he was to serve as an apprentice until he should be twenty-one. "I now had access," he says, "to better books. An acquaintance with the apprentices of booksellers enabled me sometimes to borrow a small one, which I was careful to return soon, and clean. Often I sat up in my room reading the greatest part of the night, when the book was borrowed in the evening and to be returned early in the morning, lest it should be missed or wanted."

17. Years afterward, Franklin saw how useful it would be if several persons should put their separate stocks of books together, so that each could have access to the whole collection. Accordingly he started a library with some friends, and that was really the beginning of the great public libraries of America.

18. Now, too, he began to put his thoughts into writing. He fell in with a famous English book called the "Spectator," and was so pleased with the way it was written, that he tried to write in the same way. He would jot down a few words from a sentence, just enough to remind him what the sentence was about, and then put the book away. A few days after, he would try to make the sentence himself. Then he would compare his sentence with that in the book, and see what his faults were.

19. When he was fourteen or fifteen years old, his brother started a newspaper. Franklin heard his brother's friends talk about the pieces which they wrote for thc paper, and he thought he would try his hand. He knew his brother would not think much of an article written by a boy, so he disguised his handwriting and slipped his piece under the door of the printing-office.

20. He was greatly pleased to hear his brother and

friends talk about this piece, and praise it. He wrote more pieces, and they were all printed, but no one knew who had written them. Pretty soon Franklin had said all he could think of, and then he told what he had done. His brother was not altogether pleased. He thought the boy, who was only his apprentice, was putting on airs.

21. The two brothers did not agree very well, and Benjamin Franklin was eager to be rid of being an apprentice. He did not see how this was to be done, when suddenly the chance came, and in a somewhat odd

manner.

22. The newspapers at that time had to be very careful what they printed. They had not the freedom they now have, and if a newspaper said what displeased the government, the government often forbade it to be continued. It happened that one of the writers for James Franklin's paper, "The New England Courant,” wrote an article which gave offense. As a consequence, the Massachusetts government ordered that "James Franklin should no longer print the paper called 'The New England Courant." "

23. Of course James Franklin and his friends were all the more determined to keep up the paper. They talked over plans, and finally agreed that the paper should come out under Benjamin Franklin's name. But they knew that the government would consider James Franklin's apprentice the same as James Franklin

himself.

24. So it was arranged that James should release Benjamin from being an apprentice; then if fault was found, they could show Benjamin's apprentice-agreement with the release written upon it. At the same time a

new set of papers was to be made out, so that Benjamin would continue to serve his brother, but these papers were to be kept secret.

25. All went well for a time; but at last James Franklin treated Benjamin roughly, and the boy said he would no longer serve him. He was free; he had his discharge, and he meant to go elsewhere. He knew very well that his brother would not dare show the new paper. "It was not fair in me to take this advantage," said Franklin; but he was angry, and tired of the life he had been leading.

26. He sold some of his books, and raised enough money to pay his passage on a sloop to New York, and there he found himself, as he says, " near three hundred miles from home, a boy of but seventeen, without the least recommendation to, or knowledge of, any person in the place, and with very little money in my pocket."

CHAPTER XXIX.

FRANKLIN'S MANHOOD.

1. WHEN Franklin left his home in Boston, he no longer cared much to go to sea. He had learned his trade, and could get his living by that. He went to the only printer in New York, and asked for work. This man had no place for him, but said he knew of a place in Philadelphia, and advised him to go there.

2. A journey from New York to Philadelphia was a very different matter then from what it is now. Franklin set out in a sail-boat for Amboy. A squall came up, and the boat was driven upon Long Island. There they lay

all night, but the next day made out to reach Amboy, having been thirty hours making the passage.

3. At Amboy, Franklin spent the night, and the next morning was ferried across the Raritan River. He had fifty miles to walk, to Burlington on the Delaware River, and he was more than two days getting over the ground. He had left New York on Tuesday, and it was now Saturday. The regular boat was not to leave till Tuesday of the next week; but, as he was walking by the river in the evening, a boat came by, from some point farther up, on its way to Philadelphia.

4. Franklin joined this party, and, as there was no wind, they had to row all the way. It was dark, and they could not tell where they were at midnight. Some thought they had gone beyond Philadelphia, some that they had not reached it. So they pulled to the shore, found a creek up which they rowed, and landed near an old fence. They made a fire, for it was cold, and waited for daylight. When they rowed down the creek again, there was Philadelphia just below them.

5. The printer-boy, in a rough working-dress, stepped on shore, in a city which he was to make famous. He had a little money in his pocket, and he was very hungry He found a baker's shop, and with three pennies bought. three great rolls of bread. "Having no room in my pockets," he says, "I walked off with a roll under each arm, and eating the other. Thus I went up Market Street, as far as Fourth Street, passing by the house of Mr. Read, my future wife's father, when she, standing at the door, saw me, and thought I made, as I certainly did, a most awkward, ridiculous appearance."

6. A young man, who has learned a good trade, is