +We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred Writings, that 'except +the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.' I +firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring +aid we shall succeed in this political building no better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +than the building of Babel; we shall be divided by our partial +local interests, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves +shall become a reproach and a byword down to future +ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this +unfortunate instance despair of establishing government by +human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest."</p> + +<p>To consummate the American Government now only one +thing was lacking—a power to interpret the meaning of the +Constitution, and so to decide any disputes that should arise +among the States.</p> + +<p>In Mr. Vernon's garden, after the controversy between the +fishermen of Maryland and Virginia, a plan to settle such disputes +was produced. It was a high court of final appeal.</p> + +<p>So rose the Supreme Court. And this court to decide +questions of controversy arising among the States, we may hope, +was the beginning of a like body, a Supreme Court of the nations +of the world that shall settle the questions in dispute +among nations, without an appeal to war or the shedding of +human blood.</p> + +<p>These were glorious times, and although Dr. Franklin was +not actively engaged in this last grand movement for the government +of the people, he lived to give his influence to make +George Washington President, and see the new order of a +popular government inaugurated. He entered the doors of +that golden age of liberty, equality, and progress, when the destinies +might say to their spindles, "Thus go on forever!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<h3>JANE'S LAST VISIT.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was midsummer. Benjamin Franklin, of fourscore +years, President of Pennsylvania, had finished a long, three-story +ell to his house on Market Street, and in this ell he had +caused to be made a library which filled his heart with pride. +He had invented a long arm with which to take down books +from the high shelves of this library—an invention which came +into use in other libraries in such a way as to make many librarians +grateful to him.</p> + +<p>He was overburdened with care, and suffered from chronic +disease.</p> + +<p>In his days of pain he had been comforted by letters from +Jenny, now long past seventy years of age. She had written +to him in regard to his sufferings such messages as these:</p> + +<p>"Oh, that after you have spent your whole life in the +service of the public, and have attained so glorious a conclusion, +as I thought, as would now permit you to come home and +spend (as you say) the evening with your friends in ease and +quiet, that now such a dreadful malady should attack you! My +heart is ready to burst with grief at the thought. How many +hours have I lain awake on nights thinking what excruciating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +pains you might then be encountering, while I, poor, useless, +and worthless worm, was permitted to be at ease! Oh, that +it was in my power to mitigate or alleviate the anguish I know +you must endure!"</p> + +<p>When she heard of his arrival in Philadelphia she wrote:</p> + +<p>"I long so much to see you that I should immediately seek +for some one that would accompany me, but my daughter is +in a poor state of health and gone into the country to try to +get a little better, and I am in a strait between two; but the +comfortable reflection that you are at home among all your dear +children, and no more seas to cross, will be constantly pleasing +to me till I am permitted to enjoy the happiness of seeing and +conversing with you."</p> + +<p>The tenderness and charity of Franklin for the many members +of his own family still revealed his heart. "I tenderly +love you," he wrote to Jane—Jenny—"for the care of our +father in his sickness."</p> + +<p>One of his sisters, Mrs. Dowse, whose family had died, insisted +upon living alone, on account of her love for the place +that had been her home. Many other men would have compelled +her removal, but there is nothing more beautiful in all +Franklin's letters than the way that he advised Jenny how to +treat this matter. He had been told that this venerable woman +would have her own way.</p> + +<p>"As <i>having their own way</i> is one of the greatest comforts +of life to old people, I think their friends should endeavor to +accommodate them in that as well as anything else. When +they have long lived in a house, it becomes natural to them; +they are almost as closely connected with it as the tortoise with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +his shell; they die if you tear them out. Old folks and old trees, +if you remove them, 'tis ten to one that you kill them, so let +our good old sister be no more importuned on that head; we +are growing old fast ourselves, and shall expect the same kind +of indulgences; if we give them, we shall have a right to receive +them in our turn."</p> + +<p>Jane Mecom—the "Jenny" of Franklin's young life—had +one great desire as the years went on: it was, to meet her +brother once more and to review the past with him.</p> + +<p>"I will one day go to Philadelphia and give him a great +surprise," the woman used to say.</p> + +<p>Let us picture such a day.</p> + +<p>Benjamin Franklin sat down in his new library. His books +had been placed and his pictures hung.</p> + +<p>Among the pictures were two that were so choice that we +may suppose them to be hung under coverings. One of them +was the portrait of the King of France in its frame of four +hundred brilliants, and the other was his own portrait with, +perhaps, Turgot's famous inscription.</p> + +<p>It was near evening when he sat down and asked to be left +alone.