From Boyhood to Manhood | Page 2

Seven Years Old--First Money to Spend as He Pleased--Advice
Gratis--Boy with Whistle--Benjamin Buys a Whistle--Going into the
Concert Business--Scene in the Family--Tormented by John for Paying
All His Money--Ben Breaks Down--Father and Mother Takes His
Part--The Lesson He Learned--What He Wrote about It at Seventy-two
Years of Age--When Boys Pay Too Dear for the
Whistle--Dickens--Keeping the Secret--How the Secret Came Out.
IV. IN SCHOOL.
Uncle Benjamin and His Poetry--His Family--His Letter about
Ben--Plans for School and Doctor Willard--Goes to School at Eight
Years of Age--Description of His Father--Of His Mother--Inscription
on Their Monument--Nathaniel Williams, Teacher--Description of
School-house--His Scholarship High--His Teacher Praises Him--Led
the School--Prophecies about Him--Webster--Rittenhouse--Stephenson.
V. OUT OF SCHOOL.
Poverty Forces Him to Leave School--His Mother's View--Hard Time
for Ministers--Brownell's School of Penmanship--How Ben Could Help
His Father--Boys Put to Work Young Then--His Obedience--A
Well-Disciplined Boy--Incident of His Manhood to Rebuke a
Landlord--Robert Peel and Harry Garland--The Eight Hall
Brothers--His Progress.
VI. FROM SCHOOL TO CANDLE-SHOP.
Arrival of Uncle Benjamin--Opposed to Taking His Nephew Out of
School-- Thinks Ben is Very Talented--Prospects of the
Business--Benjamin's Talk with His Mother--Blessings of
Industry--Doctor Franklin's Proverbs--Became Wiser Than His
Father--Tallow-Chandler at Ten Years of Age--His Father Saw His
Dissatisfaction--Josiah, the Runaway Son, Returns--Wanted to Go to
Sea--The Proposition Vetoed--Uncle Benjamin Against It.
VII. CHOOSING A TRADE AND STEALING SPORT.
Love of a Trade Necessary to Success--Following "Natural

Bent"--Square Boys in Round Holes--Smeaton--Benjamin Pleased with
a New Plan-- Examining Different Trades--The Cutler, Brazier,
etc.--Chooses Cutler's Trade--Enters Shop on Trial--Disagreement on
Terms--The Good It Did Him--Sport on the Water--An Evil
Proposition--Stealing Stones--The Wharf Built--The Thieves
Detected--How Benjamin's Father Found Him Out--Benjamin's
Confession and Promise--The End.
VIII. BECOMING PRINTER-BOY.
James Franklin Returns from England a Printer--His Father's Talk
About Learning That Trade--Benjamin Likes It--Arrangement with
James-- Printing in Its Infancy Then--Censorship over Printing--Bound
to His Brother--Form of Indenture--William Tinsley--White
Slavery--Poor Children Sold at Auction--A Printer-boy and How He
Liked--Time for Reading--Budget!--The Printing-office, Where and
What--Being on Time--After a Book Before Breakfast--Washington's
Punctuality-- Franklin's Like It.
IX. TABLE-TALK EDUCATION.
What Franklin Said of Table-talk--What Heard at Table Now--Its
Moulding Influence--That of His Grandfather--The Franklins Good in
Conversation--Extract from Parton--Letter of Franklin to His Wife in
1758--Pythagoras--Cicero--Josiah Franklin--His Wise
Counsels--Origin of His Temperance Principles--No Temperance
Cause Then--The Washburne Family--The Way the Twig is Bent.
X. LEADER OF SPORTS AND THOUGHTS.
Love of Reading and Fun--The Best Swimmer, etc.--Invention to
Promote Swimming--His Secret of Success--The Trial of the
Apparatus--Hard on the Wrists--Another Experiment
Proposed--Swimming Promoted by a Kite--Delight of the Boys--What
Franklin Said of It in Manhood--The Seed Thought of Drawing
Lightning from a Cloud with a Kite--His Experiment and Joy--What He
Wrote about It--Advocate of Liberal Female
Education--Correspondence with Collins--His Father's Opinion--How
Benjamin Tried to Improve--How He Gained Time--Wise Maxims in
Age--Maxims--C.G. Frost and One Hour a Day--What Spare Moments
Did for Benjamin.
XI. STARTING A NEWSPAPER.
Only Three Newspapers in America--Created a Stir--What Newspaper

Business is in Boston Now--How to Estimate It--Benjamin Manages
the Printing of It--His Interest in It--Its Warm Reception--Proposition
to Board Himself--What He Gained by It--His Object
Self-improvement-- James Selfish, Benjamin Generous--Their Talk
about the Plan--What His Bill-of-Fare Was--How Come to Adopt
Vegetable Diet--More Maxims-- Cocker's Arithmetic--His Success.
XII. THE RUSE, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.
What Parton Says of _Courant_--The Knot of Liberals--Ben's First
Anonymous Article, and His Ruse--Discussion over It by the Courant
Club--Decided to Publish It--Benjamin Puts It in Type--It Created a
Sensation--The Second Article, Better Than First--Excitement over It
Still Greater--Ben's Exultation--James' Astonishment--Surprise of the
"Knot"--Ben a Favorite Now--How the Autobiography Tells the Story--
Decided Ben's Career--Canning and Microcosm--Examples of Industry,
Tact, etc.--Boy without a Name.
XIII. BOOKS OF HIS BOYHOOD.
Four Classes of Readers--Ben after Diamonds--Hungry Mind--Words
of Thomas Hood--What Franklin Said--First Book Pilgrim's
Progress--Talk with His Father--What Franklin Said of
Narrative--Plutarch's Lives--Easy to Do Good--What They
Were--Incident by Parton--Plan to Buy Burton's Historical
Collections--Describes Them--Boyle's Lectures--Kind Offer of
Matthew Adams--Borrowing Books of Booksellers' Clerks--Great
Favor--Books Very Scarce Then--Greenwood's English
Grammar--Talk with Collins--Other Books Read--Habit of Taking
Notes--Letter of Franklin about It--Professor Atkinson's
Words--Garfield Had Same Habit.
XIV. LEARNING THE ART OF COMPOSITION.
Began to Write Poetry at Seven--Had Practised Putting Thoughts
Together--James Praised His Pieces--Proposition to Write, Print, and
Sell Verses--Wrote Two--Sold Well--His Father's Severe Rebuke--
After-talk with James--Best Writers Deficient at First--Reporting to
James--Benefit to Ben--One of His Verses Preserved--What Franklin
Said of It in Manhood--How He Used the _Spectator_--Determined to
Improve--His Own Description of His Literary Work--How He
Acquired Socratic Method--Rhetoric and Logic--How a Single Book
Made Wesley, Martin, Pope, Casey, Lincoln, and Others What They

Were--A Striking Case.
XV. THE "COURANT" IN TROUBLE.
The Startling News from the Assembly--A Discussion--A Sarcastic
Letter the Cause--James and Benjamin Summoned before the
Council--James Defiant--Benjamin Dismissed--How Mather Assailed
the _Courant_--How James Answered Him--James in
Prison--Benjamin Editing the Paper-- Quotation from
Parton--Persecution of Printers in the Old Country--A Horrible
Case--James Released, and