came for throwing it off. He thus tells the story of his deliverance:

"One of the pieces in our newspaper, on some political point, which I have now forgotten, gave offense to the Assembly. My brother was taken up, censured, and imprisoned for a month by the speaker's warrant, I suppose, because he I would not discover his author. I, too, was taken up and examined before the council, but though I did not give them any satisfaction, they contented themselves with admonishing me, and dismissed me, considering me, perhaps, as an apprentice, who was bound to keep his master's secrets.

"During my brother's confinement, which I resented a good deal, notwithstanding our private differences, I had the management of the paper; and I made bold to give our rulers some rules in it, which my brother took very kindly, while others began to consider me in an unfavorable light, as a young genius that had a turn for libelling and satire. My brother's discharge was accompanied with an order of the House (a very odd one), that 'James Franklin should no longer print the paper called the New England Courant."",

The

The Courant, we may remark, was a very independent and racy paper, "touching with great freedom the vices and follies of the time. weapon of satire was used with an unsparing hand. Neither the government nor the clergy escaped." It contained "some severe and humorous criticisms on the poets of the day, which may be classed with the best specimens of this kind of composition in the modern reviews."*

After due consultation among the friends of the paper, it was decided to print it under the

Sparks, Vol. I.

name of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN; and, to avoid the censure of the Assembly, that might come from its being printed by an apprentice, he was to be cleared from his indenture, and to sign new papers, which were to be kept private. And so the ill-used apprentice had gained a position of more independence. Fresh differences ere long having arisen between the brothers, Benjamin used his advantage to break his engagement and assert his freedom, believing that his brother would not dare to produce the indentures. He had some scruples as to the propriety of this course, but his feelings of resentment prevailed, and he quit the office. His brother was of course indignant, and took his revenge by representing Benjamin in an unfavorable light at all the other printing-houses in the town, so as to prevent his getting employment. It is possible that he may have thought to get his brother back by reducing him to extremities. Benjamin, however, had no intention of returning to his bondage. He had a brave spirit, and believed that he could look out for himself. And so ended his life in Boston. He went forth to seek his fortune.

CHAPTER V.

Runs Away. Goes in a Sloop to New York. Vegetarian Principles Tested. - -Eating Fish. In New York.-Seeks Employment at his Trade. Goes to Philadelphia. -The Voyage. -A Dutchman Overboard.- Stops at Burlington. Dr. Brown. Reaches Philadelphia. Walking the Streets.

-

Description of the City.

·Eating Rolls. - Falls Asleep in a Meetinghouse. Bradford the Printer. - Keimer.

FRANKLIN was now seventeen years of age, and of course still under his father's guardianship. He well knew that his father would not consent to his leaving Boston, especially as he blamed him for breaking with his brother, and was, perhaps, hoping to persuade him to return to the office. But to go he was determined, and the only course open before him was to run away. He was the more inclined to this from having made himself obnoxious to the governing party, and from the consequent fear that a further stay might bring him into trouble. Besides, his indiscreet disputations about religion had brought him into disrepute with the good people of the town. He was by no means a coward.

as he had already shown; in fact, he had. given too much license to his tongue and pen; but, as he had probably acted the part rather of a sportive caviler than of an earnest champion of truth, seeking more to surprise and annoy, or else to amuse, by startling novelties, than to produce conviction, he easily persuaded himself that it would be advisable, certainly more agreeable, to transfer himself to a new field of action. But it required some ingenuity to escape unobserved. As we have seen from the experience of Madame Knight, it was no short and easy excursion to New York, to which town he had made up his mind, if possible, to go, as the nearest place where there was a printer. His friend Collins, the "bookish young man, offered to manage for him, and secured him a passage in a New York sloop, making up a little story to deceive the captain. With a little money in his pocket, obtained from the sale of some of his books, from which he was probably the more willing to part from having their contents well stored away in his head, he was taken privately on board. Off Block Island they were becalmed, and the crew made a fine haul of cod. Franklin's vegetarian principles were now put to a severe test. So far he had stuck to his resolution to eat nothing that had life, and he regarded the capture of these fish as little short of murder. He would not share in the guilt by partaking of them. But the savory smell of the fish, as they came out of the frying-pan, produced a violent conflict

between principle and inclination. A mind so ingenious as his was not long, however, in suspense, especially in sight and smell of a favorite article of food. He would not yield to appetite without a reason, but such relief was speedily found. He recollected that, when the fish were opened, he saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs, and the happy thought flashed upon him, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we may not eat you." Thus, at once, reason, conscience and appetite all conspired to banish his scruples. He dined heartily upon the fish, and was so well satisfied with the conclusion to which he had come, that from that time he only now and then returned to a vegetable diet. "So convenient a thing it is," says this happy logician, "to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to."

After this, a fair wind, springing up, took the vessel in three days to New York. Here he found himself three hundred miles from home, a stranger to everybody, without a letter of recommendation, aud almost without money. But he had a brave heart, a comfortable amount of self-reliance, and a trade. His passion for the sea had been cured by the taste of it he had got on his brief voyage, and he set himself at once to seeking employment. He applied to the one printer of the town, which was then a smaller place than Boston, with only seven or eight thou sand inhabitants. The printing-business was