</p> + +<p>He opened his secretary, and took from it a letter from +Washington. It read:</p> + +<p>"Amid the public gratulations on your safe return to +America after a long absence, and many eminent services you +have rendered it, for which as a benefited person I feel the +obligation, permit an individual to join the public voice in expressing +a sense of them, and to assure you that, as no one entertains +more respect for your character, so no one can salute<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +you with more sincerity or with greater pleasure than I do on +the occasion."</p> + +<p>He took from his papers the resolution of the Assembly of +Pennsylvania and began to read:</p> + +<p>"We are confident, sir, that we speak the sentiments of the +whole country when we say that your services in the public +councils and negotiations have not only merited the thanks of +the present generation, but will be recorded in the pages of +history to your immortal honor."</p> + +<p>He dropped the paper on the table beside the letter of Washington +and sank into his armchair, for his pains were coming +upon him again.</p> + +<p>He thought of the past—of old Boston, of Passy, of all his +struggles—and he wished that he might feel again the sympathetic +touch of the hand of his sister who had been so true to +him, and who had loved him so long and well.</p> + +<p>It was near sunset of one of the longest days of the year +when he heard a carriage stop before the door.</p> + +<p>"I can not see any one," he said. "I must have rest—I +must have rest."</p> + +<p>There came a mechanical knock on his door. He did not +respond.</p> + +<p>A servant's voice said outside, "There is a woman, master, +that asks to see you."</p> + +<p>"I can not see any one," answered the tortured old man.</p> + +<p>"She is an old woman."</p> + +<p>"I could not see the queen."</p> + +<p>He heard an echo of the servant's voice in the hall.</p> + +<p>"He says that he could not see the queen."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, tell him that I am something more than that to +him. He will see me, or else I will die at his door."</p> + +<p>There came a tap on the door, very gentle.</p> + +<p>"Who is there?"</p> + +<p>"It is Jane."</p> + +<p>"What Jane—who?"</p> + +<p>"She who folded the hands of your father for the last +time. Open the door. There can be no No to me."</p> + +<p>The door opened.</p> + +<p>"Jenny!"</p> + +<p>"Ben—let all titles pass now—I have come to give you a +surprise."</p> + +<p>The old woman sank into a chair.</p> + +<p>"I have come to visit you for the last time," she said, "and +to number with you our mercies of life. Let me rest before +I talk. You are in pain."</p> + +<p>"Jenny, my pains have gone. I had sat down in agony +in this new room; my head ached as well as my body. I am +happy now that you have come."</p> + +<p>She moved her chair to his, and he took her hand again, +saying:</p> + +<p>"My sister's hand—your hand, Jenny, as when we were +children. They are gone, all gone."</p> + +<p>He looked in her face.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, your hair is gray now, and mine is white. I have +been reading over again this letter from Washington."</p> + +<p>"Read it to me while I rest, then we will talk of old +times."</p> + +<p>He read the letter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Here are the resolutions of the Assembly of Pennsylvania +passed on my return."</p> + +<p>"Read them to me, brother, for I must rest longer before +we talk of old times."</p> + +<p>He read the resolutions.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, let me uncover this. It is not vanity that makes +me wish to do it now, but on account of what I wish to say."</p> + +<p>He uncovered the portrait of the French king. The last +light of the sun fell into the room and upon the frame, causing +the four hundred diamonds to gleam.</p> + +<p>"That was presented to me by the court of France."</p> + +<p>"I never saw anything so splendid, brother. But what is +the other picture under the cover?"</p> + +<p>He drew away the screen.</p> + +<p>"It is my portrait, Jenny."</p> + +<p>"But, brother, what are those words written under it?"</p> + +<p>Franklin read, "<i>Eripuit c[oe]lo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis.</i>"</p> + +<p>"Brother, what does that mean?"</p> + +<p>"'He snatched the thunderbolts from heaven, and the scepter +from the tyrants.'"</p> + +<p>"Who, brother?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Jenny, let us talk of these things no longer. Do you remember +Uncle Ben?"</p> + +<p>"He has never died. He lives in you. You have lived +out his life. You have lived, Ben, and I have loved. Brother, +you have done well. He who does his best does well."</p> + +<p>"Jenny, can you repeat what Uncle Ben said under the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span> +tree on the showery day when the birds sang, nearly seventy +years ago?"</p> + +<p>"Let us repeat it together, brother. You have made that +lesson your life."</p> + +<p>"'More than wealth, more than fame, or any other thing, +is the power of the human heart, and it is developed by seeking +the good of others. Live for the things that live.'"</p> + +<p>"Jenny, my own true sister, I have something else to show +you—something that I value more than a present from a +throne. I have here some 'pamphlets,' into which Uncle Ben +put his soul before he sought to impress the same thoughts upon +me. I want you to have them now, to read them, and give +them to his family."</p> + +<p>He went to his secretary and took from it the pamphlets.</p> + +<p>"Here are the thoughts of a man who told me when I was +a poor boy in Boston town that I had a chance in the world.</p> + +<p>"He told me not to be laughed down.</p> + +<p>"He told me that diligence was power.</p> + +<p>"He told me that I would be helped in helping others.</p> + +<p>"He told me that justice was the need of mankind.</p> + +<p>"He told me that to have influence with men I must overcome +my conscious defects.</p> + +<p>"He was poor, he was empty-handed, but Heaven gave to +him the true vision of life. He committed that vision to me, +and what he wished to be I have struggled to fulfill. These +pamphlets are the picture of his mind, and that picture deserves +to be hung in diamonds, and is more to me than the portrait +of the king. Blessed be the memory of that old man, who +taught my young life virtue, and gave it hope!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Jenny, I have tried to live well."</p> + +<p>"You have been 'Silence Dogood,' the idea that Uncle +Benjamin printed on your mind."</p> + +<p>"Jenny, I have heard the church bells—Uncle Tom's +bells—of Nottingham ring. I found Uncle Benjamin's letters +there—those that he wrote to his old friends from +America. He lovingly described you and me. What days +those were! Father was true to his home when he invited +Uncle Benjamin to America. You have been true to your +home, and my heart has been, through your hands. Jenny, +I have given my house in Boston to you."</p> + +<p>The old woman wept.</p> + +<p>"Jenny, you have loved, and your heart has been better +than mine. Let me call the servants. These are hours when +the soul is full—my soul is full. I ask for nothing more."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLII.</h2> + +<h3>FOR THE LAST TIME.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Silence</span> Dogood is an old man now—a very old man. +He looks back on the spring and summer and autumn of life—it +is now the time of the snow. But there are sunny days in +winter, and they came to him, though on the trees hang the +snow, and the nights are long and painful.</p> + +<p>What has Silence Dogood done in his eighty years now +ending in calm, in dreams and silence? Let us look back +over the past with him now. What a review it is!</p> + +<p>He had founded literary and scientific clubs in his early +life that had made not idlers, but men. He had founded the +first subscription library in America. It had multiplied, and +in its many branches had become a national influence.</p> + +<p>He made a stove that was a family luxury, and showed how +it might be enjoyed without a smoky chimney.</p> + +<p>He had shown that lightning was electricity and could be +controlled, and had disarmed the thunder cloud by a simple +rod.</p> + +<p>He had founded the High School in Pennsylvania.</p> + +<p>He had encouraged the raising of silk.</p> + +<p>He had helped found the Philadelphia Hospital, and had +founded the American Philosophical Society.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span></p> + +<p>He had promoted the scheme for uniting the colonies.</p> + +<p>He had signed the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty +of the Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace between +England and the United States, and the draft of the Constitution +of the United States.</p> + +<p>We may truly say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." +But there remains yet one paper to sign. It is his will. +The influence of that paper is felt in the world to-day, but nowhere +more than in Boston. In this will he made provision for +lending the interest of great bequests to poor citizens, he left +the fund for the Franklin Silver Medal in Boston schools, and +he sought to be a benefactor to the children of Boston after a +hundred years. This will has the following words:</p> + +<p>"If this plan is executed, and succeeds as projected without +interruption for one hundred years, the sum will then be one +hundred and thirty-one thousand pounds, of which I would +have the managers of the donation to the town of Boston then +lay out, at their discretion, one hundred thousand pounds in +public works, which may be judged of most general utility to +the inhabitants, such as fortifications, bridges, aqueducts, public +buildings, baths, pavements, or whatever may make living +in the town more convenient to its people, and render it more +agreeable to strangers resorting thither for health or a temporary +residence. The remaining thirty-one thousand pounds +I would have continued to be let out on interest, in the manner +above directed, for another hundred years, as I hope it will have +been found that the institution has had a good effect on the +conduct of youth, and been of service to many worthy characters +and useful citizens. At the end of this second term, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +no unfortunate accident has prevented the operation, the sum +will be four millions and sixty-one thousand pounds sterling; +of which I leave one million sixty-one thousand pounds to the +disposition of the inhabitants of the town of Boston, and three +millions to the disposition of the government of the State, not +presuming to carry my views farther."</p> + +<p>He put his signature to this last paper, and for the last time +did honor to his old writing-master, George Brownell.</p> + +<p>He died looking upon a picture of Christ, and he was buried +amid almost unexampled honors, France joining with the +United States in his eulogies.</p> + +<p>But in a high sense he lives. There is one boy who has +never ceased to attend the Boston Latin School, and will not +for generations to come. It is Silence Dogood.</p> + +<p>Virtue to virtue, intelligence to intelligence, benevolence to +benevolence, faith to faith! So ascend the feet of worth on +the ladder of life; so reaches a high purpose a place beyond +the derision of the world.</p> + +<p>The bells of the nation tolled when he died. "He was +true to his country!" said all men; but aged Jenny, "He was +true to his home!"</p> + +<p>The influence of Uncle Benjamin in his godson had lived, +but it was not ended.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>On September 17th, in the year 1856, the city of Boston +stopped business to render homage to the memory of her greatest +citizen. On that day was inaugurated the Franklin statue, +by Horatio Greenough, that now stands in front of the City +Hall. On that day the graves of Josiah and Abiah Franklin in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +the Granary burying ground were covered with evergreens and +flowers, and we hope that the grave of Uncle Ben, the poet, +which is near by, was not forgotten.</p> + +<p>The procession was one of the grandest that the city has +ever seen, for it was not only great in numbers, but it blossomed +with heart tributes. The trades were in it, the military, +the schools. Orators, poets, artists, all contributed to the festival. +Boston was covered with flags, and her halls were filled +with joyous assemblages.</p> + +<p>There was one house that was ornamented by a motto from +Franklin's private liturgy. It was:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Help me to be faithful to my country,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Careful for its good,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Valiant for its defense,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And obedient to its laws."</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>Conspicuous among the mottoes were:</p> + +<p>"Time is money," "Knowledge is power," "Worth makes +the man," and, queerly enough, "<i>Don't give too much for the +whistle</i>," the teaching of an experience one hundred and fifty +years before.</p> + +<p>The bells rang, and the influence of the old man who slept +beside the flower-crowned grave of Josiah Franklin and Abiah +Franklin was in the joy; the chimes of Nottingham were ringing +again. Good influences are seeds of immortal flowers, and +no life fails that inspires another.</p> + +<p>Franklin Park, Boston, which will be one of the most +beautiful in the world, will carry forward, in its forests, fountains, +and flowers, these influences for generations to come.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> + +<h3>A LESSON AFTER SCHOOL.</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was the day of the award of the Franklin medals in the +old Boston Latin School, a day in June, and such a one as +James Russell Lowell so picturesquely describes. We say +"old" Boston Latin School, not meaning old Boston in England, +but such an association would not be an untrue one; for +the Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts, which was +founded under the influence of Governor John Winthrop and +Rev. John Cotton, and that numbers five signers of the +Declaration of Independence among its pupils, was really begun in +Boston, England, in 1554, or in the days of Queen Mary. It +has the most remarkable history of any school in America; it +has been the Harrow of Harvard, and for five or more generations +has sent into life many men whose character has shed +luster upon their times.</p> + +<p>To gain the Franklin medal is the high aim of the Boston +schoolboy. It is to associate one's name with a long line of +illustrious men, among them John Collins Warren, Wendell +Phillips, Charles Sumner, Phillips Brooks, S. F. Smith, and +many others.</p> + +<p>But one of the boys who had won the Franklin medal to-day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +had done so amid the ridicule of his people at home and +after very hard work. Boston Latin boys are too well bred to +laugh at the humble gifts of any one, but those of this period +could hardly have failed to notice the natural stupidity and +the strong, silent purpose and will of this lad. His name we +will call Elwell—Frank Elwell. He came from a humble +home, where he was not uncommonly taunted as being the +"fool of the family."</p> + +<p>He first attracted attention at this school of brilliant pupils +by a bold question which he asked his teacher one day that +commanded instant respect. After hard study he had made +a very poor recitation. He was reproved by his teacher, who +was a submaster, but a kindly, sensitive, and sympathetic man. +He lifted his eyes and looked into the teacher's face, and said:</p> + +<p>"Why do you reprove me? I am doing the best I can, sir."</p> + +<p>The teacher knew the words to be true. The boys that +heard the question turned with a kind of chivalrous feeling +toward their dull companion, who was doing his best against +poverty, limited gifts, and many disadvantages in life. The +old school of Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, and Phillips +Brooks is not wanting in true sympathy with any manly struggle +in life.</p> + +<p>The teacher answered: "Master Elwell, I have done wrong +in reproving you. He does well who does his best. You are +doing well."</p> + +<p>Frank Elwell won the Franklin medal by doing his best. +On the evening after his graduation he stood before his teacher +and asked:</p> + +<p>"Master Lowell" (for so we will call the teacher, and use<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +the old term in the vocative case), "Master Lowell, did you +ever know any boy to struggle against defects like mine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, my boy, I have."</p> + +<p>"Did he succeed in life?"</p> + +<p>"He did. He became the first citizen of Boston, and is +so regarded still."</p> + +<p>"Who was it, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Look at your medal. It was Benjamin Franklin himself."</p> + +<p>Reader, Frank Elwell perhaps is <i>you</i>.</p> + +<p>"More than wealth, more than fame, more than any other +thing, is the power of the human heart." Live for influences—live +for the things that live, and let the best influences of the +Peter Folgers and Benjamin Franklins of your family live on +in you, and live after you. You will do well in life and will +succeed in life if you do your best; and if your ideal seems to +fail in you, it will not fail in the world, in whose harvest field +no good intention perishes.</p> + +<p>Be true to those who have faith in you, and <i>to</i> their faith +in you, and help others by believing in the best that is in them. +Those who have the most faith in you are your truest friends. +An Uncle Benjamin and a Jenny are among the choicest characters +that can enter the doors of life, and we will see it so +at the end.</p> + +<p>Do good, and you can not fail.</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Do thou thy work; it shall succeed<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">In thine or in another's day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">And if denied the visitor's meed,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Thou shalt not miss the toiler's pay."</span><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span></p> +<h2>APPENDIX.</h2> + +<h3>FRANKLIN'S FAMOUS PROVERB STORY OF THE OLD AUCTIONEER.</h3> + + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Friends</span>," said the old auctioneer, "the taxes are indeed +very heavy. If those laid on by the government were the only +ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but +we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. +We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as +much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and +from these taxes the commissioners can not ease or deliver us +by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken to good +advice, and something may be done for us. God helps them +that help themselves, as Poor Richard says.</p> + +<p>"I. It would be thought a hard government that would tax +its people one tenth part of their time to be employed in its +service; but idleness taxes many of us much more; sloth, by +bringing on diseases, absolutely shortens life. Sloth, like rust, +consumes faster than labor wears; while the used key is always +bright, as Poor Richard says. But dost thou love life? then do +not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of, as Poor +Richard says. How much more than is necessary do we spend +in sleep, forgetting that The sleeping fox catches no poultry, +and that There will be sleeping enough in the grave? as Poor +Richard says.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time +must be, as Poor Richard says, the greatest prodigality, since, +as he elsewhere tells us, Lost time is never found again, and what +we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us, then, +be up and doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence +shall we do more with less perplexity. Sloth makes all things +difficult, but industry all ease; and He that riseth late must +trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; +while Laziness travels so slowly that Poverty soon overtakes +him. Drive thy business, let not that drive thee; and, Early +to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and +wise, as Poor Richard says.</p> + +<p>"So, what signifies wishing and hoping for better times? +We make these times better if we bestir ourselves. Industry +need not wish, and he that lives upon hopes will die fasting. +There are no gains without pains; then help, hands, for I have +no lands; or, if I have, they are smartly taxed. He that hath +a trade hath an estate; and he that hath a calling hath an office +of profit and honor, as Poor Richard says; but then the trade +must be worked at, and the calling followed, or neither the +estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are +industrious we shall never starve; for, At the workingman's +house Hunger looks in but dares not enter; for, Industry pays +debts, while despair increases them. What though you have no +treasure, nor has any rich relation left you a legacy; Diligence is +the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry. +Then plow deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn +to sell and to keep. Work while it is called to-day, for you +know not how much you may be hindered to-morrow. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +to-day is worth two to-morrows, as Poor Richard says; and +further, Never leave that till to-morrow which you can do to-day. +If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that +a good master should catch you idle? Are you, then, your own +master? Be ashamed to catch yourself idle, when there is so +much to be done for yourself, your family, your country, your +king. Handle your tools without mittens; remember that The +cat in gloves catches no mice, as Poor Richard says. It is true +there is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak-handed; +but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects; for, +Constant dropping wears away stones, and By diligence and +patience the mouse ate in two the cable; and Little strokes +fell great oaks.</p> + +<p>"Methinks I hear some of you say, Must a man afford +himself no leisure? I will tell thee, my friend, what Poor +Richard says: Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain +leisure; and since thou art not sure of a minute, throw not away +an hour. Leisure is time for doing something useful; this +leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; +for A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. Many, +without labor, would live by their wits only, but they break +for want of stock; whereas, industry gives comfort, and plenty, +and respect. Fly pleasures, and they will follow you. The +diligent spinner has a large shift; and now I have a sheep and +a cow, every one bids me good-morrow.</p> + +<p>"II. But with our industry we must likewise be steady and +careful, and oversee our own affairs with our own eyes, and not +trust too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +"I never saw an oft-removed tree,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Nor yet an oft-removed family,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">That throve so well as those that settled be."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And again, Three removes are as bad as a fire; and again, Keep +thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee; and again, If you would +have your business, go; if not, send. And again,</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"He that by the plow would thrive,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Himself must either hold or drive."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And again, The eye of the master will do more work than both +his hands; and again, "Want of care does us more damage than +want of knowledge; and again, Not to oversee workmen is to +leave them your purse open. Trusting too much to others' +care is the ruin of many; for, In the affairs of this world men +are saved not by faith but by the want of it; but a man's own +care is profitable, for, If you would have a faithful servant, and +one that you like, serve yourself. A little neglect may breed +great mischief: for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of +a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was +lost, being overtaken and slain by the enemy—all for want of +a little care about a horseshoe nail.</div> + +<p>"III. So much for industry, my friends, and attention to +one's own business; but to these we must add frugality, if we +would make our industry more certainly successful. A man +may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose all +his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last. A +fat kitchen makes a lean will; and</p> + +<div class='poem2'> +"Many estates are spent in the getting,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Since women forsook spinning and knitting,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">If you would be wealthy, think of saving as well as of getting."</span><br /> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span></p> + +<div class='unindent'>The Indies have not made Spain rich, because her outgoes are +greater than her incomes.</div> + +<p>"Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not +then have so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy +taxes, and chargeable families; for</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Women and wine, game and deceit,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Make the wealth small and the want great."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And, further, What maintains one vice would bring up two children. +You may think, perhaps, that a little tea or a little +punch now and then, diet a little more costly, clothes a little +finer, and a little entertainment now and then, can be no great +matter; but remember, Many a little makes a mickle. Beware +of little expenses; A small leak will sink a great ship, as Poor +Richard says; and again, Who dainties love shall beggars prove; +and, moreover, Fools make feasts and wise men eat them.</div> + +<p>"Here you are all got together at this sale of fineries and +knickknacks. You call them goods; but if you do not take +care, they will prove evils to some of you. You expect they will +be sold cheap, and perhaps they may for less than they cost; +but if you have no occasion for them, they must be dear to you. +Remember what Poor Richard says: Buy what thou hast no +need of, and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessities. And +again, At a great pennyworth pause awhile. He means that +perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real; or the +bargain, by straitening thee in thy business, may do thee +more harm than good; for in another place he says, Many +have been ruined by buying good pennyworths. Again, It is +foolish to lay out money in a purchase of repentance; and yet +this folly is practiced every day at auctions for want of minding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +the almanac. Many, for the sake of finery on the back, +have gone with a hungry belly and half starved their families. +Silks and satins, scarlet and velvets, put out the kitchen fire, +as Poor Richard says.</p> + +<p>"These are not the necessaries of life; they can scarcely +be called the conveniences; and yet, only because they look +pretty, how many want to have them! By these, and other +extravagances, the genteel are reduced to poverty, and forced +to borrow of those whom they formerly despised, but who +through industry and frugality have maintained their standing; +in which case it appears plainly that A plowman on his legs is +higher than a gentleman on his knees, as Poor Richard says. +Perhaps they have a small estate left them which they knew +not the getting of; they think, It is day, and it never will be +night; that a little to be spent out of so much is not worth +minding; but Always taking out of the meal-tub, and never +putting in, soon comes to the bottom, as Poor Richard says; +and then, When the well is dry, they know the worth of water. +But this they might have known before, if they had taken his +advice. If you would know the value of money, go and try +to borrow some; for, He that goes a-borrowing goes a-sorrowing, +as Poor Richard says; and, indeed, so does he that lends +to such people, when he goes to get it again. Poor Dick further +advises, and says:</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"Fond pride of dress is sure a very curse;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>And again, Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal +more saucy. When you have bought one fine thing, you must +buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +Poor Dick says, It is easier to suppress the first desire than to +satisfy all that follow it. And it is as truly folly for the poor +to ape the rich, as for the frog to swell in order to equal the ox.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"Vessels large may venture more,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">But little boats should keep near shore."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>It is, however, a folly soon punished; for, as Poor Richard says, +Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. Pride breakfasted +with Plenty, dined with Poverty, and supped with Infamy. +And, after all, of what use is this pride of appearance, +for which so much is risked, so much is suffered? It can not +promote health, nor ease pain; it makes no increase of merit +in the person; it creates envy; it hastens misfortune.</div> + +<p>"But what madness must it be to run in debt for these +superfluities! We are offered by the terms of this sale six +months' credit; and that, perhaps, has induced some of us to +attend it, because we can not spare the ready money, and hope +now to be fine without it. But, ah! think what you do when +you run in debt: you give to another power over your liberty. +If you can not pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your +creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will +make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and, by degrees, come to +lose your veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for, The +second vice is lying, the first is running in debt, as Poor Richard +says; and again, to the same purpose, Lying rides upon +Debt's back; whereas, a free-born Englishman ought not to be +ashamed nor afraid to see or speak to any man living. But +poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. It is +hard for an empty bag to stand upright.</p> + +<p>"What would you think of that prince, or of that government,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> +who should issue an edict forbidding you to dress like +a gentleman or gentlewoman on pain of imprisonment or servitude? +Would you not say that you were free, have a right to +dress as you please, and that such an edict would be a breach +of your privileges, and such a government tyrannical? And +yet you are about to put yourself under such tyranny when +you run in debt for such dress. Your creditor has authority, +at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty, by confining you +in jail till you shall be able to pay him. When you have got +your bargain you may perhaps think little of payment; but, +as Poor Richard says, Creditors have better memories than +debtors; creditors are a superstitious sect, great observers +of set days and times. The day comes round before you are +aware, and the demand is made before you are prepared to +satisfy it; or, if you bear your debt in mind, the term, which +at first seemed so long, will, as it lessens, appear extremely +short. Time will seem to have added wings to his heels as well +as his shoulders. Those have a short Lent who owe money +to be paid at Easter. At present, perhaps, you may think +yourselves in thriving circumstances, and that you can bear a +little extravagance without injury; but</p> + +<div class='poem'> +"For age and want save while you may;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">No morning sun lasts a whole day."</span><br /> +</div> + +<div class='unindent'>Gain may be temporary and uncertain, but ever, while you live, +expense is constant and certain; and It is easier to build two +chimneys than to keep one in fuel, as Poor Richard says; so, +Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt.</div> + +<div class='poem'> +"Get what you can, and what you get, hold;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead into gold."</span><br /> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span></p> + +<div class='unindent'>And when you have got the philosopher's stone, surely you +will no longer complain of bad times or the difficulty of paying +taxes.</div> + +<p>"IV. This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; but, +after all, do not depend too much upon your own industry and +frugality and prudence, though excellent things; for they may +all be blasted, without the blessing of Heaven; and, therefore, +ask that blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable to those that +at present seem to want it, but comfort and help them. Remember, +Job suffered, and was afterward prosperous.</p> + +<p>"And now, to conclude, Experience keeps a dear school, +but fools will learn in no other, as Poor Richard says, and scarce +in that; for, it is true, we may give advice, but we can not give +conduct. However, remember this: They that will not be +counseled can not be helped; and further, that, If you will +not hear Reason, she will surely rap your knuckles, as Poor +Richard says."</p> + + +<h3>THE END.</h3> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The old man's own words to Benjamin on war.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The old gentleman who suggests this character was named Mickle or +Mikle.</p></div></div> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>BOOKS BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.</h2> + + +<div class='cap'><i>THE WINDFALL; or, After the Flood.</i> Illustrated +by <span class="smcap">B. West Clinedinst</span>. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The young hero and heroine of Mr. Stoddard's stirring tale of mining life and of +adventures by field and flood, teach lessons of pluck and resourcefulness which will impart +a special and permanent value to one of the best stories that this popular author +has given us.</p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>CHRIS, THE MODEL-MAKER.</i> A Story of New +York. With 6 full-page Illustrations by <span class="smcap">B. West Clinedinst</span>. +12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The girls as well as boys will be certain to relish every line of it. It is full of +lively and likely adventure, is wholesome in tone, and capitally illustrated."—<i>Philadelphia +Press.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>ON THE OLD FRONTIER.</i> With 10 full-page +Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A capital story of life in the middle of the last century. . . . The characters introduced +really live and talk, and the story recommends itself not only to boys and +girls but to their parents."—<i>New York Times.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>THE BATTLE OF NEW YORK.</i> With 11 full-page +Illustrations and colored Frontispiece. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Young people who are interested in the ever-thrilling story of the great rebellion +will find in this romance a wonderfully graphic picture of New York in war time."—<i>Boston +Traveller.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>LITTLE SMOKE.</i> A Story of the Sioux Indians. +With 12 full-page Illustrations by <span class="smcap">F. S. Dellenbaugh</span>, portraits +of Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, and other chiefs, and 72 head and +tail pieces representing the various implements and surroundings +of Indian life. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It is not only a story of adventure, but the volume abounds in information concerning +this most powerful of remaining Indian tribes. The work of the author has +been well supplemented by the artist."—<i>Boston Traveller.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>CROWDED OUT O' CROFIELD.</i> The story of a +country boy who fought his way to success in the great metropolis. +With 23 Illustrations by <span class="smcap">C. T. Hill</span>. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There are few writers who know how to meet the tastes and needs of boys better +than does William O. Stoddard. This excellent story teaches boys to be men, not prigs +or Indian hunters. If our boys would read more such books, and less of the blood-and-thunder +order, it would be rare good fortune."—<i>Detroit Free Press.</i></p></div> + +<div class='center'>——————<br /> + +New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span></p> + +<h2>GOOD BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS.</h2> + + +<div class='cap'><i>CHRISTINE'S CAREER.</i> A Story for Girls. By +<span class="smcap">Pauline King</span>. Illustrated. 12mo. Cloth, specially bound, +$1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The heroine of Miss King's charming story shares artist life in rural France and in +Paris before she returns to her native country, where her time is divided between New +York and Boston and the seashore. The story is fresh and modern, relieved by incidents +and constant humor, and the lessons which are suggested are most beneficial.</p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>JOHN BOYD'S ADVENTURES.</i> By <span class="smcap">Thomas +W. Knox</span>, author of "The Boy Travelers," etc. With 12 full-page +Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The hero is alternately merchant, sailor, man-o'-war's-man, privateer's-man, +pirate, and Algerine slave. The bombardment of Tripoli is a brilliant chapter of a +narrative of heroic deeds."—<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>ALONG THE FLORIDA REEF.</i> By <span class="smcap">Charles +F. Holder</span>, joint author of "Elements of Zoölogy." With +numerous Illustrations. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The reader will be entertained with a series of adventures, but when he is done +he will find that he has learned a good deal about dancing cranes, corals, waterspouts, +sharks, talking fish, disappearing islands, hurricanes, turtles, and all sorts of wonders +of the earth and sea and air."—<i>New York Sun.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>ENGLISHMAN'S HAVEN.</i> By <span class="smcap">W. J. Gordon</span>, +author of "The Captain-General," etc. With 8 full-page Illustrations. +12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The story of Louisbourg, which because of its position and the consequences of +its fall is justly held one of the most notable of the world's dead cities. The story is +admirably told."—<i>Detroit Free Press.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>WE ALL.</i> A Story of Outdoor Life and Adventure in +Arkansas. By <span class="smcap">Octave Thanet</span>. With 12 full-page Illustrations +by <span class="smcap">E. J. Austen</span> and others. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"A story which every boy will read with unalloyed pleasure. . . . The adventures +of the two cousins are full of exciting interest. The characters, both white and black, +are sketched directly from Nature, for the author is thoroughly familiar with the customs +and habits of the different types of Southerners that she has so effectively +reproduced."—<i>Boston Saturday Evening Gazette.</i></p><br /><br /></div> + + +<div class='cap'><i>KING TOM AND THE RUNAWAYS.</i> By +<span class="smcap">Louis Pendleton</span>. The experiences of two boys in the forests +of Georgia. With 6 Illustrations by <span class="smcap">E. W. Kemble</span>. 12mo. +Cloth, $1.50.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The doings of 'King' Tom, Albert, and the happy-go-lucky boy Jim on the +swamp island, are as entertaining in their way as the old sagas embodied in Scandinavian +story."—<i>Philadelphia Ledger.</i></p></div> + +<div class='center'>——————<br /> + +New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> +<p>Obvious punctuation errors repaired.</p> + +<p>The remaining corrections made are indicated by dotted lines under the corrections. Scroll the mouse over the word and the original text will <ins title="Transcriber's Note: original reads 'apprear'">appear</ins>.</p></div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's True to His Home, by Hezekiah Butterworth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRUE TO HIS HOME *** + +***** This file should be named 26442-h.htm or 26442-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/4/4/26442/ + +Produced by Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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